Enobytes Wine Blog

Ok, so I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that Enobytes did not make the cut, but I know I wasn’t the only blogger crying in my bowl of Cheerios the morning Tom Wark announced the American Wine Blog Award (AWBA) finalists.

In light of the loss, I thought it would be amusing to create my own award where Napawood appropriately replaces Hollywood as the metonym for the Global Wine Awards, and the scenario would go something like this…

Napawood Calling: Ring, Ring!

Enobytes: "Hello?"

Napawood: "It’s Napawood calling and we are looking to qualify you for our "Web 2.0 Wine Award of Excellence" prize. In order to qualify you must provide free access to a website that supports Web 2.0 technology through RSS feeds, Mashups, audio, video and forums. Your blogs must present extensive and continuously updated material that continually entertains and educates its readers. You serve your readers by providing independent, informed and well-presented reviews about restaurants, tasting rooms and wine. All those reviews must be easy to find through tagging and be searchable based on vintage, varietal, region, price, score, review date, location, name of producer or business, top scoring wines, popular regions, and monthly wine picks. Additionally, you must display this information graphically through Google Earth, where one could view all this great information graphically with the use of satellite imagery, maps, terrain data and 3D buildings. Adding vintage charts would give you bonus points. Do you qualify?"

Enobytes: "Why, yes, we do!!!"

Napawood: "Well, then, congratulations, we would like to award you with the ‘Web 2.0 Wine Award of Excellence’ prize!!!" Enobytes: "Whoo, Hoo!! Really? Thank you so much!" Napawood: "Yes, let me email your Seal of Excellence so that you can post your wonderful award on your website!"

Ok, so it was only a dream. So let me step into reality and create some sort of a prize commemorating our loss. Wait a minute, Domaine547 beat us to the punch – Amazing! So let it be known that we proudly wear (and sponsor) the "Budo Kun’s Wine Blog Blacklist, Official Reject Seal of Approval", and let it be said that we wear it with pride. In light of it all, let me say that this industry is lucky to have so many great bloggers that dedicate (most of) their (free) time to blogging about the world of wine. I commend (and appreciate) everyone’s efforts (including the non-finalists) and sincerely wish our top finalists the best of luck in the voting process. Readers, get out and vote! Arbitrarily, and in all honesty, I was surprised who made it through to the next round. I am not questioning the ethics of the voting process but our industry cultivates a copious amount of great blogs that merit recognition; have we fairly represented the majority?

There may be an opportunity to enhance the process in order to award those who deserve recognition. If I were to throw in my two-cents, I might encourage awarding those that qualify on a larger scale. By a larger scale, I am referring to technology, participation and categorization.

We have heard a lot about the Web 2.0 revolution and its relevancy in the wine blogging community. Without it, we would not have the genuine interaction we have today. For all intents and purposes, Web 2.0 goes beyond blogs and podcasts and incorporates things like RSS feeds, mashups, audio, bookmarking, forums, wikis, collaboration, Ecommerce, marketing, polls, searching, tagging, mapping, sharing and content reuse. For this reason, judging content should go beyond the blog midset by recognizing those who fully undertake this effort for it facilitates creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration amongst a community; this direction positively impacts the wine industry as a whole.

Regarding participation, we should encourage international recognition. It might be appropriate to increase the judging panel to include a diverse group of national and international participants and it might even be appropriate to add a technology expert to the mix.

Third, it might be appropriate to add an "Honorable Mention" category where we commemorate bloggers that didn’t make the cut but nonetheless deserve recognition.

Interestingly enough, as I was finishing this list, I came across a proposal by Tim Elliott at Winecast, which seems to support the Web 2.0 direction. His recent post, "When Did Popularity Become Quality?" proposes an independent awards program modeled after the Motion Picture Academy Awards. He started a new thread over at the Open Wine Consortium (OWC) for wine bloggers and podcasters to discuss a new "Wine Bloggers Guild" program.

The conversation led to a discussion about the representation of women bloggers in the community, but the objective of the discussion revolved around an alternative award that would co-exist with the AWBA. Tim states, "…there is room for some recognition of excellence not driven by popularity".

Come to think of it, many chefs have won the James Beard award without having done well in the Zagat survey and vice versa. This is why we need more than one wine entity awarding efforts worthy of recognition. Tim’s proposal generated enough interest that he kicked off a second thread on the OWC to discuss the details of a new Industry Awards Program proposal. It’s a good read and I highly encourage everyone to participate in the conversation.

On another note, those who failed to make the grade as a AWBA finalist shouldn’t fret. I, like many others in the industry (bloggers, journalists, and analysts alike) write about wine (and the industry as a whole) because we simply enjoy what we do. Whether we write as a hobby or commit ourselves to a full-time job, no award should deter us from our continued efforts to do what we love to do. If you don’t receive acknowledgment from an industry award, seek pleasure from those who really appreciate your hard work and dedication: Your readers.

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