The Wine Curmudgeon

Tuesday birthday giveaway 2011: DLW 2012 tickets

And the winner is: The winning number is 926 (screenshot to the right). The winner is Jim Caudill, who picked 916. He gets two tickets to the April 28 events at DLW 2012: Denver. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Today's fourth anniversary prize -- two tickets to the fourth annual DrinkLocalWine conference in Denver and focusing on Colorado wine. You'll get to attend the April 28 events: Three seminars about Colorado and regional wine and our trademark Twitter Taste-off featuring two dozen top Colorado wineries -- all the while hobnobbing with DLW celebrities like Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post and the Wine Curmudgeon. It's the second of five daily giveaways; check out this post to see the prizes for the rest of the week.

To win the prize, pick a number between 1 and 1,000 and leave it in the comment section of this post. If you get the blog via email, you'll have to go to the website to enter your number. At about 5 p.m. central today, I'll go to random.org and generate the winning number. The person whose number is closest to the random number wins the prize -- and no, you can't pick a number someone else has picked. I'll post the winner tomorrow. All contestants must be 21 or older.

Winebits 203: Birthday week notes

A few thoughts about wine writing, the blog's fourth birthday, and what I've seen over the past four years:

• Where are the beginning wine drinkers? One of the most popular posts here over the past year was my interview with Allison Davis, who wrote the Hairpin blog post taking the wine business to task for making wine so difficult to understand. It was the 11th most popular post, quite impressive given that it didn't run until the end of October. And it made me wonder: Why do wine blogs have such a difficult time attracting new wine drinkers? I ask the question because my traffic for the day not only set a one-day record, but came from places it usually doesn't come from, including some non-wine sites. Which means these were visitors who don't usually come to the blog, even though the focus here is on masking wine easier to understand. My only conclusion is that wine bloggers -- even those like me -- are seen by beginning wine drinkers as part of the establishment. Which is kind of depressing, actually, and something I'll need to work on.

• Searching for dollars: The blog earned about $1,500 over the past 12 months, not quite as much as it made in the same period a year ago. In other words, it's still difficult to make a living from wine blogging. Some of that is my fault, though. I didn't do as good a job as I could have soliciting advertisers and taking advantage of the increased blog numbers, mostly because so much of my time is taken up doing other blog things. I may be at the point where I need to find someone to help me with the blog, and especially the monetary side. And there is always the potential for a Wine Curmudgeon shop, no?

• Honesty is the best policy: I've always taken pride in full disclosure here, whether it's subscribing to the eGullet code of ethics for online writers, disclosing my relationship with anyone or anything I write about, and letting you know whether I paid for a wine or got it for free. This year, it looks like you appreciated that more than ever. The disclaimer post on the left sidebar, which details the purchased/sample thing, was the 23rd most popular post. And who says you can't get ahead in blogging by being straight with your visitors?

Monday birthday giveaway 2011: "A Toast to Bargain Wines"

And the winner is: The winning number is 385 (screenshot to the right). The winner is Patricia Valas, who picked 391, and gets the copy of George Taber's "A Toast to Bargain Wines." Hers was the last pick of the day, in fact. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Today, to celebrate, the blog's fourth anniversary, we're giving away a copy of George Taber's new book, "A Toast to Bargain Wines." It's the first of five daily giveaways; check out this post to see the prizes for the rest of the week.

To win the prize, pick a number between 1 and 1,000 and leave it in the comment section of this post. If you get the blog via email, you'll have to go to the website to enter your number. At about 5 p.m. central today, I'll go to random.org and generate the winning number. The person whose number is closest to the random number wins the prize -- and no, you can't pick a number someone else has picked. I'll post the winner tomorrow. All contestants must be 21 or older.

Birthday Week 2011: More growth for the blog

This has been another exceptional year for the blog, so much so that the Wine Curmudgeon is practically blushing. I'm almost running out of ways to say thank you to everyone in the cyber-ether who has made the blog so successful.

The chart shows just how well we've done since the first post went up in November 2007 (I didn't keep stats for the first six weeks of the blog's history). All told, the number of visitors has increased 2,340 percent from that first January, and we're up 23 percent so far this year.

Even more impressive than that 23 percent is the blog's popularity compared to other wine and food blogs. Two metrics that track these things say the blog is among the leaders in all of the cyber-ether. Quantcast has it ranked 186,899 out of the million sites it tracks -- a big jump from last year and ahead of a variety of better known wine sites. Technorati, meanwhile, says the blog ranks 1,165 out of 15,998 food and wine blogs. No wonder I'm blushing.

More, after jump:

Birthday Week celebration begins Monday

The blog celebrates its fourth anniversary starting on Monday, which means prizes for the people who have helped to make it one of the best read wine blogs on the Internet. It's the Wine Curmudgeon's way of saying thank you.

I'll give away a copy of George Taber's new book (hopefully autographed), "A Toast to Bargain Wines"; a bottle of Tormaresca Neprica, the wine that has attracted the most visitors over the past four years; two tickets to DrinkLocalWine's fourth annual conference, DLW 2012 in Denver; an EasyLift corkscrew set; and a copy of the new Jacques Pepin cookbook, Essential Pepin (because he's not only a great chef, but a fan of cheap wine).

Each morning starting Monday, in addition to the regular post, there will be a prize post. To win the prize, pick a number between 1 and 1,000 and leave it in the comment section of the post. At about 5 p.m. central each day, I'll go to random.org and generate the winning number. The person whose number is closest to the random number wins the prize -- and no, you can't pick a number someone else has picked. Everyone 21 and older is eligible.

Costco, Washington state and liquor regulation

Washington voters deregulated alcohol sales in their state this week, and it should be a result heard around the country. The election will almost certainly help opponents of the state store system in Pennyslvania, which has come under renewed attack over the past several years.

More importantly, and though it seems contradictory, the victory will spur the the beer and spirts lobbies to push harder for HR 1161, their attempt to limit federal control of booze regulation and to allow the states to manage their own liquor laws as they best see fit. More, after the jump:

Wine review: Big House Red 2010

The Wine Curmudgeon tries, if nothng else, to be fair. I spend a lot of time not only tasting wine, but re-tasting it. Was my initial impression correct? Am I being too hard on a particular wine? Is the wine better than I thought it was?

Which is why this review is here. Big House Red, for those of you who haven't had to read this before, was perhaps the finest line of cheap wine in the United States. Then, in one of those things that happens and that I never seem to be able to accept (bands breaking up, ballplayers being traded), Big House owner Randall Grahm sold the label in 2006 to The Wine Group. The wine hasn't been the same since.

Or has it? I've tasted most of the vintages since the sale, and they seemed lacking -- missing something that they had when Grahm made them. But other people, including George Taber in "A Toast to Bargain Wines," don't feel that way, and Big House gets generally good reviews. So I decided to taste the wine one more time. More, after the jump: