Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Twitter Taste Live = Wine Blogger Circle Jerk?

What do you get when you take a wine shop desperate for attention and money and add 20 or so bloggers who will drink anything that they don't have to pay for?

Twitter Taste Live. That's what. And Craig Drollett, owner of Bin Ends Wine, couldn't be happier.

"We get the wineries to send the samples out, so that doesn't cost us anything. Even if we only sell a half dozen TTL packs, we're making out well," he says of his brilliant "online wine community" scheme, continuing "The best part is, the winemakers are thrilled with it because no one ever says anything bad about any of the wines. The folks on Twitter are just so thankful that someone finds them even mildly relevant, they have only nice things to say about the wines. It's great!"

What Drollett doesn't want you to know is that TTL has absolutely no value to anyone -- except him. "Twitter is so transient a medium that unless you're one of the chosen few bloggers on the 'inside' of this virtual wine tasting circle jerk, you never even know it happens. Ask any of the wineries involved if they've gained anything from it," said a blogger outside of this supposed inner circle.

If it really is a circle jerk Craig, I guess we know who is getting the money shot on his face.