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My Experience as a Wine Blogger for “wine apprentices”
Interview with Silvia Vins, wine blogger by profession, specializing in “wine beginners”
You have to work hard and invest in training yourself to turn a passion into a profession. This is a true of many professions, but especially in the world of wine. One who has chosen to take this path is the Spanish born, Silvia Ortega Franco, aka Silvia Vins (“Vins” means “wine” in Catalan). She is the creator of the blog, in English, silviavins.com. In her blog, she specializes in “wine beginners”, and aims to reach out to people who want to learn about the world of wine through an introductory point of view, starting from the fundamentals. As the Catalan wine blogger continues her training and blogs about what she has learned, she forms her reader base. From Spain, she moved to the United States, and there she began her professional wine blogging…
How did the professional venture into the world of wine?
My passion for wine, which was so much a part of my family and culture since my childhood, sparked a professional interest during a trip to the US. It was there that I realized that the American wine market is very different from the European Old Wine world. Before opening my blog, I started oenology studies as a hobby, and then continued my training about wine in greater depth.
How did your blog evolve? What is the main activity?
At first, the main purpose of my site was to share my learning experiences while studying oenology. Soon I was able to develop it so that it could be useful to wine beginners by providing short, clear bits of information about wine that are easy to grasp. Step by step, I provide simple, understandable concepts to improve my readers’ knowledge of the wine sector. I hope that everyone who reads my blog, or views my videos, will learn more and more information about wine as they follow along.
How do you find topics for review on your blog?
Topics covered in my website come from various inspirations, many of which are ideas that came to me during my studies. I like to turn it into a “wine magazine”, as if it were a kind of photograph on the world of wine. For example, if I read about how acids and tannins affect the aging of the wine, I create a simple infographic, or a postcard, illustrative of this topic. Other times, I create posts with questions to my friends and followers.
What needs a wine to be in a post?
I make many questions. I wonder: Is this wine suitable for wine beginners? Will they be able to appreciate it better as a result of my recommendations? Will they learn something new? Will my comments about this wine be related, at least in part, to what I want to convey to the reader?
In your personal point of view, what are we likely to read in a wine blog?
When I read a blog, for example, what annoys me most is when I do not know who is creating the post. Basically, this always makes me wonder if the information in the post is correct. Also, there are so many blogs and sites about wine that it is sometimes confusing because everyone has a different opinion of tastes and flavors. In addition, each expert develops his own classification system, and this can complicate, or entertain a lot.
What do you think of the role of the media and the press in the promotion of wine?
The promotion through media is the key to the understanding and consumption of wine, but I think that promotion may have greater efficacy by brand or wine regions, not by specific wines, unless they are already household names. I do not think the average consumer is able to remember all the names of the wine producers. Even if he did, would he be able to find them in his trusted wine shop? In my opinion, the wine brands are so atomized, and there are so many different products, that it makes sense to promote a general category in order to have a real effect on the consumer.
Another aspect to be implemented, in my opinion, is the ability of the consumer to buy a wine online that he has read about in an article. For example, if you are on a site and you read a review that you like, you should have the opportunity to buy that wine online. Unfortunately, the legislation, which complicates the system, makes this difficult.
