Vote in the Wine Blog Awards!

So, there’s this thing called the Wine Blog Awards which is sort of a hybrid of the Oscars and the People’s Choice Awards.

The awards combine a juried review along with popular voting and recognize English language wine blogs in a number of categories like, “Best Writing,” “Best Business Blog,” “Best Wine Reviews,” “Best Overall,” and so on.  There are eight categories overall and not all blogs are a fit for every category as there are a few specialty areas like, “Best Single Subject,” “Best Winery Blog,” etc.

Like all awards, because we take our cues from popular culture, most people are “humbled” and diffident when named a finalist and/or a winner, and secretly (or not so secretly) peeved if they’re not acknowledged.  If nothing else, this is a measure of the influence of the awards in the online wine writing community.

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I’ve been a finalist or a winner since the inception of the awards in 2007, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I like winning.

However, up until last year, I was winning awards because of my blog design – which, frankly, I conceived, but I paid for with the help of an ace designer.  So, these were hollow victories because it had nothing to do with writing, where I put in actual effort.

Then, last year, I had a breakthrough of sorts and I was a winner in the, “Best Business Blog” category – recognition for writing capably about wine marketing and the wine industry.  Yes!  This was good because the purpose of this site is to write column-style and make the wine business (behind the lifestyle façade) interesting and accessible.

Flash forward a year and I’ve been named a finalist in three categories and they’re not the design category (thank goodness). 

Please vote for whomever you deem worthy in the Wine Blog Awards.  You’ll see that I’m a finalist in the following categories:  “Best Overall,” “Best Business Blog,” “Best Writing.”

Vote here.

As always, thanks for reading Good Grape and helping me, a schooled journalist, but non-professional writer, pursue my interest in wine while scratching my creative itch and hopefully, as George Bernard Shaw, perhaps the most oft-quoted guy that nobody knows what he’s known for, said, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/vote_in_the_wine_blog_awards/

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Nestling on the magnificent bay of Al Jissah in the capital of Sultanate, Muscat, the resort village, Shangri La?s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa sets its empire with three grand hotels over an area of 124 acres surrounded by the glittering sand of the desert and the blue flecks of waves of the Gulf [...]

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One of the most stressful moments for a lot of business travelers is not when the client has an objection or asks a difficult question but when they are handed a restaurant wine list. Depending on where you are dining this can be a selection of a few dozen to several hundred choices or even [...]

How To Find Values On A Restaurant Wine List originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/NvbXZpZUqCM/

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Corliss Estates and Tranche Cellars: Livin? Up to the Hype

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Corliss Estates and Tranche Cellars: Livin? Up to the Hype was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/XiMK6qgML-k/

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Help Steer the Direction of an Award Winner!

Generally speaking, I do very little public housekeeping here, but it’s time for some remodeling and I want your feedback. 

Despite winning some awards and receiving significant positive feedback about the design of this site, I haven’t materially changed the look or the function of Good Grape since November 2006.  Times have changed a lot in the intervening (nearly) five years.  At the time, Wordpress was a very secondary blogging platform choice behind MovableType (I chose door #3).  Facebook had recently announced general availability to the public from its former days of being collegiately oriented; Twitter launched, but was barely a blip on the radar, YouTube was hot (but not ubiquitous) and smartphones were still very niche in general adoption.  Tablets like the iPad?  Nope, at that point people were stoked about rumors of an iPhone that was set to be released sometime the next year. 

A lot has changed in five years and this site has barely kept pace, making due with duct tape and spittle.

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A number of regular readers have let me know that pieces and parts of the site don’t always work, or the site is slow for them, or it’s hard to comment, or archive pages are junky looking, or links take you away from the site, etc.  And, forget about reading this site on your mobile phone – Good Grape equal’s bad mobile mojo.  The list goes on and on and I have my own list of wishes and want-to’s 35 items deep.

So, here’s the question and the crossroads I’m facing:

Do I keep the same general design (with some slight modifications like making the main text area wider and re-doing the navigation) and simply leave a classic design alone, focusing on enhancing functional and technical aspects of the site?

Or,

Do I take this opportunity to blow it out and set the bar for what a quality, beautiful, professional wine blog should look like, plus all of the social and mobile bells and whistles?

Readers, friends, colleagues, and peers: Your feedback is very welcome.  Should I mess with a good thing for a potentially greater thing, or do stay true to the visual identity in place and simply remodel focusing on functionality, familiarity and usability?

Please leave a comment.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/help_steer_the_direction_of_an_award_winner/

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