Welcome, Hit the Bottle listeners, I'm your host, Michael Wangbickler. When you have an opportunity to spend an hour with one of your respected peers, it's a refreshing experience. It makes you remember why you do what you do, and that there are others out there that have similar experiences and thoughts.

That was the case when Tom Wark, founder of Wark Communications, joined me on the podcast late last year. It is one of our longer interviews, but there were so many valuable insights that we felt guilty about cutting it down, so we didn't.

The conversation took us in many different directions, but some of the key points discussed were the evolution of blogging; the importance of third party endorsement; how you gauge whether an independent blogger is worth your time; why all beverage producers should be publishing their own content on a frequent basis; how the wine industry needs a better communication strategy when communicating digitally; and how wineries should take their experiences on the road.

You may need to listen to this one more than once, honestly, but I guarantee you will learn something new. So, let's get on with it.