Today in the Press Democrat an article is running about our neighbors over on Westside Road, Roshambo WInery, selling their facility to Silver Oak. The article says that they’ll be keeping their brand name however. Knowing they had a winery blog, I surfed on over to get their take on the news.

One of the amazing benefits of blogging, especially when your organization is in the news, is that you can speak to your audience unfiltered. Roshambo in the past has taken full advantage of this and hired a writer to produce a very edgy blog that caters to their niche. They very rarely hold anything back. Check out this post, for example, where they bid adieu to a former customer in a very public way.

All of which is to say that I expected to find some straight talk about the sale of the winery, right from the horses mouth. When I went there earlier this morning I found this post (now archived over at Vinolin) sensationally titled “Don’t Believe The Hype”:

The Press Democrat printed a somewhat erroneous story this morning about the sale of the Roshambo Winery facility. Not only does the piece lack any official comment from Naomi or anyone at Roshambo, but it focuses on third-party misinformation that has haunted our winery for years. New posts will follow shortly.

Interesting. Checking back later in the day however, I found the original post has been removed (universally considered a worst practice in blogging) and a one line post was left in place (also archived over at Vinolin).

Over in the comments of the Press Democrat article one reader says that he has heard that Roshambo will open a tasting room near the old one. As I was writing this post, the owner Naomi left an open letter on the blog confirming this. It doesn’t really address the “misinformation that has haunted the winery for years” though. Here’s a bit of what Naomi had to say:

I’ll be the first to admit that we were overzealous in the sheer scope of the last facility. It put immediate pressure on us to become a 50,000+ case winery. And to be quite honest, with the birth of my beautiful baby boy Justice four years ago, I’ve reconsidered my drive to build an immediate national brand. I’d much rather create a small, intimate and meaningful experience for the people who really appreciate our passionate and free spirited approach. It’s the difference between having to sell wine and wanting to share an experience. And unlike a certain political philosophy recently popularized, I knew I didn’t want to just “stay the course.�

I’m happy to report that Roshambo Winery is still very much alive and kicking. Despite a few swirling rumors, our brand has never been on the block or bankrupt.

It is great to see that the Roshambo folks have a plan and that they will land on their feet. I wish Naomi and everyone else well. It’s also great to see them using the medium to communicate, it certainly shows the power of being able to directly communicate with the public. But I think you have to be very careful. The whole point of blogging is to increase transparency and accessibility. Deleting posts has pretty much the exact opposite effect on your readers.

It’s a lesson for all of us wading into this new form of communication.