Wine articles I can't win an award for, and an apology

I spent a couple hours narrowing down my choices to apply for an online writing award, only to learn that the organizers changed the required publication dates. NOOOO! So I had to go back and read everything decent I wrote from the past year. That's a lot of looking at a pair of eyeglasses I don't even wear anymore.

One thing I learned is, I owe you blog readers an apology.

I haven't put most of my best work on here in two years. Some bloggers run a post telling readers about every little article that runs anywhere, but I haven't bothered to do that*. Geez, if I only read this blog, I'd think, how the hell did this guy win an award?

* I post links to most articles on my Facebook page, but that's a little more intimate space.

Ultimately I did think one post I published here in the last two years might be award-worthy. I'm sorry I haven't given you my best work. Thank you for reading anyway.

If I win an award, I'll share with you what my submissions were. In the meantime, here are my runners-up from the last year: five articles from my gig as California Editor at Wine Searcher that I didn't end up submitting. I think they're all pretty good, but I had to make choices.

The 5 Best California Syrahs

No Stone Unturned At Cayuse Vineyards

Red Mountain: The unsung hero of Washington Cabernet

Richness Brings Reward for Rombauer Wines (I really like this one but could imagine judges saying, "We can't reward a guy who writes about Rombauer.")

Saxum's Justin Smith Keeps Paso Robles Cool

And here were what I thought were my 4 best articles published online between April 2013 and April 2014: two from Wine Searcher, two from my monthly column at Palate Press. They're in alphabetical order, but it's serendipitous because I'd like you to read the last one last.

Boutari's Yannis Voyatzis is a very serious man (I hate the original headline, which I did not write)

I'll Have Some Roussillon, Hold the Rivesaltes

The Science of Bubbles

Wine, Oil and Family: The 3 Stories of James Ontiveros

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