Tampa wine blogger gets free sips to provide free tips

A local wine lover, whose fruit-of-the-vine appreciation could easily eclipse his income if he's not careful, has figured out a way to keep alive his passion for the grape. He has offered to write online reviews of wines in exchange for free bottles.

He drinks. He tweets. He blogs.

In the morning, Randy Watson gets up and does it all again. During the past three months of this schedule, he said he has gotten 100 free bottles of wine from 30 different West Coast wineries, including those in California's Napa Valley and Oregon. He's even reviewed a delicate little wine from Australia called Friday Monkey.

He's "The Wine Whore." Really. That's the name of his blog, written from his home in Tampa. And it's starting to take off.

"I've gotten a lot of comments about the name," Watson said. "People like it. They like that I'm being honest with them."

He said he always has had a love of wine, and a few years ago, he and his wife went to Napa Valley "and visited all the wineries, enjoyed the wine, the people and the attitude. I really got into wine after that."

Three months ago, he started the blog.

"What better way to get a chance to share the experience?" he said.

The move has opened the door. Now he gets to try everything from the expensive and difficult wines to the everyday, screw-top bottle from the local grocery store.

"It's a creative way of helping myself at the same time," he said, "an exchange of samples for posted reviews of the wineries."

"I took a chance," he said, "and it actually took off."

Now he gets deliveries of requested bottles along with unsolicited samples that show up on his doorstep. He'll review any wine, he said. A growing number of blog readers suggest new sipping experiences, he said.

The site doesn't make any money, though. He's hoping for sponsors or advertisers, but so far, he's doing all of it himself, with very little overhead, save a corkscrew and glass.

The Web site is www.winewhoreblog.com.

A sampling of commentators on his reviews shows that his pieces are read far and wide, including one who called the United Kingdom home.

"I get a wide range," he said of readers. "Some are in the wine business and some are just looking for a good $10 bottle of wine at the grocery store."

The most expensive bottle he has received is a $70 cabernet. The best tasting one was a Harvest Moon sample, which happened to be the first one he reviewed.

"I don't know if it was better or because it was the first one I got," he said.

He can't name the worst bottle he's tried.

"I've been lucky," he said. "I've not tried anything that was absolutely horrible. But everyone has different tastes."

Watson continues to work his day job as a computer technician, "but my dream is one day to do this full time," he said. "I've always loved wine. I've loved drinking it and learning about it."

Christine Adams, who does the marketing for X Winery, a small California winery, has sent samples to Watson. She said the blogging market is the next big thing on which wineries are trying get exposure.

"He had asked our winemaker to send samples, and we said absolutely," Adams said. "It is part of our new strategy with promoting and marketing our products.

"We're taking a more active approach with the social media. We want to have more of a presence on Twitter and Facebook, and we now are incorporating relationships with bloggers such as Randy.

"Now that they are around, we felt that, as kind of a nontraditional winery with a limited marketing and promotional budget, it's extremely important and valuable to have a presence with reviews from bloggers."

Adams said the number of wine bloggers online is staggering, and most are on her contact list for sending news releases or other items of interest. But samples are only sent to two bloggers, and one is Watson.

There is research that goes on before wine samples are sent out, she said. Bloggers have to have a legitimate presence, she said. The reviews are reviewed as is the critiqued wine list.

"Randy's a newer blogger," she said. "He's based out of Tampa, and we're trying to penetrate that market some more."