Our trip to Greece made a deep impression on Susie and me. We both loved Crete, especially Chania and Plaka. The food is excellent and the people are very friendly. Yes, they speak English quite well, albeit with a strong Greek accent. We are already talking about going there again in the future. Although I am familiar with some of the wines from this ancient wine-producing country, I came to appreciate more about what they do there in terms of wine. Assyrtiko is the dominant white grape in Greece, and it is on all the restaurant wine menus. One of the more respected red grapes is Xinomavro, which means the black sour. It is so Nebbiolo-like, it’s uncanny. I will focus on some of Greece’s wines on my YouTube channel. You should check out my latest, which features four whites, one being a Retsina.
One thing I have been ruminating on lately is the dangers of taking favors from distributors or wineries in exchange for our time. I’m small potatoes on YouTube compared to some of the top wine YouTubers. So, I have not been offered trips or the like from distributors or wineries in hopes that I will give their products airtime on my channel. The pitfalls of this are apparent. Could I stay subjective if someone paid for a trip for me to go to a big wine event or even to another country? That is a challenging situation, but I get it. It can be expensive to take some of these trips, so if one is offered to have the expenses covered, why not? I’m not saying that one shouldn’t accept such offers; all I’m saying is that if you do, you’d better do some serious soul-searching. I accepted a trip to Europe sponsored by a winery a long time ago. It ate me up inside when I wrote articles about the trip, worried that I was being as transparent and honest as possible. I enjoyed the experience and even interviewed the guide on my YouTube channel. Would I accept an offer like that again? Only after some serious soul-searching!
I’m in a nice place as a YouTuber and writer. The company I work for is willing to help me out with material for my channel and my blog. They support my travels and want to know what I experienced there. In most cases, Susie and I pay our way, which is fine by me. Because Kings Market (the company I work for) is a good customer for our wine distributors, the people who sell to me are willing to provide samples to help with some of my YouTube episodes. They know I will be brutally honest and I believe they appreciate that, even though it means they will not benefit from sales. Some of them watch my channel more than others. I want to give a quick shout-out to Kris from Winebow! He watches most of my episodes and often asks me what I need regarding wine for upcoming shoots. He is always coming up with ideas for me to explore to improve my channel. This, even though in a few cases, I have been quite critical of some of the wines he has provided me for an episode. However, he was quick to remind me that I really liked one of the wines he provided and asked me if I would like to bring it into the store. I appreciate that kind of support from my team of distributors.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
