Jamie Goode

 

Interesting and controversial piece from Jamie Goode on his wine anorak blog which has provoked considerable discussion here:

'The coming wine war

There’s a clash of cultures in the world of fine wine, and before too long it could become a war.

On the one hand, we have the fine wine establishment, which is dominated by Bordeaux, but also includes the top Champagne houses, as well as a few others such as the super-Tuscans. This is wine as a luxury good or an investment vehicle. It’s where the money is.

On the other hand, we have the emerging terroiriste/natural wine movement. This is somewhat counterculture, and its development as a category threatens the status quo of fine wine.

As the message of authentic wine with a sense of place – made by people driven by passion rather than profit – gains traction, it is causing a degree of discomfort in the fine wine establishment.'

Saumur: sunrise

This morning Jim's Loire clocked up its 100,000 official visit. Official because although Jim's Loire was launched in late August 2008, we didn't add the site meter until the end of September 08, so we probably actually went past this milestone about a week or ten days ago. Total pages views are just under 203,000. We are delighted that we have so many visitors and have a number of regular and faithful readers.

Jamie Goode – 'the wine anorak phenomenon'

Although reading one of Jamie Goode's recent posts on his much visited Wine Anorak blog shows that these figures are strictly relative. jamie reports that his new blog clocked up some 750,000 page views in a month and that his previous estimate of 90,000 unique visits a month on his old site was apparently an underestimate. Not as stellar but my fellow bloggers, Hervé Lalau and Jacques Berthomeau, attract a very considerable readership. When I checked a few minutes ago Hervé's site totalled: 435,753 visits. I don't have figures for Jacques' site but I understand they are substantial.   

Jamie Goode – March 2009

Interesting discussion on blogging ethics on Jamie Goode's wine anorak blog here. The discussion arose because a number of food bloggers decided to put a paid for advertising feature from a coffee brand on their blogs. Some bloggers made it clear that this was a paid ad, while others didn't.

I can see no reason why bloggers shouldn't accept advertising and sponsorship if they wish to, providing it is made clear that this is a paid for advert. Just like when a magazine runs an advertorial it should be clear that this is an advertisement. Indeed I can't see that the rules that ought to apply to magazines over disclosure of trips, samples etc. should be any different than those that apply to bloggers. The sole difference being that until recently the decision over what to disclose has been in the hands of a relatively small number of people – chiefly editors and publishers. Now with bloggers being writers, editors and publishers and the explosion of blogging many more people have to keep asking themselves am I behaving ethically.

Now that Jim's Loire is becoming reasonably well-established we do intend to take advertising and sponsorship, although not from individual Loire growers, négociants or coopératives. The ads will be separate from the blog. I think it is very unlikely that we would accept advertorials.