The Wine Fairy

It’s my 100th post on the wine blog! One hundred posts is a small start, but a good one. Also: Phew! Now I can talk about the wine blog.

There’s a productivity tip I try to live by, one that’s served me well: Don’t say anything about what you’re going to do. Instead, do the thing, and then (maybe) talk about what you already did.

Too much talk, it seems, has a way of eroding action. I don’t know why it works that way–although I have some theories–but it surely does.

Ask anyone who’s ever undertaken something difficult. It could be losing weight, starting a business, or going back to school: Whatever you’re trying to accomplish, it’s best to shut up about it until you’re knee-deep in it.

That might be the point when you’ve hit an obstacle and you need encouragement or advice to get over the hump. Or when you’ve created something tangible and can actually get feedback on it–not just empty cheerleading. The more people you tell about your plans (at least in the beginning) the harder it can be to get momentum to take the first and second and third steps.

I’ve experienced this “silence is golden” phenomenon firsthand. And I really want The Wine Fairy blog to succeed, at least on my own modest terms. So when I started the blog late last year, I didn’t tell many people about it. And–apart from setting up a writing schedule and some broad intentions–I’m trying not to have a lot of expectations about what it might become.

But now, on the occasion of the 100th post (and almost 150,000 words!), I do feel at liberty to make some promises. To set some goals. To draw up a loose framework of The Wine Fairy’s scope and its guiding principles. Here are five, one for each month since the blog went live:

1. It’s about wine (mostly).

Unlike some niche bloggers that I follow, I won’t randomly start posting pictures of my pets. The topic here is wine. (Well…occasionally beer, spirits, and cider, too.)

But it just so happens that wine intersects with so many aspects of life–including food, travel, relationships, religion, economics…

And so, I can’t promise that it will always be all about wine. But mostly.

2. No AI content.

Nothing could be less interesting than what AI has to say about wine. Robots can’t taste. They don’t get buzzed. They don’t understand the spiritual, ecstatic, or communal dimensions of food and beverage at all.

Honestly, AI-driven wine apps and wine reviews can all shut the f*ck up. While I’m on the topic: The amount of boomer websites that use shoddy AI-generated photo illustrations is awful, too. (Why are y’all so seduced by those? You have a phone in your pocket, right? Please go outside and point it at literally anything and I promise it will be a better photo than whatever DALL-E hallucinated for your blog.)

It’s not that I’m morally against the use of AI to produce blog posts and other creative content. I’ve used it in my own projects. It’s a savvy business decision for some people–it undeniably saves time and streamlines some tedious processes. I’m just bored to tears with it.

I can’t fight the AI revolution. But I can hold down my little corner of human authenticity. I crave it. I believe others must exist who crave it, too. And so The Wine Fairy will remain an AI-free zone–unless, of course, we’re making fun of AI wine art.

3. No bottle porn.

“No bottle porn” is one of the rules on a subreddit I frequent, r/wine. It’s a useful rule! So I’m adopting it for The Wine Fairy as well.

Bottle porn is when you post a picture of a rare and/or expensive bottle without any meaningful observations. Thus demonstrating, I suppose, your uncommon wealth and exquisite taste.

We all know those bottles are out there. We all know that sometimes, some rich person opens one and drinks the contents. But who cares?

Analogous to the bottle pornographers are those friends and acquaintances who are always posting context-free glamour shots of their exotic vacations. You feel happy for them–at least, you do if you like them–but that’s about it.

Far better are the friends who share the nitty-gritty, hard-won details from their travels: Tips for navigating the broken-ass subway, where to find beach parking, which critically acclaimed restaurant actually blows.

Most of the wines I review on this blog are relatively affordable. They’re almost always under $50, usually under $30, occasionally under $12. But once in a while, I do get the opportunity to drink from an enviable bottle or take a dream-worthy trip.

In those moments–when I’m writing about a luxury experience–I pledge to remember the “no bottle porn” rule. Everybody deserves to enjoy nice things. But I reserve the most admiration for those wine writers who can evoke the taste of a pricey wine in a way that doesn’t seem like a flex–and that communicates something other than “lucky me.”

4. God bless Texas (wines).

Local pride comes in all kinds of different forms. Many of them–such as sports fandom–seem kind of silly to me. But you know what doesn’t seem silly? Supporting wines from your home state or town. Wines grown by your neighbors. Wines grown near the land where your ancestors lived and died.

I’m a seventh-generation Texan with roots as deep as the oldest Grenache. So no matter what the wine snobs think–and no matter what stupid crap our state and local governments get up to–I will always have a soft spot for Texas wines. That means bottles from Texas producers and wine travel within Texas will have a place of prominence on this blog.

5. Keep the passion alive.

The Wine Fairy isn’t my first blog project. But my wine studies have helped me to re-invite the bloggy muse and re-animate my writerly mojo.

I used to write frequently on magical and metaphysical topics for my online store, Grove and Grotto. At its peak, that blog was getting annual views in the millions and was a major contributor to the success of my retail business.

The content was sincere, but the process began to feel transactional and commercial. The blog was so overwhelmed with gross spam comments–hundreds per day, sometimes–that I lost connection with my readers. I stressed about SEO keyword strategy and Google algorithm shifts. In short, maintaining that blog began to feel like a job.

The wine blog has been a blessed reboot. I actually look forward to sitting down every day and writing about wine.

Even better, I’m regularly meeting people whose passion for wine is palpable. Some work in the wine biz and some don’t. The industry is not in a good place at the moment, as has widely been observed. But whether wine is their job or not, whether things are going well or not, I see wine people find joy and excitement in their discoveries, and it’s truly inspiring.

I want to learn to do what they’re doing. Whatever is happening in the world of work, wine is for pleasure. So, I hope you enjoy reading this blog–and may your thoughts rest happily on the last glass and the next one. Cheers!