You know, by now, that despite our best efforts we did not make last week’s first cut of applicants vying for a six month job as Wine Lifestyle Correspondent for Murphy-Goode Winery. We tried our best and you tried your best (thanks for all your votes) and, honestly, we were a little surprised we didn’t make the top 50 given the raucous laughter our application video inspired, our deep online presence, our hundreds of online followers, our very impressive wine consumption and enthusiasm (in that order) and our contributions to lay-it-on-the-line wine discussions (thanks for including us, Andrea). Some top-50ers don’t even seem to have a Twitter account for heaven’s sake.

Others were shocked and disappointed too. One supporter, who happens to be the marketing manager of a major corporation for which we recently created a successful six month online branding and marketing campaign, had this measured reaction: “Those Bastards!   I’m from Cleveland. I know people.  I’ll take care of it.  They’ll never dance on grapes again if you know what I mean!”

But instead of the bad kind of whining (there’s been plenty of the good kind of wining), we started thinking. If Murphy-Goode “borrowed” the  buzz-generating online job contest idea from Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” competition (which it did) why can’t we “borrow” MG’s contest and give it a little twist?

After all, there must be other wineries out there in need of  high-performance social media marketing makeovers, right? Right. So we’re announcing our own online contest called Who’s Murphy-Better?

It goes like this: if you’re a winery in need of a short term dose of innovative, effective, creative and fun social media marketing work in the form of words, pictures and moving images that boost your brand, your wines, your wine country, your vineyard owls, your kooky winemaker, your obsessive card playing and anything else that might get more of your wine in more people’s glasses feel free to apply to hire us.

We could ask you to make a 60 second video about why we would want to work for you, but we won’t. Instead, just send a link to your winery’s web site (Don’t have one? That’s what we’re here for!), the proposed duration and salary/benefits of the Murphy-Better Wine Lifestyle Correspondent position that you’re offering to us and a way to reach you that does not require carrier pigeons and we’ll think about it.

Oh, and we reserve the right to close applications if we receive 5,000 or more.

Exactly two months ago we read a Twitter post about Murphy-Goode Winery’s call for applicants for a Really Goode Job as their Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent for six months this summer and fall and it was love at first sight.  An opportunity to combine our journalism and new media skills with our love of wine and the Cali wine country lifestyle AND earn some much needed money to fuel the remaining years and miles of our Trans-Americas Journey? We’re in.

So we shifted gears, quite literally pulling our little road trip over to the side of the road in Ajijic, Mexico where we sat out the swine flu and began conceptualizing, writing, shooting and editing our application video, complete with an original soundtrack. We worked hard, but made sure we also had fun tossing around ideas for the video over many, many glasses of wine with our friends.

During the video production process we also began taking our love of wine from the conceptual (we love it, we drink it, it’s part of our life, duh) to the concrete: why do we love it and how can we become the best vessels for most effectively communicating all the wonderful things about wine, winemakers and the wine lifestyle to as many people as possible?

We worked hard, got creative, stayed committed, met new people and learned new things and made sacrifices–the same approach we used to make our Trans-Americas Journey a reality. We’ve even returned to the U.S. from Mexico in preparation for the call (or email or Twitter) we hope is coming our way.

Every day for the past two months we get up in the morning and screen all the new application videos over coffee. Then we hit Twitter to spread the word about the funniest one of the day. Then it’s time to read through the best new posts on various web sites from contenders and non-contenders and post some mini-thesis of our own as the conversation about how best to use web 2.0 tools to market wine and boost brands rages on across the internet on neutral sites like Andy’s Goode Life.

Through it all we’ve honestly been too busy to be nervous. Until now. In less than four days, on Friday June 26,  the folks at Murphy-Goode Winery will narrow down the 1,000+ applications they’ve received to 50 finalists. In mid July those 50 will become just 10 and those final finalists will be brought to the winery for some in-person evaluation and other Sonoma shenanigans.

The other night, as we opened a couple of bottles of wine from a winery in New Mexico (the fume blanc was good but the chardonnay was somehow leaden and thin at the same time), it hit us how invested we are in getting this job. As the last of the sunset light turned the Franklin Mountains above El Paso a tender shade of pink, we started feeling applicant anxiety for the very first time. If we get this job we not only earn the right to an amazing continuation of the hard work, creativity, learning and commitment we’ve already invested in the application process, but the future of our Trans-Americas Journey will be assured. If we don’t get this job, well, we prefer to stay positive.

As Friday approaches we’ll be self-medicating by planning a brief return to the road to visit some area wineries (watch this space to hear all about what we discover in Texas and New Mexico wine country). With your help and a little luck we look forward to celebrating Friday’s announcement with a bottle of 2003 Murphy-Goode Wild Card Claret (possibly the last bottle to be found in west Texas) which we’ve been hoarding in our friends’ new wine refrigerator, which we’re still on the fence about.

Please, if you haven’t already watched and voted for our one minute application video, make like an Iranian and GO VOTE!

As you know, we’re roughly three years into the Trans-Americas Journey–our five year 200,000 mile working road trip through North, Central and South America. And it’s cool as hell. But last month we were tempted with an opportunity worth putting our little Journey on hold for.

The Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County, California is looking for a Wine Lifestyle Correspondent for six months (learn more about what the heck we’re talking about here). Essentially, they need someone (in our case, two someones since we’re applying together) to learn more about wine and meet other wine lovers and potential wine lovers then blog, vlog, write, photograph, film and social media the heck out of the experience in order to promote wine in general and the Murphy-Goode and Sonoma County brands in specific.

The biggest part of the application process, so far, is a 60 second video that we produced and submitted. Check it out and vote for us if you can. It’s funny, even according to non-relatives, and it’s  just a minute long, so there’s not much risk on your end.

WATCH AND VOTE FOR OUR REALLY GOODE VIDEO

Learn more about us and the making of our video

So for the past six weeks or so we’ve been doing what we normally do–blogging, making videos, twittering, reaching out to our fan base and friends and family online, maintaining a blog and building out our web site and drinking wine–but with the focus shifted to this new and exciting goal.

One of the happy new connections we’ve made during the Murphy-Goode Wine Lifestyle Correspondent application process is Andrea over Andy’s Goode Life who’s been gracious enough to publish a few guest posts from us about how to achieve Brand Believablity and Consumer Credibility, why V is for  Vaynerchuk, Not Vino and Bringing the Wine Home: Passion in the Passing Lane. She also recently threw down a bit of a wine challenge, asking for solutions to one of three specific wine-consumption conundrums. It’s the least we can do, so here’s our answer to her #1 question…

Q: When I drink red wine, I often get the dreaded “red wine teeth,” which is an embarrassing condition to have at a party when I intend on talking, smiling, or otherwise showing my newly wine-stained chompers. And is there any way to reduce this affliction without hampering my enjoyment of reds?

A: Rinse with white.