Update November 28, 2017: Updates have been made throughout the post because all things improve with time, just like wine.
I can’t believe it has been almost seven years since the Texas Wine Lover® blog was born. Before then, my fiancée Gloria made fun of me (and still to this day) for having a box wine in my refrigerator when we first met, so she then introduced me to finer wines – yes, I really did have a box wine.
Gloria has lived in Texas for over 30 years and surprisingly, even though she enjoyed wine, had never made a trip to Fredericksburg, Texas. I had been there a couple times (I was ahead of my time even though I had a box wine) so I introduced her to the wineries in Fredericksburg. We had so much fun that we needed to visit more wineries, and the old Texas Passport Program encouraged our venture by providing some nice awards along the way.
Our wine journeys prompted the idea for the Texas Wine Lover blog where we could share our experiences to benefit both consumers and wineries. Our promotional support became especially important when the Texas wine marketing budget was cut. The blog progressed into providing news about the Texas wine industry along with some news about non-Texas wine, product reviews, and more – because after all, one does not only drink Texas wine.
After many great years, we reached a turning point on what to do with the blog, since now it’s easier to ask which wineries we haven’t visited instead of which wineries we have (currently, over 300 Texas wineries).
Then along came Jeremy Wilson, who started providing excellent wine reviews and who was instrumental in starting the successful Texas Wine Lover podcast. You have subscribed to the podcast via iTunes or listening on Stitcher, right?
After I went to a blogger’s conference, it was very clear in my mind what we needed to do for the blog. Take it to the next level!
In order to do that, we needed a bit more help because it’s always challenging to have at least one new post every week. Jeremy’s contributions helped tremendously, but with only two of us primarily writing, we needed more help because there was so much to tell about Texas wine. I went to find more passionate writers about Texas wine, and the list has grown every year with the most talented writers in Texas.
With a new logo, some ideas on a future redesign of the website, additional website improvements, and our excellent writing and continual coverage of the Texas wine industry, Texas Wine Lover is the place to go for your Texas wine news. Be sure to subscribe on the right-hand side to get every new post as an email so you do not miss out on anything. The Texas Wine Lover Facebook page will also offer items not on the website, so be sure to Like the page too.
Most of all, we would love to hear from you. Tell us what you would like to hear about, what topics we should cover, what you want to hear on the podcast, etc. Texas Wine Lover started out to benefit both consumers and wineries, and that goal has not changed. If you do not feel comfortable leaving a comment here, feel free to use the Contact Us page to send us an email.
Now Texas Wine Lover is a primary team of three people with many contributing writers who are based in Dallas, Houston, Austin/Texas Hill Country, San Antonio, and the Texas High Plains, so we are able to cover the entire state. Watch out, because Texas Wine Lover has grown to keep pace with the ever growing Texas wine industry!
Meet the Texas Wine Lover team!
Great blog! Great people!
I love following your wine adventures.
It is a very exciting time for you and what you do for the Texas wine industry. There is so much going on and so much that will happen in the coming years, and I look forward to Texas Wine Lover giving us the play-by-play. Best of luck with all that you do!
Randy
This is so exciting! I can’t wait to dig in.
Amanda @ Fun In The Oven Blog
Great news and growth! Congrats!
This. Is. SERIOUS! 🙂 Congratulations Jeff. Your work is paying off and you have a great team working with you and Gloria.
Great job!!! Very pleased with the additions you have made. Congratulations and thank you for all you do.
Congratulations on the big step forward. Denise and I look forward to watching y’all grow along with the wineries here in Texas!
Thanks everybody! We are all excited and this is going to be fun! We look forward to working closely with all the Texas wineries and vineyards.