This latest in our case study series is a real treat: we had the pleasure of talking with Peter Bourget. Peter is one half of wine blog Pull That Cork.
Peter and co-author Nancy started their blog in 2010, having become seriously interested in wine a decade earlier. With seven years of blog posts under their belts, Peter and Nancy have built a huge resource for wine lovers to meet and share their passion.
Pull That Cork makes use of our ever-popular Foodica theme, allowing Peter and Nancy to show off their content along with engaging images and tight social media integration.
You can find out more about Foodica here :)
Peter very kindly joined us to answer questions about wine, websites and their travel experiences.
Peter: We started Pull That Cork as a way to keep track of the wines we taste both at home and when we travel. A few years earlier we began attending weekly wine tastings at a local wine shop. This was the beginning of our (serious) wine journey and those tastings taught us how to critically taste and evaluate wine.
We learned to describe the flavors and textures we were tasting in a standardized way. As a result we learned to pay close attention to the wines we were drinking and quickly learned what we liked and didn’t like. We applied what we learned to writing about wine on Pull That Cork. We continue to learn about wine to this day.
WPZ: How has writing about wine changed how you approach and drink it?
Peter: In order to write about wine we have had to dive into the details of wine, wine regions, grape varieties and winemaking techniques. That knowledge has informed our wine buying decisions and helped us understand the wines we drink. As a result, we have become more curious and adventurous wine drinkers.
Knowledge and experience have given us the ability to choose wine from a restaurant wine list with confidence. And, even if we’re stumped by a restaurant wine list we know what questions to ask of a restaurant sommelier to choose the style of wine we like.
We are continually on the hunt for a new grape variety, wine region or style of wine to try and whenever we travel we look for locally-made wine. Wine is made is some pretty astonishing places.
WPZ: You travel to a lot of places to taste wine. What’s been the most surprising trip?
Peter: Our most recent trip to Namibia was full of wine surprises — many more than we expected to find in such an arid country. It wasn’t much of a surprise to find many wines from Namibia’s neighbor, South Africa, but we were surprised to find several wineries in Namibia making delicious wine. We tasted four Syrah-based wines from three wineries that were very enjoyable. One of the wineries is owned by a wildlife and land conservation foundation. We hope to visit the wineries, walk the vineyards and talk with the winemakers the next time we travel to Namibia.
WPZ: Your site runs our Foodica theme and it shows off your content very nicely indeed. What have been some of the benefits of choosing Foodica?
Peter: We love the basic layout of the Foodica theme because it has given us the flexibility of publishing two categories of posts on one website. Our Cellar Notes section at the top of our website allows us to post shorter review posts of individual or small groups of wine. Under Recent Posts we include longer articles about food and wine pairings, wine tastings we attend and our travels.
We also appreciate the adaptability of the Foodica theme. Without too much trouble we were able to completely personalize the theme to suit us. Our migration to the Foodica theme was a complete makeover of our prior website and one that we feel has given Pull That Cork a much more professional presence.
Peter: Drinking only wine you are familiar with. Wine drinkers should take a chance and try a new wine on a regular basis. If you don’t want to take a chance on your own, find a local wine shop and get to know the staff. More than likely they will be happy to guide you in your wine journey. In the process you will make some delicious discoveries and learn a lot too!
Thank you for joining us Peter! You can keep up to date with Pull That Cork, or follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
You can find out more about the theme Pull That Cork uses, Foodica, here. We also have a whole host of case studies to check out!
Are you doing incredible work with a WPZOOM theme? Get in touch! We’d love to feature your site with a case study.
November 13, 2017 8:10 am
Thanks for sharing your awesome views.