I have committed myself to a pretty brutal travel schedule this year, at least until the end of July. Since the end of January I’ve been in New Zealand, California…
The role of wine critics: The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers (2)
Yesterday I began a series of write-ups from the Wine Writers’ Symposium, starting with Jay McInerney’s keynote. This was followed by a panel session with Eric Asmiov, Virginie Boone and…
Jay McInerney on wine writing: The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers 2016 (1)
‘This has become a special part of my life,’ says novelist Jay McInerney, referring to wine writing, his parallel career. McInerney’s keynote kicked off the 2016 Symposium for Professional Wine…
Twitter’s powerful metrics – how can I use them?
Very interesting to see the sort of data you can now get from Twitter on the way people interact with your posts. These ‘analytics’ or metrics are very detailed. But…
In the Napa Valley for the wine writers’ symposium
I’m just on my way home after a week in California’s Napa Valley for the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. It was my first time at this event, which was…
On writing about wine
It’s generally a good rule for wine writers never to write about writing about wine. It’s something we find interesting (after all, it’s our career), but which is terribly boring…
Freelance life: being afraid of success?
This is an interesting thought. [It came to me all of a sudden, and I haven’t been drinking.] As a freelancer – I’ve been completely freelance for almost exactly 8…
On writing
Everyone wants to be a writer. At least, it seems that way. Few get to write for a living. But people so love to work with words that they are…
On the ‘relaxation’ of planting rights in the European Union
There’s been a lot of discussion on changes to the rules on planting new vineyards in the European Union. For as long as I have been alive, there have been…