Why can’t kiwi wineries do this?

Twisted Oak Winery in Calaveras County, California have just announced through their blog El Bloggo Torcido (aka The Twisted Blog) a standing offer to all bloggers in states that they ship to for samples provided you review them. Why is this a good idea? Because unlike most other wine media, bloggers pay for almost all of the wine they review themselves and are unable to make enough money (through subscriptions or advertising for example) to cover this large financial outlay for their blog. Undoubtedly, those who run wine blogs would still be spending significant proportions of their income on wine and while that analysis is true it ignores the free secondary benefits that blogs provide both to the reader and the producers of the wines they review. Individual producers stand to benefit financially from favorable reviews on wine blogs and for this reason they should be encouraged to help bloggers by offering wine to sample. For a relatively small outlay (a couple of bottles of wine and the delivery costs) producers can guarantee that reliable, independent information about their wines are getting to an international consumer base. This last bit is especially relevant to consumers in countries like New Zealand who really have to push to have their product (especially if its not Sauvignon Blanc) accepted internationally considering that their imported product is likely to be more expensive than a similar local wine. If a wine is more expensive a consumer is less likely to buy it without any prior knowledge – it is just too risky. A review from a respected independent blog might just push them over the edge into trying something different but something that can, nevertheless, be relied on. It is likely that if wineries giving samples to blogs becomes common the independence of some blogs would come into question. If a blogger was found out to be writing unfairly good reviews (especially if it was happening on an ongoing basis) it would undermine their independence and their entire body of work – something that a blogger (especially one with visions of media grandeur) should think twice about. Wineries should also err on the side of promoting independence. If they are found out to be offering kickbacks or blacklisting unfavorable reviewers, reviews of their wines throughout the wine media would come into question – they would end up facing bad publicity. I have decided that I will begin to accept samples and will be drafting a policy on it so both I and the wineries who may want for me to review their wines know where each other stand.