2016 Year in Review – Travelling Corkscrew Wine Blog
As 2016 draws to a close, it’s time to look in the wine cellar and consider what’s in-store for the Travelling Corkscrew in 2017. This past year has involved a fair share of wine (no surprise there), wine travel and of course one of the biggest events for the TC – the Mr. & Mrs Spittoon Wedding! I really enjoy doing year in review posts like this, as it makes me take a moment to stand back and take in this little online wine community we are all creating together.
I firstly want to say a big thank you to everyone who takes the time to pop by the blog or my social media channels; every visit, comment and like continues to drive my passion further. Below you’ll find some of the highlights from 2016 for the Travelling Corkscrew and please leave a comment at the bottom of the post if there was anything you really enjoyed throughout the year and what you’d like to see more of.
Please note: All blog stats are pulled from Google Analytics, I filter out all internal and spammy referral traffic so the figures are as accurate as possible.
97,000+ Blog Visitors
Being an online geek, (my day job specialises in SEO) I monitor and track my blog visitors. Back in the day, when I first started the blog, it was purely only my Mum reading the blog and it has definitely gained a wider audience than just her now! Here are some figures for 2016:
- Over 97,000 visits to the blog (this is over a 35% increase compared to 2015)
- 68% of these are based in Australia
- The busiest day of the year was October 21st with 522 visitors
- The most popular blog post published in 2016 was: Perth BYO Restaurants – Recommended by Winos 4 Winos
- 200+ comments on the blog
565+ Blog Posts
I added 85 new blog posts to travellingcorkscrew.com.au in 2016 which takes the total number of published posts up to over 565! Out of the 565 posts on this blog, the 5 most popular posts were:
- How Long Does Wine Keep Once Opened?
- Perth BYO Restaurants – Recommended by Winos 4 Winos
- Comparing The Best Places to Buy Wine Online in Australia
- 10 Delicious Mulled Wine Recipes
- International Wine Days of the Year (this has now been updated for 2017)
230+ Tasting Notes
Typically with tasting notes, I post these across my social media channels alongside a few wine apps. In 2016 I have published tasting notes for 230 new wines and no doubt tasted double that (if not more!). I only pen a tasting note, if I have the time to properly sit down and get to know it. For instance at wine festivals and events, unless I want to be an anti-social wine wanker, I don’t write tasting notes. I am terrible at multitasking! Below are the wines I tasted this year – click-through to Facebook below to access all my tasting notes:
According to my profile on Vivino I’m currently ranked 26th in Australia and I tend to drink a lot of Aussie Chardonnay, French Champagne and Aussie Shiraz. I also have received a ‘Top Ten in Country’ for Italian Prosecco.
21,000+ Subscribers & Followers
In 2016 I finally jazzed up my emails to blog subscribers which I was pretty proud of and therefore I am now proud to actually promote that you can subscribe to the Travelling Corkscrew and have posts delivered straight to your inbox (I may even look to do some newsletter and/or special email subscriber only deals and competitions in 2017). Alongside this I have continued my social media addiction and will continue to post to these channels, I am particularly a fan of posting to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
More Wine-y Highlights
Every new wine is a highlight right? Without going into a full on list of highlights, here are some of the particularly special moments for the TC in 2016:
- Marrying my lovely Mr. Spittoon and drinking on some pretty fantastic wines in the process
- Launching the TC Wine Club in collaboration with The Wine Gallery
- Being a finalist in the Born Digital Wine awards for the Best Tourism Content with a Focus on Wine
- Being named the 45th top wine blog in the world by Feedspot
- Working with the City of Swan to be the Entwined in the Valley 2016 Official Blogger
- Interviewing WA’s most famed wine writer – Ray Jordan
- Helped to raise funds for the Movember Foundation
- Spending time in WA’s fantastic wine regions; Great Southern, Margaret River, Perth Hills & the Swan Valley
- Over 1,190 images tagged with the #TCWeekdayWine hashtag on Instagram
And lastly I just want to say a huge big thank-you to all the wineries and companies who have worked with the TC in 2016 – I am looking forward to collaborating further in 2017. For a media kit, please contact [email protected]
Bring on 2017 and many more wine adventures in Western Australia and abroad.
On a final note, I would love your feedback via a comment below…
What did you particularly enjoy on the blog this year?
What would you like to see more of in 2017?
