Becoming a Wine Writer
How do you become a wine writer? Heck if I know. I have a blog; does that make me a wine writer? I’m inches from completing a book about wine that I’ve been working on for three years. Will that make me a wine writer? Or will I be one when (if!) it’s published? Please someone publish my book!
If it were easy anyone would do it, right? But anyone can and does! Anyone with a blog and just enough wine knowledge to be dangerous writes about wine. That’s pretty much the category I fall into. I feel like I’m even more dangerous because few people write about my little niche area so I can pretty much say anything and there are few to contradict me. I keep waiting for someone to come along and declare to the world that I’m a fraud. And that goes a long way towards mitigating that feeling of not being good enough.
That “impostor syndrome” is something we all experience in many aspects of our life. Luckily for me, while I may be trying to break into a group of some of the most knowledgeable and talented people; they’re also some of the most amicable.
One of the things about which I do not feel uncertain though is the wine community. While researching my book I visited 70+ wineries across Turkey. No one seemed to overly mind my poor Turkish as my enthusiasm for their wine made up for it. I find wine people-makers, sellers, writers, lovers-to be some of the warmest people. Show a little excitement and interest and they open their world to you.
I have also been able to join groups like #WinePW and #Winophiles and feel like I’ve been welcomed with sincere enthusiasm and open arms. I was really intimidated by some of these people when I first started taking part in their monthly Twitter discussions. These are some big names in the wine blogger community! None of them have ever made me think I that I’m unqualified or not widely tasted enough for their group.
Sommeliers have a bad reputation for being snooty and condescending. However, what I have learned in my wine journey as that while some people may have earned that reputation, they are the exception. Not the rule. And while my personality leans towards snooty and condescending, I try to keep that out of my tastings.
The wine world is so intimidating but is made less and less so by true wine lovers who only want to spread that love. I really hope that I fall into that category. Given how much of a fraud I, as a semi-professional feel like, the last thing I want to do is put people off wine by making them feel stupid. Even if sometimes I really want to!
So I guess that until that magical moment when something happens that makes me feel like a “real” wine person/writer/authority I will take comfort in both the online community that has welcomed me with my only credential being that I love and write about wine; and the local community I have built here in Istanbul of dedicated Turkish wine enthusiasts.