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Several years ago, I attended a bloggers conference in Walla Walla. At one of the final sit down events there was a panel discussion, two of the writers were Lettie Teague and James Conway, two superlative writers who have paid their dues. There were a couple of others but I can’t recall their names.

The room was full of young people, keen about wine but more keen on how to monetize their blog.

I sat at the table, kept quiet, yes, I know this is hard for me, and listened to their questions how do I monetize my bog, how do I monetize my blog. I was getting tired of it.

So, I asked the question at my table, how many of you have been to France, no hands raised many of you have been to Italy, no hands raised, how many of have been to Austria same result.

At the time, I have been in the wine business for 28 years and without boasting I told them I had been to virtually every single wine country, sans New Zealand and South Africa and I still feel I know nothing.

I continued, how the hell can I trust you with your journalism when none of you have traveled, and you sit behind a desk and wait for samples from an importer? No answer.

In the Toyota way of management, they have an expression it’s called Genchi Genbutsu it essentially means go and see for yourself.