I’ve been MIA for some time, and I feel bad about it. Sure, it’s an occupational hazard of bloggers who have a life, but still, the guilt is there, nagging and wagging its finger at me.

While the dog didn’t eat my computer, I did suffer a concussion. If you’ve never had one—a bad one—it’s the pits. Imagine the worst flu symptoms possible, like when you can’t hold a thought and feel discombobulated, nauseous, and so profoundly lethargic that even a three-minute phone conversation sends you back to the couch, exhausted and depleted. Then imagine feeling this way and then getting hit by a stun gun. It’s like that.

So January was my bad month. Then came February, a good, productive month. That’s when I went to the Symposium of Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood in Napa. I won a fellowship to attend—a nice feather in my cap. I got to mingle with the likes of New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov, blogger extraordinaire Alder Yarrow, Decanter editor Guy Woodward, National Geographic photographer Janis Miglavs, and about 70 other wine writers. I got inspired, praised, and hugely motivated. It was just the thing to restart my engines.

And out of that, I got a new gig. Soon I’ll be writing twice a month for UNCORKED, a wine magazine designed for iPads and iPhones and also accessible via the plain ol’ web. (Try an issue free.) It’s part of NOMAD EDITIONS, a fold of digital magazines started by a former president of Newsweek, Mark Edminston. Though edited by a Sonoma vintner (Segue Cellar’s Stephen Yafa), Uncorked isn’t for wine nerds or industry insiders; it’s a consumer magazine aimed at “the rest of us.” Should be an interesting ride. I’ll be writing about Italian wine in their “International Fermentations” column and will be posting links and article off-shoots here. So stay tuned!