About

About Bricks of Wine

I started writing this blog immediately after I decided I was going to make some wine of my own. Soon after, I accepted a social media job in California’s wine country. Now that my garage is full of lots of unused winemaking equipment, there didn’t seem to be much point in writing about winemaking on my own blog when I was waist-deep in the winemaking process at the wineries I work with.

Bricks of Wine is now more encompassing in its topics and I’m able to post something new at least once a week, keeping the content fresh and updated. I now write about my experiences—the wines I taste, the wineries and places I visit and memorable food I eat, along with the occasional recipe. Of course, I now write about my experiences in social media and how I’m helping wineries successfully integrate it into their overall marketing strategy. So stay tuned; there’s more to come.

About Me

I consider myself a Renaissance man. I believe that every person should be fairly self-sufficient, use the talents they possess and gain knowledge to improve one’s self. I believe that every guy should be able to create a tasteful web site, sail a yacht, save a life, build a cabinet, bake a fruit pie from scratch, ski an expert run, catch a fish, frame a house, cook a gourmet meal, dive a blue hole, perform CPR, understand a wine label, climb a mountain, make a door, seduce a woman, shoot the rapids, handle a gun, ride a horse, write a SQL query, hem his pants, ride a century, grow his own food, speak a foreign language, pitch a tent, bake a loaf of bread, install a water heater, paint a masterpiece, rig a sailboat, change a diaper, feed the hungry, take a life, ask forgiveness, and live to tell about it—specialization is for insects.

Not including drinking Boone’s Farm in high school, I’ve been tasting and drinking wine for the last 28 years. This doesn’t make me an expert or a wine critic and I don’t claim to be one. However, I do have an opinion and this blog is a collection of my opinions. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to taste thousands of different wines from all around the world and have established friendships with many winemakers, sommeliers, and other influential people in the wine industry. I’m currently living in the Napa/Sonoma area, but my permanent address is in the Seattle area with my wife, Sheri, and our toy poodle.

If you’d like to know more about me or need headshots, please check out my press kit page.

About the Title: Bricks of Wine

During prohibition, a repressive time when alcohol was outlawed in the U.S., many people began making their own alcoholic beverages at home.  To meet the burgeoning demand for grape juice, growers increased their production by sevenfold. The juice was commonly sold as “Bricks of Wine.”  The bricks came with a warning label that said, “After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine”

Source: Wikipedia, Time Magazine

Even after prohibition was repealed, many of the laws from that time in history remain on the books today. Archaic for a modern era, they still limit alcohol production, interstate transport, and provide a source of tax revenue. Bricks of Wine seemed to be an appropriate title for a blog about home winemaking and wine in general.

One Man Show

Unlike some blogs who hire a graphic designer and subsequently win awards for the design, my blog is 100% my creation. I use some templates from WordPress, but I have customized them for my site. I created all the graphics, logos and stylesheets and I take all the video and photos used on this site. If I use someone else’s work, I will be sure to attribute them.

Contact Me

If you have questions about my blog, the wines I write about, any of my recipes, or need help with social media, please contact me. If you’re a winery, wine importer, wine distributor or marketing firm, please check out my Samples page.

Email: travelwitheric@gmail.com
Twitter: @bricksofwine

Disclosure

Just to set the record straight, I work for Vintage Wine Estates in Santa Rosa, California. I represent the brands of Girard, Windsor Vineyards, Sonoma Coast Vineyards, Windsor Sonoma, Grove Street Winery, StoneFly Vineyards, Fire Station Red, and International Wine Accessories. I get paid to write their blogs, take photographs and produce video for these brands, however, I’m not being paid by anyone to write this blog. I don’t make ANY money on this blog. I had ads on the site at one time, but the legal liability of having those ads wasn’t worth the pittance that they paid. I pay for my domain names, web hosting and internet costs out of my own pocket. I write because I enjoy it, love wine and want to share my passion with others.

Despite what Robert Parker and others would have you believe, I’m not a blobber nor are the people on my blogroll. I try to be responsible in what I put out on the Internet, but my taste in wine may not be the same as yours, so please consider that if you choose to purchase anything based on my opinions. What I write is my own opinion not influenced by my acquaintance with the winemakers or others in my circle of wine friends. I have yet to receive any free bottles of wine, free wine junkets to France or Italy, or corporate sponsorship, but if I do, I’ll let you know and try not to let that influence my tasting notes. Chances are, if the wine is really bad and it’s made locally, I just won’t comment on it. Life’s too short to disparage bad wine. However, bad French Bordeaux is another story.