It’s insane to think that we’ve been doing this Hoot n’ Annie blog for ten years. We started it on January 27, 2010. In that ten years we’ve done about 1,350 blog posts, comes out to an average of 135 per year.
When we first started the blog, we were posting one short video per day, seven days a week. Annie and I would go wine tasting on the weekends, which usually meant going to five to ten wineries every Saturday and Sunday. Some weekends it felt like a chore but at that point in our life together we genuinely enjoyed it.
Getting out to all of the local wineries, meeting the faces behind the wines, it was a blast. And for me, I’ve always been more into the stories than I was into the science behind the wine. We’ve met a lot of amazing people through the blog; winemakers, chefs, brewers, distillers, vineyard managers, other wine bloggers, and even people that read our blog who we are now friends with.
When we started doing this, I don’t recall any other local blogs except Tablas Creek. I know I’m probably forgetting one or two, sorry about that. The timing was just right for Annie and I. I wanted to do it. Annie was a huge part of it. We’ve been able to promote this amazing area for a decade. That was probably our biggest motivating factor, we love it here. This is the longest I’ve lived anywhere (moved here before the earthquake in 2003) and I’m happy to call this place home.
The blog has had some slow moments. Life got busy here and there and it took a back seat. It has also evolved into something more. Now we talk about everything from wine and beer to food and health to exercise and our opinions on things. I foresee it continuing that way. Rather than “wine” blog it’s just becoming our life magazine.
We have never been in it to critique or criticize anyone or any businesses. It’s simply been a platform for us to share where we’ve been and what we think. We will leave it up to you if you do or don’t like something, who are we to judge. If we go somewhere and don’t like it, we simply won’t mention it. Well, maybe we’ll whisper it in your ear but it’s not worth putting that negativity out there on here.
There you have it. Thanks to those of you that have checked out our content here and there. Thanks to all of the people that have taken time to chat with us and share your stories. It will be interesting to see where this goes from here.
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