Getting a Little Meta

Every now and then I like to take time to reflect on the blog and its purpose. By my count, this will be my 89th post in 7 months, and so it seems wise to do that.

We had a huge readership spike back in January and February… I can’t pinpoint why, but a few posts got some heavy duty viewing, with my most-viewed post being general editorializing on Virginia Wine and why we shouldn’t spend lots of energy trying to copy France or Napa. My most visited post summarizing a winery visit came not long after, thanks to that winery also heavily promoting the post.

It’s kind of sad to hover here with about 340 visits for this month. In the last 6 days of March if we can pull off 125 hits, then we will be at our third most viewed month. I’m impatient though and I want to grow the readership. I’m a little surprised that my editorializing and news reporting gets more views than the winery visits themselves, and I don’t really know how to explain that one.

We continue to add to the cast of characters in the blog too. Husband has been lovely about humoring my almost every weekend wine trips and occasionally joining on them. I want to take him to Linden and Chester Gap because I think he will like Linden’s wine and Chester Gap’s setting. Wine Friend 1 has been quite a trooper through long car rides to all these far flung places. We very rarely disagree on wine although we did disagree about Boxwood. Wine friend 2 is extremely wrapped up in basketball right now and has not been available for these side trips, but is committing her next free weekend to going to Glen Manor with me. She better!!! Then co-pilot is in training for her new work life, and has frequent weekend commitments. We’re hoping to see more of her soon too. Dad has been a reliable and faithful companion on these journeys, and you’ll probably continue to hear about oyster and wine outings in great detail.

There is someone interviewing for a yet to be named position in the NoVa Wine Blog crew, but she can’t get her childcare act together, so we have to see if she earns a nickname.

And so far I’ve run into one person at a winery event who reads the blog (shout out to Matt!) and had a near miss with another blogger at Walsh Family Wine this weekend. It turned out she was part of the group next to me at the tasting bar, we later learned via Instagram. One other blogger took a winery recommendation I made and liked it. I’m hopeful to run into a handful of readers here and there and talk wineries with them. At least one Instagram follower says she is taking my list of winery recommendations and checking them all out. It would make me giddy like a high schooler if people started tagging me on IG when they visit spots I recommend.

So if you’re one of the loyal readers (I’m especially curious who is checking in from Ireland and Belgium according to wordpress stats) (and the one person who reads every post I make within seconds of being posted- I’ve got a bottle of Arterra Malbec to share with you!) Thank you for joining this journey and following along. Watch for me and say hi if you see me about- I’d love to talk about the grapes with you!