Between preparing for my doctoral classes in ecopsychology and grading my students’ finals, I just had to go into hiding the past two weeks which meant while I participated in a few twitter tastings, I didn’t get any blogging done on this site and very little on my other sites (including Art Predator, Compassionate Rebel, Whisper Down The Write Alley). And yes. pictured with the Don and Sons Pinot Noir vertical from last Thursday’s twitter tasting are just a portion of the research papers and finals I was reading in order to get my grades in!

Even though I am still not completely done with my grading (and there’s another twitter tasting tonight!), today I was doing a little blogging on Art Predator and ended up checking my stats over here to discover  that about midnight last night, my blog hit 50,000 page views! Which, for a wine blog like mine, is pretty good! (In contrast, my Art Predator blog, which I started in November 2007,  is about to hit 500,000 page views and Compassionate Rebel which was born January 2010 is almost 10,000.)

I started the Wine Predator site in August 2008, right after attending WordCampSF which is a huge WordPress blogging conference held in San Francisco every year. But I didn’t begin blogging on the site until after I attended my first Wine Blogging Conference in November 2008. Now, just a few short years later (which is actually long time in wine blog years!), having attended 2008 in Sonoma, 2009 in Sonoma and in Lisbon, 2010 in Walla Walla, 2012 in Portland, I’m packing for Penticton site of my 6th wine bloggers conference.

Hitting 50,000 page views seemed like a good time to highlight the posts that have been the most read over the years, and to link to a few my favorite posts.

When I think back over the years, these five out of 375 total are the posts that come immediately to mind as my favorites. (Wow! Since I write between 500-1000 or more words, that’s a lot of words on wine! Which posts are your favorites? The most memorable?)

Although one of my favorite events of all time was the February 2013 Steven Kent twitter tasting at Rafters Mammoth and the series of posts about it that followed, these are my Five Favorite Blog posts:

From April 2013:
Wine Predator’s WBC12 Ignite!Wine & Conscious Wine’s Portland Pairings
A video of my presentation from the Wine Bloggers Conference. What more can I say except I keep promising to post m,y slides and haven’t yet but promise to before WBC 13?

From March 2012:
Wine Blogging Wednesday “Singles Night Out” –Viognier and Syrah from Ojai Vineyard’s Roll Ranch
Annie and I had a great time tasting these wines and writing about them. I love how we weave local history, natural history, and a Chumash story into our tasting notes.

From February 2012:
Port Pairs: Vertical Heaven
I bought a bunch of vintage ports for my birthday and invited a few close friends to taste them with me. This was a very special evening. Then Ima Zinner came over and we spent far too much time staging the photos and retasting the ports!

From August 2010–about my grandfather’s wine cellar:
What I Inherited from my mother’s father
I was working on this essay when my mom died. I almost read it to her the morning of the day she passed, but didn’t, partly because I wanted to share with her the finished posts with the photos. I really regret that I didn’t read it to her when I could have. I also regret that we put off geting the house in my name and now I’m fighting with my siblings over it. I lost my wine storage and the wine that was there that was my grandpa’s is gone too. Sad sad sad.

From March 2010:
Portugal: bike paths lined with poetry & wine so good it rarely leaves the country
In 2009, I traveled with Jo Diaz to Portugal where I attended the European Wine Bloggers Conference and we had an amazing experience in the Alentejo region as guest of Enoforum. This post is not a review but an appreciation of the country and its culture. If I ever moved from the United States, I think Lisbon would top my list of cities.

Below are my Top Posts according to WordPress.

• I’m very happy that the “greening Valentine’s Day” post is perrenially popular.
• Since three of the top 13 posts are related to boxed wine, I’d say there’s a lot of interest in whether any of them are worth drinking (and I’m happy to report yes!)
• People also search for red wines for white wine lovers and find that blog post to put it at #7.
• Post #13 was the most popular (and controversial!) until #5 went viral.
• Wine Blogging Wednesday posts are some of the most popular and some of my favorites. Long Live Wine Blogging Wednesday!

WordPress’s Top Posts for Wine Predator for all days ending 2013-05-30 (Summarized)

All Time