Wine Bloggers - Enjoying free samples?

So, what's the point of a wine blog? Is it simply a means for the wine blogger to get himself a load of free wine samples? Thankfully, in most cases, no. The best bloggers (some of whom were already established wine writers and continue to write for other outlets) are scrupulous about how they came to taste the wines. If you are a professional wine writer, there are plenty of trade/media only wine tastings in the big cities such as London, New York or San Francisco where you can taste a vast range of wines. If you do write a successful wine blog, then producers or importers may well send you samples on request - some bloggers won't even accept unsolicited samples anyway (are we mad?).

There are wine blogs devoted to reporting on and rating a different wine each day, but the most interesting wine blogs look at the wider world of wine. It's a big world and to some of us, endlessly fascinating as there are so many different facets. The subject of wine touches on history, geography, ecology, agriculture, biology, biochemistry, marketing, economics, demographics and many more disciplines, so it offers the wine fanatic whether reader or writer potentially endless points of investigation and research without even tasting or drinking a wine.

Good wine writers take the opportunity to travel as much as possible (only the elite get the free trips, by the way) to visit vineyards and wineries around the world. In my view, it is only in this way that wine can really be brought to life for the reader, by describing the place a wine came from and the people who made it. The wine bloggers who features good photographs too, bring the subject to life even more.