Seventeen years ago today, I launched Wine Berserkers with a simple goal: create a space where wine lovers could connect without the pretense, ego, or gatekeeping that seemed to define wine culture.
Everyone said it would never work. Forums were dying. Social media was the future.
They were spectacularly wrong.
August 2009 (Our First Summer):
127,291 total posts
9,040 topics
A few thousand monthly visitors
January 2026 (Today):
4.8 MILLION posts across 200,550 topics
291,000 active users in the last 28 days
1.9M monthly pageviews
2m 53s average engagement time
Hereās what amazes me: Almost all of that 291K monthly traffic is people finding us through search, looking for answers about wine. Weāve evolved from a discussion forum into a massive online wine knowledgebase.
For every registered member posting, there are 15 people reading, learning, and benefiting from conversations we built over 17 years. While social media posts vanish into the algorithm void, we built something permanent.
NOW I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU:
Whether you joined in 2009 or last weekāshare your favorite Wine Berserkers memory below:
That first bottle recommendation that blew your mind?
The debate that changed how you think about wine?
The member who became a real friend?
The producer you discovered here first?
That post that made you spit out your wine laughing?
A lurker momentāreading for years, never posting, but it changed your wine journey?
Every story matters. Funny, profound, ridiculousāwhatever Wine Berserkers has meant to you. Letās celebrate this community birthday AS a community!
Thank you to everyone whoās made this community what it is. Youāve proven that authentic connection doesnāt just survive onlineāit thrives.
Hereās to the next 17 years.
P.S. - To everyone who said forums were dead in 2009: We just hit 291,000 active users last month. Still dead?
Adding one tidbitā¦I remember vividly watching BerserkerDay 1 go by, as Carrie Bowman and Linda Baehr ran the whole show (and Iām fairly positive it was Carrieās idea from the get-go, back when she posted almost exclusively with birthday wishes (fitting, for this thread!) to make everyone feel welcome early onā¦and feeling welcome was just what those early Berserkers needed.
Iāve made so many incredibly valuable and deep friendships here, I canāt express enough how much that means to me.
I started here back in 2010 after a mention of Wineberserkers in a tasting note by @Frank_Murray_III who by the way has become a very good friend and inspiration. And just like you mentioned Todd, it was Carrie Bowman who was the first to welcome me.
Due my engagement here Iāve created numbers of lasting friendships that would never have happened otherwise. Personal, business, and those which cross both those lines. 15 years in and Iām still here every single day. My wine collection has grown from 12 bottles to over 2400 bottles due to all you fucking enablers. Thank you and love you all!
With that said, we still have three openings left for the Falltacular Friday night dinner at Basanti in San Juan Capistrano on Feb 20th.
I have shared this story on previous Berserker Days, it hails back from the early days, maybe the first or second one. Dipping my toe into different producers on the BD, I ordered up three bottles of some Jean Edwards Alder Springs Syrah. The BD shipments started arriving and two large boxes arrived that included 18 bottles of the Alder Springs. I immediately reached out to Karen Troisi to let her know of the mistake. We arranged to meet up and she and John came to our house, returned the excess wine and were gifted a bottle of their Cabernet. From that point forward not only did we love their wines, but also became very close friends regularly meeting up for dinners at our houses or to one of the many NJ byob restaurants. We miss her dearly and will be thinking about her this BD.
I love this Todd happy Birthzerkers Day! Itās been a great joy of my life to participate here. And I am blessed by making some fantastic friendships with quite a few fellow Berserkers!
Happy birthday indeed - AND this birthday coincides with my oldest childās birthday - and that always made BD that much more special when it fell on the 27th!]
Iāve been a happy, loud and proud member since nearly day 1 - and continue to truly dig the community that has been build here. Truly amazing accomplishment, Todd et al
