It has been quite a year. We started off this project as a gang of six anonymous writers, and we have seen our numbers rise and fall to the point where there are only two of us left steering the ship. It hasn't been easy. Both of us lead very hectic lives, professionally, but somehow we managed to publish 129 reviews this year, and we are hoping to double that in 2023. Provided our pocketbooks can handle the pressure. A few things we've enjoyed:
- Keeping to our guns - We still do not take our own photos. We purchase our own bottles (although we would accept samples if we had inquiries). We don't allow comments. Most importantly: we don't give grades or ratings. That all seems so tedious and if you can't tell how we feel about a bottle while reading our review, we are not doing our jobs correctly and failing you.
- Offering a variety of wines from different regions - We did our best to try and source things beyond our usual comfort and reach. While our focus was predominantly on Argentina, USA and Chile this year, we hope to expand to France and other countries making Malbec in 2023. Sometimes it's not easy, but the journey is worth the trip.
- Developing our voice - Reviewing and evolving the site in public is a very strange process, but we are starting to get our tone and tenor down and more consistent. We aren't as snarky and esoteric as we were in the beginning, and we are starting to find our comfort zone and audience. It's a pleasure to keep going and growing, and to have an audience that takes the time to go beyond the comments section to email us.
- Music and Wine - If you've been keeping up, you've noticed that we have changed our music selections on the front page weekly. We've kept the focus mainly on bossa nova or Brazilian jazz, but have strayed on occasion. We have received excellent feedback on this feature, and we've even used one or two suggested albums as a feature. Keep sending suggestions and we'll keep listening.
- Staying Ad-Free - It was tempting to join up and do some advertising to get some spare change in order to purchase more bottles, but we have done our best to keep our site ad-free, clean and easy to use. We'll be adding more tags and functionality in 2023, and hope it helps to find our reviews in a faster fashion.
We will be taking the month of December to fine-tune back-end stuff on the site, including better tagging and functionality, more price categories, and maybe even some "best buy" and "best in class" features. We may also be dilly-dallying with a proper domain name, working on a few features, and a few other things. Until then, we wish you all a very safe and happy holiday season, and we'll be back on the air in January with new Malbecs to explore, evaluate and enjoy.
- PM