Wine blogs & the limits of fandom

Yes, my personal priorities and viewpoints have changed, as I expressed in the previous post.  Another factor in my growing disaffection with blogging is the enclosed nature of so much wine-blogging.  That is, the nature of single-topic blogging is to develop a set of cultural norms that create an echo chamber of sorts, in which the same subjects, opinions and valuations become pervasive.  Everyone seems to jump on the controversy of the day and worry it to death with undue passion, even ferocity; and of course, the less important the topic really is, the more it gets chewed to rags.  

So we have waves of memes sweeping through, some of them relatively sporadic ("ethics" being a recent example) and some endemic (especially that favorite on slow wine-news days, the anti-spoofilation preservation society vs. the evil empire of Parker, Wine Spectator and so forth).  After you've been swimming in those murky waters long enough, you want to get out, take a nice hot shower and throw your bathing suit into the trash bin.

When you start feeling that way, it's really time to move on.  

I exchanged a few emails with one of the Domenico Selections producers on my reasons for quitting mondosapore, at least as my main blogging vehicle.  She made some astute observations.

...tu hai fatto un grande lavoro con mondosapore, però bisogna fare delle scelte e focalizzare le nostre energie solo sui quei progetti nei quali crediamo profondamente. Per fortuna siamo "esseri dinamici" e i nostri interessi si spostano ed evolvono, dunque mi sembra corretto e responsabile (anche nei confronti dei tuoi followers) rimettersi in discussione.

Poi non è che lascerai nessuno orfano, semplicemente ci sarà un'evoluzione.

E poi lo sai come la penso: viviamo in un'epoca di eccesso di comunicazione/informazione/scambi tremendamente superficiali/ansia di guadagnarsi quei pochi secondi di visibilità che ci danno la fallace illusione di esistere....per poi scoprirsi incapaci di ascoltare, o immersi nella solitudine.

Dobbiamo imparare a selezionare: informazioni, affetti, amicizie, per ritrovare una dimensione più verticale (di profondità intendo ) che non orizzontale, ovvero conosco tutto e tutti, sono informato su tutto, ma rimango on the surface.

Sorry, I don't have the time to translate this whole email.  But the words scelte (choices) and selezionare (select) stick out, at least in my mind.

I will translate the summative last paragraph:

[In this age of information overload] We must learn to select information, feelings, friendships to get back a more vertical, deeper dimension in life rather than a horizontal one where I may know everything and everyone, I'm informed about everything but remain on the surface.  

I'll add that my brother John remarked to me last night, "You got what you wanted from mondosapore.  You don't need it anymore."

So there's that too.    

Comments

[avvinare]

Strappo,
Scelta legittima. Meno o male che c'e muddy boots...
B,
Avv

[Filippo Ronco]

I completely understand you old boy. The only thing I care about now is that fortunately this blog let us met just in time to make our friendship lasting forever.

[TH]

Filippo, that was one of the things I wanted from mondosapore. To make friends all over, especially in Italy.

[Iris]

That's perhaps one of the differences between a wine blog, where the echo chamber seems to have this fed up resonance at the moment, and the blogs of winemakers, where I haven't heard it yet, even if they are both part of the wine-blog-world:

a winemaker lives daily with the notion and experience of "more vertical, deeper dimension in life rather than a horizontal one where I may know everything and everyone, I'm informed about everything but remain on the surface."

Vines have to bee deeply rooted, a winemaker/vintner has do have a profound knowledge about his terroir, he knows, that he will never know everything, beginning with the weather next week and whether the year will give him a good harvest. If he doesn't develop an intimate sens for his grapes and their potential, he will not be able to transform them into wines, which will touch their consumers and turn them to amateurs, who will stay faithful with them...

And he lives with nature and it's eternal return of the seasons and the work to do, never new(s), even if always slightly different..

Sorry, that you decide to stop when I just started to visit more regularly:-)

[TH]

Nice analysis, Iris. Thank you.

[fredric koeppel]

let's face it, TH, no man can serve two masters. I tried to keep a wine website, a magazine-style effort with FIVE different categories of postings, going at the same time as BTYH. it was exhausting, and when I deep-sixed koeppelonwin.com, it was a huge relief. besides, business is business, and Domenico Selections and Muddy Boots are your business now. you should develop Muddy Boots to the fullest extent.

[TH]

You're right on all counts. I attribute my courage in facing up to the fact with your experience in mind. In your case, concentrating on BTYH has resulted in a livelier and more focused effort.

Ever since Domenico Selections got off the ground, people have been asking me, "Will you keep doing mondosapore?" I told them yes, but always with a bit of hesitation.

In retrospect, it's clear to me that the intensity and quality of the blog weren't what they had been. Site visits and page views really started to fall off. At first I was alarmed and then sort of indifferent. What I really want is for people to read Muddy Boots and visit the DS web site to learn more about the wines and where they can be found, etc. Finally, the urgency and clarity of my new goals became unavoidable. Something had to give, and it wasn't going to be something I and my partners have spent so much time, money, sweat and passion to form and get going. So tooraloo mondosap.

[fredric koeppel]

when all is said and done, nonetheless,
we shed a plangent tear;
and the river that runs past Eve and Adam's runs to another shore.

[TH]

Always leave 'em on a literary note, FK. Bravo.