Wine lover finalist for dream job

By John Kessler

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County, Calif., announced in late April it was conducting a high-profile search for a “wine country lifestyle correspondent,” Hardy Wallace wasted no time.

The recently laid off Atlanta resident — who writes the nationally recognized Dirty South Wine blog (www.dirtysouthwine.com) — cashed in a pile of frequent flyer miles, flew out to San Francisco and was first in line of the 300 super-eager beavers who queued up to get a head start on the application process. Another 1,700 or so hopefuls applied online for the position, titled “A Really Goode Job” by the winery.

No exaggeration. This gig consists of spending six months at the winery and relating the experience through social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and online videos. The remuneration? A cool $10,000 a month, plus free housing in a Victorian mansion in Healdsburg.

Now Wallace, 35, is one of 10 finalists for the job. After four days of interviews, wine education and team exercises, which end on Tuesday, the winery will name its choice.

Just before leaving to go back to California, Wallace said, “We’ll be doing things like breaking into two groups and cooking for each other. I feel like I’m getting ready for ‘The Real World’ or ‘Survivor.’ ”

The timing couldn’t been better for Wallace, who was laid off from a lucrative job in sales and marketing at Kodak in January.

“I was bound and determined that I wouldn’t go back into tech. I wanted to find something in wine and social media, so this was the job I was waiting for,” he says. Wallace, who is single, has been living off his severance package from Kodak.

Much like the Queensland, Australia, tourism board’s “Best Job in the World” competition that ended in the hiring of a caretaker for an island in the Great Barrier Reef, the search itself has served as a massive promotion. It is also an example of what is being called “viral marketing” — using social media structures and networks to promote a product.

“This is all a learning experience for us,” says winery spokesperson Caroline Shaw. “That’s why we reached out to find someone who’s web savvy and a good communicator. Before this, our winemaker [David Ready Jr.] wasn’t even on Facebook.”

Murphy-Goode, which had a higher profile in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is hoping the new lifestyle correspondent will help it to reconnect with a younger crowd of wine drinkers. The winery was purchased by Jackson Family Wines — makers of Kendall-Jackson and dozens of other brands — in 2006.

The 2,000 job applicants submitted a short video. Wallace’s video (search Hardy Wallace on youtube.com) featured an oversized wine goblet that would give Austrian glassmaker Georg Riedel the vapors, a horned helmet and much “Hagar the Horrible” imagery. Murphy-Goode webcast 900-some videos on its site and asked viewers to vote for their favorites.

Wallace worked all his contacts relentlessly, asking them to cast votes for his video. He sought endorsements from wine bloggers and retail outlets with strong Internet presences. He also started a Facebook fan page and a Twitter feed (distinct from Dirty South Wine) to bring eyeballs to his application. And he inaugurated a second blog, Goode to Be First (www.goodetobefirst.com), to promote his efforts.

In Atlanta, Wallace is a well-known figure at the nexus of gastronomy and social media and is close to many of the other local Tweeterati, including the photographer Broderick Smylie and the publicist Melissa Libby.

“I went forward with a strategy that I was capable of doing the job,” he says. Wallace estimates that his quest has, though all its venues, a monthly unique viewership of 2.5 million.

Murphy-Goode announced the 50 semifinalists in late June. While it wasn’t a surprise that Wallace was among them, it was a huge surprise to many that top vote-getter Martin Sargent, an Internet celebrity, didn’t make the cut. The oversight became big news in tech circles when Kevin Rose, founder of the social news site Digg, expressed outrage on his Twitter feed. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a lengthy feature on what had become a public relations nightmare for the winery.

“We made a mistake of [letting viewers vote for favorites] on the Web site,” Shaw admits. “The votes weren’t impacting the decision. It’s a job. A real job. Besides, California state law prohibits relating liquor to a contest. This was a learning experience for us.”

In early July, Murphy-Goode informed Wallace that he would be one of 
10 finalists — a sundry group that includes food bloggers, a former host of a cable television show, a former Microsoft employee and a recent college grad.

Before making its decision, the winery will hold seminars on blending wines for the finalists, as well as reality-TV-style challenges, such as sending the finalists out to round up guests to come to the tasting room.

But it won’t all be games. “We’re supposed to be capturing it as we go along through blogs, Tweets and whatever else,” Wallace says. The winery will monitor the impact and quality of their efforts.

Win or lose, Wallace feels he has found a new career path. “I love the idea of talking to wineries and wine businesses about social media,” he says. “I want to figure out a way to do this for some of the small labels I really love, too. Right now, I’m so happy.”