Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melanie Ofenloch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Melanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

While my profession is marketing consulting, my passion is drinking wine. I don’t consider myself a wine expert – just an everyday person with a love for the grape, a few annual Pilgrimages to wine regions and at the end of each year – an ugly Visa summary to prove it.

It took me a long time to realize an everyday person (especially me) could write a wine blog. I am not a sommelier, winery owner, wine marketer or wine expert. But, how many of us are experts? Wine is a product that should be discovered, shared and enjoyed.

My wine roots are humble. Growing up, I was given a glass of Uncle Louie’s homemade wine, which let’s just say was quite an experience – and not a good one. In college, I shared Gallo pink blush jug with my college roommate for weekend parties. When I was newly married, my husband and I discovered inexpensive Italian wines together. It took my first trip to Napa, to realize what a great wine could be. I also discovered that wine would become a journey of discovery. I never realized how quickly I would go from a countertop wine rack to more than 650 bottles in our cellar and more than 1,200 samples a year.

Learning about wine has been wonderful, but I believe experiencing wine is the fun part. That was my mission with this blog. I wanted to appeal to people who are just starting to learn about wines to the certified experts. It was all about community and I have never taken a dime for it.

Melanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

How did you build your audience on social media?

My story begins with Twitter (now X), which is what led me to launch the blog when I hit 1,600 followers. Looking back, there was no reason for that number. The key to success for any social media channel is to find your audience. In my case, it was wine people. The next step is to engage with those people. Retweet, like and comment. I found that keeping human element helped me engage further. While it is important to keep personal information personal, you can show your personality. I continued to visit great regions, meet interesting wine people and build my brand.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think it was writing this blog consistently for almost 13 years. Every week, you can expect a blog post along with multiple comments on social outlets. My beginning number to start the blog was 1,600 followers on Twitter. Since then, the blog readership has grown from 0 to around 100,000 per month. I have also been named among the top 100 bloggers by two separate outlets (in the top 25 this year).

I think having wine as a hobby and not taking money has distinguished me from my readers and as someone who is authentic and will tell the truth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dallaswinechick.com
• Instagram: @dallaswinechick
• Facebook: @dallaswinechick
• Linkedin: Linkedin is used for my paying business vs wine
• Twitter: @dallaswinechick
• Other: I joined Threads @dallaswinechick and I’m on Pinterest at @dallaswinechick