The nature of a blog post is that it is somewhat ephemeral. Most blogs don’t encourage readers to hunt around the archive, even though there are tag clouds and category links. So I thought I’d collect some of my most significant blog posts from 2011 all in the same place.

• Wine writers: making money on the internet
• A quick look at how wine writers can monetise their online content, with some excellent comments by readers.
• What is a fine wine, and who gets to decide?
• One of the fundamental questions in wine is how quality is determined. What is a ‘fine’ wine, and who gets to decide whether a wine is fine or not?
• Grape juice concentrate and Mega Purple
• Taking a look at two wine controversial wine additives that winemakers don’t like to talk about.
• Getting to know a wine
• Does our relationship with a wine change as we experience it several times? I explore this idea making a parallel with music.
• Wine communication: the elephant in the room
• Discussing the obersvation that while there has been a vast growth in the amount of wine media produced, there may not have been a concurrent growth in its consumption. There’s an over-supply situation.
• The coming wine war
• A controversial article exploring how vested interests in the world of wine might seek to protect their position against a new wave of wine styles and alternative wine cultures. Some great comments from readers, too.
• Wine and the digital conversation
• Exploring how the internet has changed the way we talk about wine, and has brought new, talented voices to the fore.
• An outsider’s perspective on beer marketing
• Some thoughts about the beer world, and how beer producers market their products, from the perspective of an outsider.
• Seven lessons that other wine regions can learn from Bordeaux
• A series of points about the way the top Bordeaux wines are marketed, and how other regions could learn from this.
• Should wine producers listen to journalists?
• Have wine producers got anything to learn by listening to journalists? Or are journalists arrogant in offering unsolicited advice?
• So what does terroir taste like?
• We talk a lot about the concept of terroir; that the best wines have a sense of place. But what does terroir taste like?
• Some more thoughts on terroir
• A follow-on article from my thoughts about the taste of terroir, exploring this interesting subject in more depth.
• When critics disagree, again
• A really interesting observation is the number of times that experienced critics disagree about the same wine. Why is this? I address this important question.
• Ikea and wine
• Some thoughts on wine branding, inspired by the world’s largest furniture retailer