How Did You Get Here? My # 1 Search Term of the Year.

As the year draws to a close it’s only natural to look back and reflect on what went down in 2010. I’ve had this wine blog for almost two years now and this year showed a marked increase in traffic to Come for the Wine. I’d love to think it’s because of my witty outlook and scintillating take on the wine world at large, but it’s much less honorable than that.

After reviewing my blog analytics for the year it has been revealed that the number one search term that brought people to my site this year was: “nuts and wine”. Nuts & Wine!!!

Apparently there are boatload of folks looking for information on nuts and wine and I seem to be the person to give it to them because about 60% of the people who come to my site with that search parameter stick around… for quite a while!

Nuts & Wine. Make of it what you will. I guess it’s not a complete random act that this search term delivers my blog as a result. After all, I did write a few things that do fit the category like: The Danger of Pine Nuts. And oh yeah my post called Pairing Nut's with Wine probably started it all. Or perhaps it was the Lamrusco incident that lead people to think I was nuts?

Go figure. I guess I will just embrace it. After “nuts & wine” the second most popular search term was “type of blogger” or “crazy type of wine blogger” which lead people to my most popular post of the year:

The Five Types of Wine Bloggers: What Kind of Wine Blogger Are You?

This post of course was a joke but you would not believe how many people took it as a serious treatise on the state of wine blogging. {well maybe it is} But Helloooo! Satire while grounded in the truth is still a parody, humor, and mirth! It’s amazing how many people don’t get the joke.

It’s been a good blogging year though and I have been very fortunate to get the opportunity to taste some amazing wine and meet some incredible people this year.

Highlights include events at:

2010 Diageo Chateau Estate Burgundy Tasting { I'm still thinking about the wines I had that day}

Meteor Vineyards

Willamette Valley

Hands on Harvest at Gloria Ferrer

In retrospect I have to say-- “Wine Blogging has been bery bery good to me.”* In fact I’m off to Portugal in the new year mostly because of this blog, so I can’t wait for that and look forward to blogging all about it in February. *{if you are too young to get that joke Google SNL-- Baseball has been bery, bery good to me}

I want to thank everyone who invited me to taste their wine this year and gave me so many great experiences to write about.

Happy 2011! Here’s to you and a new year filled with less nuts and more wine.

The Holy Trinity of Synchronicity

See that box with the big number in it over here to the right → that’s a countdown clock for the Wine Pleasures International Wine Tourism Conference that will take place in Porto, Portugal starting January 31, 2011.

I have been invited to speak at the conference and join a Blogger/Media Press trip through the Minho and Douro wine regions. So naturally I’m researching the area and looking for information about Portugal before I go. After the conference I plan to spend a week in Lisbon and the surrounding area. I started to follow Portugal related wine and tourism folks on Twitter and searched for key words on the places I would be going. And that’s how I ran into David Hoffmann of DavidsBeenHere.com.

David's site offers a webshow service that allows people to ask questions about locations, trip ideas, or for tips on different destinations—and then David creates a personal video that answer the questions. The service is free and it’s amazing. It’s like sitting down with a friend who just came back from where you want to go and they give you all the inside details on what to see and what to do.

Check them out:

The first one is about Porto and the northern region of Portugal. The second details Lisbon and surrounding area. My screen layout tends to cut them off a bit but you can view them on at facebook.com/davidsbeenhere1 or on David's YouTube channel.

David was in the middle of touring Portugal when I began to follow him. We tweeted back and forth a bit. He asked me where I would be going in Portugal and I told him about the conference and that I was interested in Lisbon and possible day trips from there. As soon as he got back from his trip he made me these videos.

This to me is the perfect example of the power of connection and social media. And the power of wine, travel & twitter. In fact, I just added a slide in my presentation to talk about this at the conference.

To make things even more connected, it turns out the David is from Miami, South Miami to be exact, and his parents live just a few blocks from where my Grandparents lived and less than two miles from one of the areas where I grew up. It gets better… we both belong to the same church- Epiphany and attended the elementary school there although not at the same time. Pretty trippy huh?

So if you are planning a trip be sure to Ask David before you go. You won’t be disappointed. You can follow David on Twitter at @davidsbeenhere and click here to visit his site.

I’ll be posting about the wine and port while I’m in Portugal of course, but before I go I'll post a little preview of where I will be going so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can click on the box at the right and it will tell you everything you need to know about the conference and how to register. Or just click here.

Thanks again to David Hoffmann for his time and for making these videos for me.