Today marks the 1-year anniversary of our little blog in cyberspace. It’s been quite a year! We had no idea when we started this blog how much it would enrich our lives through friendships made, conversations had, and giving us a focused outlet for assessing wine.
Traffic
When we first started this blog in June 2010, we got roughly 400 unique visitors in our first month. In 2011, we’re now closing in on an average of 2,000 unique visitors per month, and a hit count of over 50,000 hits/month. A lot more than we would have hoped for when we first started this personal “wine journal”.
Our traffic is highly localized with almost 77% originating from Canada, and a whopping 45% coming from Vancouver city proper.
Content
Our content has primarily been wine reviews, but we’ve thrown in the odd editorial when an issue really pushed our buttons. Over the past year, the articles with most page views are, in order:
- BC’s Enomatic Enigma
- WINEcouver > About
- Vancouver wine: The Love/Hate list
- WINEcouver > Stores
- Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva
- Black Hills Estate Nota Bene
- Lindemans Shiraz Bin 50
- Feudi Di San Gregario Aglianico
- Yellow Tail Shiraz
- Taste these! Wine picks for the 2011 Playhouse Wine Festival
We gained a good deal of following after writing the article on the Enomatic issues in BC, and the topic was quickly picked up by Gismondi in the Vancouver Sun, Wines & Vines, Cherries & Clay, WineLaw.ca, and Dr. Vino, perhaps wine’s biggest news aggregator online.
The remainder of our top content’s popularity is perhaps due to a dearth of proper online reviews on some well known wine brands such as Ruffino, Lindemans, Feudi Di San Gregario, and Yellow Tail. One exception to that list would be the Black Hills Estate Nota Bene, which we’ve gone on record about and gained some infamy for sticking in the “avoid” list. Honestly, we’re not biased against Black Hills Estate, and we think a lot of their Alibi blend. However, we do strive to be an honest source of reviews for the average consumer, and value is something that matters highly. “Take note” of that.
Focus for the coming year
We love wine, and especially the esoteric, scarce “geek” wines that our group of wine enthusiast friends endeavour to find and share. However, market data shows that the majority of wine purchases in BC are below $20, and as consumer advocates, we do make an effort to drink and review wines drunk by the majority, and also available to the majority via Provincial distribution.
While we do enjoy writing the odd editorial, there are some great blogs out there that have much more of an ear-to-the-ground on day-to-day industry changes. As such, we highly recommend Cherries & Clay for thoughts from a restaurant/trade perspective, and the blogs of Just Grapes Wine and WineLaw.ca for legal changes and implications provincially, and nationwide.
Final words
It’s been quite a year personally for us as we were married in August 2010. We both completed our WSET Advanced certificates in the early summer and were happy to find out that we both passed with Distinction. One half of our team (Mr Winecouver) is currently studying his WSET Diploma while the other half (Mrs Winecouver) dreams up blind tasting flights to challenge his palate.
The coolest thing that this blog has brought about is a networking and friendship aspect that we never imagined could happen from throwing some ramblings online. Through Twitter, and through this blog, we’ve met some seriously cool people. These “social media friends” have grown into true friends that we spend time with, drink wine with, and are happy to have in our lives. How cool is that!
Here’s to an even better year two!
Mr & Mrs Winecouver
PS: here’s some tweets from the past year that made us laugh/blush.
Great work guys!
Happy Birthday to you Winecouver!!!
I dunno about the Alibi had it last week and the #CCFCC event and Did not enjoy it at all LOL
Thanks for putting the effort into sharing your thoughts. You have definitely enriched the wine-blog-o-sphere here in B.C. Plus, who else would I debate with if you weren’t around?!
Heh. We always look forward to your response, whether in disbelief or agreement. Great to have your opinion in the mix. Cheers, Shea!
Happy Anniversary! You have helped me consume many a fine bottle of the grape. I thank you!
Sparty