And there was also that axe guy…
Recently took a quick jaunt to Lisbon in the hope of becoming a better person, better soul and most importantly a better blogger, as I was attending the world-famous European Wine Bloggers Conference.
It was a three-day event, broken down in to a day of forums and seminars (all useful in their own way), some tastings and finally a tour day in a wine region, I went to Tejo to look at a cork forest.
Now, when people talk about cork forests it’s not like any forest you or I can imagine. It’s more like a few trees in a field, I was imagining some sort of highly dense forest with animals swinging from cork branch to cork branch but no, it’s just like an orchard.
The trip was jointly sponsored by Quinta Lagoalva and Amorim (a cork company).
So, how was I able to piss off a bull and get close to some guy with an axe??? Watch the video below to find out.
Alas, the bulls didn’t chase me, but I got in trouble with the corker farmer guys…this was the bull (sorry this link is weird after you click bull there, there is a small menu of links on the page, clink on “animals” – that’s the bull!) eyeing me up btw, mean looking fella.
This is the only photo I took. It's a naked cork tree. The bark (which is the cork) was recently harvested, the red colour is natural.
The whole affair was organised by the triad of Gabriella and Ryan Opaz (catavino.net) and Robert McIntosh (wineconversation.com) all I have to say to them is GREAT JOB!
What did I learn besides corks?
The thing I learnt , surprisingly enough, wasn’t how to best use Google to bring traffic to my site, nor tips on producing better videos for my Imbibe video stuff…no, the most ongoing subject matter of the whole event: bloggers shouldn’t accept samples! I kid you not, there seems to be a real big anti-accepting samples thing going on in the wine-blogging world. In fact, if I were to use this conference alone, I would think that bloggers are the most morally driven breed around.
Having worked in the trade for a while, I’ve just accepted samples as a way of life. And this any anti-sample thing was mentioned in pretty much every seminar I attended. I got so bored of hearing it that I ended up sending emails out to PR’s asking for samples to be sent to the most vocal of the anti-group.
The two main reasons why sample acceptance is supposedly bad seem to be: 1) said sample will sway said bloggers away from the pureness of the blog and 2) that once samples are accepted, bloggers are obligated to report on them despite not liking them. I am sure there are loads more but honestly my ears were bleeding so bad from the anti-sample’s shrill that I didn’t get them all down.
C’mon guys, really? I for one would like to put the record straight for spiltwine.com: WE ACCEPT ALL SAMPLES! If they don’t cut the mustard they won’t get written up, easy as that. Which leads nicely too…
Wine(s) of the week!
The Bibendum wine tasting was a few weeks back and here are a couple of wines I liked. (Note to other wine bloggers – please don’t chastise me, they weren’t samples but I tried them for free.)
Shampoo d'Anglais
Chapel Down, Primrose Hill, Brut Prestigre NV (Kent, England) £18.11
46% Reichensteiner, 36% Muller Thurgau, 18% Pinot Noir
It isn’t too bad a price for a non-Champers bubbly but hey, we gotta support our home-grown! Fresh nose of raw apricot and peaches and a little bit of biscuit, nice crisp palate with more stone fruits and some crisp citrus.
French stuff
Ch des Sarrins, Les Sarrins Blanc de Rolle 2007 (Provence, France) £17.25
100% Rolle
How do I manage to find the most expensive bottles in the room? This Southern French wine had loads of personality. The nose smelt of an unburnt matchstick (without the sulphur). Lots of melon flavours as well as some dried herbs with a sort of dirty, edgy palate that shined brightly against some of the highly polished NW wines on offer. Liked it a lot!
Agree 100% regarding samples – in fact i’d go further; i’d report on them and possibly (shock horror) give a bad review!
good work as usual!
Louis, were we at the same place? Missed all that samples discussion. But I agree with you. I did hear a bit of this ‘morale’ discussion though. “It’s important with full disclosure” etc etc. To me it is a bit silly. Disclosure, samples etc. has nothing to do with it. The only thing that is important is the integrity of the author/writer (and I’m getting a bit tired of the term “bloggers” too – there’s nothing different with writing/reporting just because it is on a specific technical platform. Who cares if it’s on a blog on a site in a pamphlet or on a wall?). If the writer is honest to him/herself and to the reader then samples is not an issue. If the writer is not honest but corrupt, then you can do as much disclosure as you wish and it won’t change a thing – the writing will be or become irrelevant.
So, please let the samples flow in! If you need my address I’ll be happy to give it to you.
(But in all honesty, it’s really a rare occasion that we receive samples. But it does happen every once in a while that we’re invited for lunch…)
Hi Louis, thought it was just me! I sat there seething for a lot of the time!!! I think a lot of bloggers have money and are in it just for the fun, whereas you and I are part of the wine trade so take a professional view of the whole thing. If accepting samples sullies my hands then I am well and truly sullied, but I only write good things about them if they are good. Seems fine to me!
See you soon.
Thanks for the comments guys!
Ted – you are right, too much niceness in the wine trade, more people need to name and shame (but am i the one to start???)
Per – Lots of good comments there. And I agree integrity is key…interesting comment too about platform of expression, it doesn’t matter what you are using but that you are true.
Quentin – I felt that seething and I was across the room. Consider yourself sullied!
I was actually chased by a bull in Maine. And I would NOT want to repeat the experience!
Maybe he was just trying to hand you a sample?
I s**t myself when the bull turned its head towards me and it really did start dragging its hoof.
The funny thing was I asked a buddy (Steve that’s you if you’re reading this!) “Do you think the cows will get pissed off if I video next to them?”
“No.” was the answer
Ah, the value of a trusted advisor!
First off, thank you so much for the kind compliment about the conference. I’m extremely pleased you like it, and obviously, we’re always aiming to improve it. So all comments are welcomed.
Regarding samples, I say bring them on! I don’t expect any blogger to be independently wealthy, and god knows we’re not burning dollar bills in our fireplace either due to financial abundance. This is purely why we tried our best to make the conference as cheap as possible for you. However, for those who believe that not taking samples is the moral high ground, more power to them, but we won’t be falling into that camp. We believe in full disclosure in our articles, but we don’t expect that for everyone. Again, trust is earned over time. Those bloggers who consistently produce quality content, with or without samples or full disclosure, are the people I’ll happily support.