Welcome to 2019, folks; it used to be that I would insert a joke at this point about the dates on all of your checks being incorrect for the next week or so, but if you are still handwriting checks in 2019, then I have a cordless phone set to sell to you.
To help me recover from the festivities of the end-of-year holiday season (read: sober up), I decided to take a look back at the analytics for this humble piece of Global Interweb land and revisit the past year, in terms of what 1WD articles were deemed most popular. Popularity, in this context, is measured in sheer volume of visits (and listed in descending order, from the 10th most popular post to the first).
As many of you have noted to me both publicly and in private, 2018 was an excellent twelve months for me personally (politically, though, not so much). The important factors: my family is strong, my kiddo is doing very well, and my love life hit a high note that I only thought possible within the confines of really corny romance fiction. If you decide to waste any precious moments of your life (again) reading any of the articles linked below, please raise a glass with me while doing so, and we can toast to the genuine (on my part, anyway) wish that 2019 delivers more of the same good fortune to us all.
So, if you have glass in hand, let’s begin…
10. Kinky Sex Drinking, And “Educative” Viticulture (Back Through Time With Romanelli Montefalco Sagrantino) Man, I really, really hope that these guys don’t hate me for that title… but then, if they get any bump in sales from the exposure, it’s because people searching for kinky sex on the Internet need good wine, too.
9. The Good Sh*t (Biodynamic Preparations At Troon Vineyard) Hey, if Biodynamics minus the more bizarre hoopla gets a bit more media attention, I’m all for it (particularly when it’s tied to a star performer in an up-and-coming area of the US wine biz).
8. The Future Of Wine Writing: GrimDark A late entry, but one that received a good deal of traction. Probably from other wine writers who were searching for how to make money. I’m joking. I think.
7. “There’s Liquid On The Brain” (Checking In With Primus And Claypool Cellars, 2018) Rock stars make for good copy. Really good rock stars who also happen to be good people who make really good wine? That makes for even better copy.
6. You Will *Learn* Patience (Tasting The 2016 Port Vintage) I’m stoked that this ended up being one of the most popular articles on 1WD last year, because it was one of the most memorable wine experiences for me in all of 2018. That an online guy got to be one of the first to give you all a critical run-down on a declared Port vintage is pretty clear sign that the wine publication times have irrevocably changed. Also, Obi-wan FTW!
5. Thoughts On Instant Pot “Wine” TLDR: those thoughts are basically “No,” and “please, just don’t.”
4. Oregon Wine Experience 2018 Competition – Results What. The. Actual. HELL?!?? Southern Oregon got mad luv from you all on these virtual pages last year. Which is strong evidence that you’re a smart bunch, IMHO.
3. This Time, It’s Personal (September 2018 Wine Product Roundup) The only way that I can explain this one is that a good number of you were doing early holiday shopping, and thought that the Personal Wine thing sounded like a fun gimmick for yourself the wine lover in your life.
2. The Times They… Uhm… Have Changed, Actually (Intowine.com’s Top 100 Most Influential People In The US Wine Industry 2018) Meta rules in the niche world of discussing niche businesses online, and so when this controversial list made its latest appearance after a hiatus of a few years, the niches filled up with folks looking for debates.
1. Naked Wines And The Cult Of “Fake News” That this was the single most visited post on 1WD in all of 2018 is, I think, a minor disaster for Naked Wines’ brand image, and a bit of a sad treatise on where we are in our discourse politically, particularly in the trend of ignoring facts and shaming knowledgeable authorities to suit personal/political/monetary gain. I suppose it’s a further underscoring of how important it is to control your brand message, do the right thing, and successfully manage damage control in today’s online-focused world (and Naked managed to f*ck up almost all of those in that example).
Cheers!