Turning the Tables on Tom Wark

By Carl Giavanti, Carl Giavanti Consulting

“Turning the Tables – Interviewing the Interviewers” is a Q&A series profiling Wine Writers. We hope you’ll discover more about the wine writers you know, and learn about many others. The objective of this project is to understand and develop working relationships with journalists. They are after all, those that help tell our stories, review our wines and potentially provide media coverage. You can do this by learning their wine and writing backgrounds, story and personal interests, palate preferences, writing challenges and pet peeves. This is part of an ongoing series that will be featured monthly by Wine Industry Advisor.

TOM WARK is wine industry marketing and media relations specialist. He founded his Wark Communications consultancy in 1994 and has worked with numerous wineries, media firms, wine tech companies and associations. He is a founder of the Wine Bloggers Conference, the founder of the American Wine Blog Awards, and a longtime champion of alternative wine voices in the media. Wark also serves as the executive director of the National Association of Wine Retailers. He lives in Salem with his wife Kathy and son Henry George. He can be contacted via www.warkcommunications.com

You can follow Tom on Facebook and Twitter, and read his stories and reviews on Fermentation Wine Blog.

Professional Background

How did you come to wine, and to wine writing?

I came to wine originally through a career in marketing and public relations. My original intent was to follow my interest in how the structures of diplomacy and history impact our everyday lives into academia. However, life interrupted that plan, and I needed to leave the University and get a job. I choose Marketing, which implied public relations, which opened my eyes to the existence of wine-related PR firms. I joined a wine PR firm in 1990 and opened my own consultancy in 1994.

Ten years into my career and having invested time into the politics of wine via my work in Wine PR, I wanted to explore more deeply that intersection of politics, culture, media, business and wine. Blogging services were then just emerging that made the creation and maintenance of an online publishing venture possible and affordable.

What are you primary story interests?

I’m primarily interested in the alcohol regulatory structure, the politics of alcohol, wine marketing, wine media and communications and the ways wine works its way into the cultural zeitgeist.

What are you primary palate preferences?

My drinking preferences are vast. I love drinking bourbon straight and have spent considerable time working to perfect a Manhattan recipe. I adore Dry Cider. I’m more partial to wines with a body and structure akin to Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc, however, give me a richly structured California Cab and I’m also happy.

Personal Background

What would people be surprised to know about you? 

I was adopted at birth. Both my parents were products of a Midwestern, protestant upraising, of the Depression and of WWII. It was a very traditional home I grew up in. Much later in my life, through DNA testing, I not only discovered I was half Jewish biologically, but I also discovered who my biological mother was via an email that arrived in my In-Box one day with a subject heading that read: “You’ve Got New DNA Matches”. That was interesting.

What is one thing you’d like your readers to learn from your writing about wine?

While it’s true that money talks, a large group of consumers speaking in unison can mute the voice of money.

What’s the best story you have written? Please provide a link.

There are two I like in particular. One about my mother and one a manifesto for change:

https://fermentationwineblog.com/2009/05/of-memories-of-broken-glass-mothers/

https://fermentationwineblog.com/2010/03/manifesto-for-change-in-the-wine-industry/

Writing Process

Can you describe your approach to wine writing and/or doing wine reviews?

I don’t review wine, however I do post at FERMENTATION very regularly. I’m an opinion writer/polemicist. So, I’m generally writing to convince or influence and my writing style reflects that orientation. As a result, I come off sometimes as a curmudgeon or a muckraker.

Do you work on an editorial schedule and/or develop story ideas as they come up?

If I didn’t have a day job as a wine publicist and marketer, I’d probably be posting 4 or 5 times a day at FERMENTATION. So much comes across my desk each day that deserves attention or speaks to my irony detector or my bullshit detector. In addition, I often come across new voices in the wine media that really deserve a spotlight and I like to focus my attention and writing on them. So, while I don’t have a schedule for writing and posting, I’m constantly and automatically forming opinions and views on most of what comes into my line of sight and when it does, I tend to immediately get writing.

Do you post your articles on social media? Why is that important?

I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to push out my posts for the simple reason that this is where people’s attention is focused today.

Working Relationships

What are your recommendations to wineries when working with journalists?

Tell the truth first and foremost. Second, if a winery or any wine industry business uses media relations as a marketing tool, it’s critical to focus on a small set of stories to tell the media, then carefully understand which writers are most likely to be interested in and cover those stories.

What advantages are there for wineries working directly with a wine media professional like yourself?

If a winery understands how positive media coverage can bolster its sales, brand and marketing, then working with someone like myself who has spent decades forming professional relationships with writers and editors, watching how they work and understanding what kind of stories they cover, a winery can follow a much more efficient path to garnering coverage in the right media.

Which wine personalities would you most like to meet and taste with (living or dead)?

Having gotten into the wine industry right when email began being used regularly, there are a number of wine folks I’ve gotten to know via email and phone, but never laid eyes on. Among those who I’d love to sit down with and break bread are Elizabeth Schneider of Wine For Normal People, Robert Parker, Jr., Matt Kramer, and Andrew Jefford.

Leisure Time

If you take days off, how do you spend them? 

I have a four-year-old boy named Henry George. So, when I’m not working I like to spend time discussing with him which types of dinosaurs or snakes we’d like to live with or exploring the architectural promise of Legos, Lincoln Logs and blocks. I’m also an avid golfer and enjoy cooking the classics.

What is your most memorable wine or wine tasting experience?

It’s not so much a “wine tasting experience” as it is a drinking experience. It was the first time I met my wife at Press in Saint Helena. I spent 3 hours sitting at the bar, drinking Pastis and talking with Kathy. I knew inside those three hours she was it. I only learned later that she wasn’t so impressed with me as I was with her. I eventually convinced her otherwise.

Read more stories in the series “Turning the Tables – Interviewing the Interviewers.”