Advice to Wineries from Jason Haas @ Tablas Creek

 

One of my favorite winery bloggers happens to live just a few miles away from me.  Jason Haas at Tablas Creek Vineyard writes one of the finest, most thought-provoking and insightful winery blogs on the internet.  Jason's blog won the winery category of the American Wine Blog Awards in 2008, and was a finalist in the 2009 competition.  (And in my opinion he should have won that year, too.)

If you are a fan of central coast wineries, Jason's blog is a must read.  Not only does it cover news at the winery, but Jason also looks at regional issues and trends, and discusses how wholesale and retail markups affect consumers.  It's also a pleasure just to scroll back through the 2009 spring season for Jason's maps, geology, weather reports, and gorgeous photography. 

If you are a fellow winery owner, a winemaker, or aspiring to create your own cellar and wine brand, then I highly recommend bookmarking or subscribing to the Tablas Creek blog for Jason's pithy, informative, and sometimes controversial discussions about the wine industry, consumerism and what it all means to a wine producer.

These are links I recommend to my clients:

• Succeeding in a poor economy: it's all about the fundamentals

• Learning how to Blog: a few year-end reflections on two years of blogging

• Truth, Fiction and Self-fulfilling Prophecy in Wholesale Wine Sales

• Making the most of time in the market

• Facebook, social networking for wineries and a new use for a winery blog

As all good bloggers do, Jason includes step-by-step directions in his posts for tackling challenges and succeeding in wine marketing, so I also recommend printing out these articles and discussing them with your family and marketing staff. 

When planning your own winery blog, the Tablas Creek blog is a prime example of how thoughtful commentary on a range of issues can elevate a blog into wider circulation.  More on that later!

Comments

[Jason Haas]

Wow, thanks for the wonderfully generous post, Mary! Writing is a fun release for me; I wish I got to do more of it. Thank you for the referrals to the links you mention; they're some of my favorites, too.

[Alice]

thanks for suggesting Jason. I discovered a lot of interesting stuff on his website... Great job to the both of you ! :)

[TiaG]

Thanks for the heads-up regarding Jason!