Name:  Megan

Blog:  Wannabe Wino

Twitter name:  @sonadora

Blog Ranking: #25  See the list of top 100 wine blogs here

Weekly Wine Journal (Tim):  So I haven’t been blogging for very long, got a lot to learn…I have been following you on twitter since I first signed up.  I was thinking of things to blog about and then (suddenly) the thought occurred to me: The Wannabe Wino and Sonadora!  You recently won an award for your wine blogging…

Wannabe Wino (Megan): I recently won an award? That’s news to me!

Tim: You won a Gold Star!

Megan: Oh, haha. Yea, I gave myself a gold star for posting 365 days in a row, not sure that counts! Lol.

Tim: How many days in a row have you posted on your blog?

Megan: Actually, not very many days now, I was unable to connect in Portugal so I missed a day! Before that I had blogged over 365 days in a row.

Tim:  So you have been blogging for a long time now, but how long did it take before the free stuff started rolling in?

Megan: 2 years but I think that also had to do with people not “getting” blogging at the beginning.   I see it happening faster now for newer bloggers than it did back in the past.  Around fall of 2008 is when the sample thing started for most of us.  However, I never expected to get any samples, I intended just to write about all the wine I buy…which is a sizeable amount!

Tim: How many full bottles/cases of wine do you have in your house right now? How many empty ones? lol you might not want to answer that!

Megan: I have about 400 bottles of wine in the house right now.

I have a problem with wine buying…I can’t walk into a wine shop without buying something.  Only one empty at the moment, but only because today was recycling day.  I often wonder what the recycling guys think about us!

Tim:  How do you store your wine?

Megan: My wine is stored in our basement.  In a mishmash of bins, racks, styrofoam shippers and unopened boxes.  I ran out of real storage so I’ve simply stopped opening anything I’ve purchased!

Tim: You are married.  What does your husband think of all this blogging?  Have you seen the movie “Julie & Julia”  What is your favorite movie?

Megan:  I am married.  I actually started the blog as a semi-result of our honeymoon.  We went to Sonoma for part of our honeymoon and I was hooked…I’d always been a wine drinker, but that cinched it for me.  He encouraged me to start the blog, but I’m not sure either of us imagined it becoming what it is now.  At first it was an outlet to talk about the wines we had in our house that no one else talked about.  Samples and such were almost unheard of then and I ran the blog for over a year just drinking wine from our collection with one or two exceptions.  I’ve seen Julie and Julia.  A little sappy for my tastes.  My favorite movie?  Honestly?  PCU.  My film tastes are hardly refined.

Tim: What was the first wine you ever drank?  The first wine you ever enjoyed? When you are not drinking wine, what do you drink?

Megan: Boone’s farm apple wine.  No, I’m actually quite serious.  The first wine that made me sit up and take notice? 1999 Schmitt Sohne Riesling.  Seriously, I actually think back then it got rated as a best buy.  When I’m not drinking wine I drink skim milk or hot tea.  Hard alcohol and I are not friends and I enjoy a good beer, but it makes me very full, so I rarely drink it.

Tim:  When did you start blogging about wine? What changes in wine blogging have you noticed in that time?

Megan: I started blogging in November, 2006.  The blog has grown exponentially in that time.  I used to be REALLY excited that anyone other than me and the few friends that I bribed into visiting were reading it.  The growth was slow at first, but after the 6 month to one year point, it really took off and has been going up ever since.  Over my 3+ years blogging about wine I’ve seen a ton of wine bloggers come and go.  I miss many of those I considered friends from the beginning of my wine blogging days, but I also enjoy meeting all the newcomers.

Tim:  You recently traveled to Portugal, were you able to send any wine back? What wine region outside of the U.S. do you want to visit next?  and why?

Megan: Shipping laws prevented me from shipping any wine back to the States.  I was able to put a few bottles into my checked baggage (and I could have probably checked a few more in a separate case, though I don’t know the customs laws on taking much more than I did) but that was it.   I’d really love to visit Chile.  It’s supposed to be a beautiful country and I speak Spanish.  Plus, I got to know a bunch of the wines over 2009 when one of my goals for the year was to learn about Chilean Wines.

Tim:  If you could have a super power what super natural ability would you choose?

Megan: If I had a superpower, I’d like to be invisible

Tim: Is there anything that you think I missed that people might want to know about you?

Megan:  Other things to know about me.  Hmm.  I collect teapots.

There you have it folks, Megan aka @sonadora aka the Wannabe Wino was gracious enough to make time for the Weekly Wine Journal.

Megan’s blog: Wannabe Wino