I can’t believe March 20th will be the first anniversary since the creation of this blog. I started the blog with some goals in mind and they haven’t changed since:
- Help consumers discover wineries they may not know about and they should visit
- Help wineries with marketing
- Help wine related events with marketing
Gloria and I have at this moment visited 125 Texas wineries and have enjoyed every minute. We’re still learning to tell you what the aromas and tastes are in wine, and probably never will be able to, hence the idea of telling about our experiences at the Texas wineries. We were big proponents of the previous Texas Passport Program which started us on the journey of visiting Texas wineries, and look forward to learning how the new program will work.
The blog started out as an extension to my personal website and after a couple months I decided to make it more professional and came up with the name TX Wine Lover. This allowed me to move the blog to https://txwinelover.com, create a Facebook page, and switch to the Twitter account of @TXWineLover.
A lot has happened in the first year:
- Posted about our experiences at 61 Texas wineries
- More than one winery’s website has put links to my posts about them
- Posted about visiting and comparing Texas wineries with New York State, Illinois, and San Diego wineries
- Attended and posted about special tasting events and food competitions
- Volunteered at wine festivals to help wineries pour their wine
- Received our TABC Certification
- Told of our experiences harvesting grapes and bottling wine at more than one winery
- Road trip diaries to Driftwood and Hill Country and Fredericksburg wineries
- Attended my first TEXSOM (Texas Sommelier Conference)
- Participated in and helped host some #TXWine Twitter Tuesday events
- Created lists of:
- Autumn and Spring wine festivals
- Texas wineries with lodging
- Texas wineries on Twitter
- 2012 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Texas wineries with medals which is the only list I know that was done
- Created the first TX Wine Lover awards which seemed popular
- Featured local blogger at Spoken City
- Was a guest on a wine podcast
- Guest blogger on Thirsty Girl website
- Mentioned in other blogs and websites like the Houston Press
- Did a review on a Texas wine but with a viewpoint from many people instead of just my own
- Held our own blind taste test for eight Texas Orange Muscat wines
- Met some great Texas winery owners, winemakers, winery employees, and fellow Texas wine lovers. Some I originally met on Twitter so it was fun to meet them in person.
I guess it has been a busy, but definitely fun year. I have a queue of winery visits to discuss and was always afraid if I wrote about every one we visited, then I wouldn’t have anything else to blog about. From looking at the above list though, I think I should be able to find something.
Already there are plans for the next year. Since a lot of our winery visits were done before the idea of the blog came about, we have had to revisit some of those wineries for pictures, information, etc. before I can write about them, and we have more which need to be revisited. Plus there are wineries which we have not been able to get to yet, not to mention new Texas wineries which are always opening.
I will be attending at least two conferences this year. First up is DrinkLocalWine in Colorado next month and then in August is TEXSOM again. Various other things are planned and it should be another fun year.
I want to especially thank all the people who have tolerated me during the year including the winery owners and winemakers for patience in answering my questions and letting me take photos, but especially Gloria who has had to listen to me talk about Texas wine and the industry in general. Most of all, I want to thank you the reader, for stopping by the website every so often and hopefully enjoying what I write. Please don’t be afraid to give feedback and possible suggestions to keep the blog interesting, and we’ll take this journey together.
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