To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. In June of 2025, such a time has come for my wine writing adventure.
In the summer of 2008, the editor of my local newspaper, the San Angelo Standard-Times, challenged me to write a wine column that would entertain and inform the average wine buyer. The “buyer” part was important because the weekly column would be an anchor on the Wednesday food section of the newspaper and advertisers wanted information about wines customers could buy in local stores.
And so a wonderful adventure began. By September I had written enough test drafts to find a voice, approach, and word length to prove to myself I could pull this off. Imperatives included a word length to fit into the news hole on the front of the food section, a commitment to file well in advance since the section often was one of the first to be processed in the newsroom, never to miss a deadline, never to lazily submit a previous column even if my well of ideas was dry. I take pride in hitting every single one of those marks the past 17 years.
It was pleasing when sister papers of the Standard-Times—in Corpus Christi and Abilene—picked up the column. Then the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, which was not part of the company at that time. Then came newspaper sales and consolidations and, soon, I was providing columns for the new mothership, Gannett-USA Today. Now the column appeared all over the United States, from Florida to California. Those were heady times for a wine writer in San Angelo, Texas.
That was the case for more than a decade. I was a nationally syndicated wine columnist and expanding into non-Gannett-USA Today newspapers since I own the rights to my work and only sold papers the rights to use my work in print and online. The money was nice, the audience was more important.
At the same time, I was online almost from the beginning. I owned an advertising agency that made websites, so from the first months my columns and wine reviews were available in a searchable, free website— LINK —and on Facebook. Then Twitter (X). Eventually Bluesky and LinkedIn.
Wide exposure brought delightful benefits. Winemakers around the world sent me samples to taste and write about. I got to interview and be interviewed by notables in the wine world. When I visited wineries, I got special treatment. I told many folks, this was one of the best writing gigs in my more than 50 years as a professional writer. And I could toast my good fortune with a high-quality bottle of wine the maker had begged me to receive for free.
Much of this delicious adventure continues, but in 2025 one chapter closes. Local daily newspapers throughout the United States have entered hospice protocols. Gannett is doing its best to remain viable, but clearly denouement looms. At first, because of shrinking space, my wine column stopped running weekly and became episodic, especially in the non-Texas newspapers. Then in the Texas newspapers. Invoices went unpaid. When I queried editors about the situation, silence.
In correspondence with Dave McIntyre, who ended his weekly wine column in The Washington Post this January after 16 years, I realized we faced similar pressures in a changing newspaper environment. “Despite our efforts to spread the appeal of wine, a wine column is aimed at a niche audience,” he wrote, “while newspapers increasingly grade the success of an individual article on the number of readers who click on it.”
This is not a valedictory column. I enjoy writing about wine and reviewing wine and do not intend to stop. I just face the reality that newspapers no longer are one of the vehicles to reach readers.
In some ways, I celebrate new freedom. I no longer am subject to the tyranny of a 450-word count. I no longer am confined to a once-a-week schedule. That likely does not mean fewer columns/posts, likely more, but not always on Wednesday.
To the newspapers that carried my column for most of the past 17 years, thank you. It has been a joy of my life. To all my readers/followers, this is not goodbye. See you on the internet.
Last round: Ancient Egyptian architect: “Do you know how to build a pyramid?”
Ancient Egyptian builder: “Well, yeah, up to a point.”
Wine time.
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Email: wine@cwadv.com