Welcome to 2010!
My goal with Washington Wine Report is to bring Washington wine to you and to bring you to Washington wine. That remains my mission this year. As we start the New Year, however, there are a number of things I hope to accomplish. These can be generally summarized as 1) improving the content on the blog 2) improving the ability to get at the content and 3) providing as much transparency as possible into what I do and how I do it when reviewing wines.
In terms of improving content, there are a number of things I am looking to do this year. One is to spend more time in the vineyards and at wineries. In particular, I am looking to go to wineries and areas I haven’t been to before or been to in some time. In the past, my travels have been limited by work and activities related to mountain climbing (I teach climbing in the winter and spring and climb every weekend in the summer). This has necessitated that my trips to wine country are less frequent than I would like, forcing me to be more selective about where I go and when I go.
As some of you know, my workplace shut its Seattle-area office at the end of 2009 (you shouldn’t cry any tears for me on this one I assure you). My loss is your gain, as I will be looking to use some of my additional time while I look for work traveling around Washington wine country. My hope is that this will allow me to bring more information to you about Washington’s many producers than I have been able to in the past.
In terms of improving the ability to get at content, as with any blog, content gets easily lost. While there are labels and search functionality, they are not as robust as I would like. I will be looking to address this in a number of ways over the course of the year, but the first one is by having a tasting note database that readers can peruse. This will be, initially, just a downloadable spreadsheet that will include information about producer, vintage, rating, etc. My hope is that this will allow readers to more easily get at some of the review information in a summarized, searchable, sortable form. Look for this in the coming days.
In terms of transparency, inspired by research I did for a series of posts comparing the major print publications last year, I plan to provide more visibility into what I do, how I do it, and why I do it. To this end, I will be dedicating a post to my rating system system - what it is, how it came to be, and why I have stuck with it. While I don’t plan to make substantive changes to how I taste or rate wine, my goal is to provide as much visibility as possible for readers. Additionally, I will dedicate a separate post to background information about the blog itself – what its goal is, how it came to be, how I taste wine, and what my ethical standards and disclosure policies are.
More on each of the areas I am looking to focus on in 2010 in the coming days, weeks, and months. If there are things that you would like to see this year, leave a comment or send me an email at wawinereport@gmail.com.
Here’s to a great start to 2010.
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Editor

Sean P. Sullivan is the editor of Washington Wine Report. He has been writing about and reviewing Northwest wine since 2004. Read a full biography on the About page. All articles written by Sullivan unless otherwise indicated.
Blog Archive
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2010
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January
(23)
- Five Under Fifteen - January
- Final Final Update: January Virtual Tasting '07 Co...
- Buyer beware: Misrepresenting price and points on ...
- Washington Wine Round-up: January 15th to 21st
- Stomani Cellars (SSAW Winter 2010)
- The Local Vine hosts series on Washington winemakers
- January Virtual Tasting - Columbia Crest 2007 GE C...
- Cayuse Changes Release Weekend from November to April
- Elsom Cellars (SSAW Winter 2010)
- Fall Line Winery (SSAW Winter 2010)
- Washington Wine Round-up: January 8th to 14th
- :Nota Bene (SSAW Winter 2010)
- OS Winery (SSAW Winter 2010)
- Cadence Winery (SSAW Winter 2010)
- South Seattle Artisan Wineries Winter 2010
- Zero One Vintners Wild Sky Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
- Washington Wine Round-up: January 1st to 7th
- Off-topic: A sad day for me. Sad times ahead for t...
- Tasting Note Database
- Washington Wine Round-up December 22nd to 31st
- Washington Wine Report Rating System
- About Washington Wine Report
- Goals for the New Year
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January
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I am looking forward to following your coverage in 2010. Sorry to hear about the change in your work situation, but am glad you're going to invest the extra time connecting us to Washington wine. And it's terrific seeing the recent posts explaining more about you and your approach reviewing wine. Keep up the good work, Sean!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Thad. Here's to great things in 2010!
ReplyDeleteSean,
ReplyDeleteNot big on posting comments but felt compelled because of all the great work you do for the Washington wine industry and commsumers all over.
You are valuable resource for Washington wine lovers. Hope you can continue. Maybe we can lobby the industry for support.
Southern Man
Southern Man, thanks for the comment and compliments. Much appreciated.
ReplyDelete