I was recently interviewed by WineSpiralProject.com, as part of their series on wine industry innovation, in which they interview personalities in the wine world and ask them to share thoughts on the wine biz and how it can/should innovate.

Yeah, I know, I’m not 100% certain why they picked me either, but what’s done is done so let’s just roll with it, okay?

You can check out the entire series of interviews at this link; I’ll give the the super-short, edited-down-to-the-bare-bones-Cliff-Notes version of my interview right here:

Wineries are amazing at production innovation; Wineries suck at engagement innovation.

It’s not in bottling lines or fermentation vessels that we need an innovation push in the wine biz; we need innovation in adjusting the attitude that most wine producers have towards consumers. What do I mean by “engagement innovation?” Short answer: using the single most innovative outreach platform ever developed in the history of the human race – the Internet – to directly engage the people who buy their shiz. This may sound like common sense to you, but a lot of the producers I encounter seem to need reminding that those consumers – and not critics – are the ones who matter the most…

Yes, critics have reach. They can and do expose wine brands to markets that otherwise might not know they’d exist. But if I were a small-production winery, I’d be worrying a hell of a lot more about how to reach, engage, and keep customers I had (as well as engaging new ones) than trying to get a crazy-good review with critics that have substantial followings in the hopes that those followings will buy up every last drop, allowing them to quintuple prices and retire in the outer Hebrides.

Because that scenario is about as likely as Bon Jovi opening for my band on a world tour. In other words, for most producers it’s a total waste of time. And I am saying this as, in part, a wine critic – because after people do you the honor of following your thoughts about wine, and publicly declare on social media platforms that they are going to buy or avoid a wine that you write about because of what you said – or didn’t say – about it, then for all intents and purposes you are now a wine critic (at least, to them!).

But engaging customers and turning them into potential life-long fans of your brand? That’s happening every few seconds every day on social media platforms. To quote, well, myself from the interview (emphasis provided as published by WineSpiralProject.com):

“Wineries have the ability, through social media, to reach younger wine consumers directly and be just as influential on their buying decisions as Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, or little ol’ me. That is an amazing opportunity and those that do it right are gonna beat the pants off of those who don’t in the marketplace eventually. It takes time, and a long-term view because the influence is done via one-on-one relationships – patience is going to pay off in that case!”

That’s why I think it qualifies as “innovation” (sorry the rationale is coming so late, for those who have been waiting for it): because it’s nearly the opposite approach as compared to what most wine producers are doing in (not) reaching out to their customers right now.

Honestly, I’ve got no idea what producers (especially smaller wine producers) are waiting for when it comes to outreach. Well, aside from fear of the unknown, I mean. In my view, they should stop wasting time complaining about social media and just start using that time on social media to connect with customers already.

That’s sure-as-sh*t what I’d be doing if I made wine right now.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Where Can Wineries Really Innovate? In Engaging The People Who Actually Drink The Stuff! from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

And by “wine geek,” I mean that you are atop the U.S. wine consumer pyramid (that’s if you’re living in the U.S., of course – those of you outside the U.S. are just gonna have to play along on this one). As in, the tippy, tippy, holy-crap-it’s-a-looooong-way-down-from-here, tippy-top of the pyramid.

And it doesn’t even matter if you consider yourself an avid oenophile or not – simply by virtue of treating wine with any semblance of importance in your life, you’ve firmly entrenched yourself in wine-geek-out territory, at least when compared with the general consumer-going public in America.

And don’t worry about it…. because it’s okay.

In fact, I’m going to explain why that’s not only okay, but that you ought to revel in the fact that you are in the upper echelon of the wine-buying U.S. public. In fact, I’m going to explain why it’s downright awesome.  After a bit of exposition, of course.  C’mon, you think I’m gonna let this thing go under 1300 words?  Are you nuts?

It all came to me after day one of the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference, during a steamy, 8-billion degree, 5000% humidity evening in downtown Charlottesville (I might have exaggerated that last bit), in which a bleary-eyed (due to travel-, conference-, weather-, and wine-induced-fatigue) yours truly took part in an off-premise “fireside chat” on the topic of Wine & Tech, which eventually turned about as heated as the sweltering northern Virginia night.

The event was organized by wine industry think-tank group Vintank and Crushd (the team behind a newly-released iPhone wine-journaling app). Thankfully (since most of us were already melting through our clothing) there was no actual fire was lit at the host venue (Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar), and to assist (as if we needed it) getting our tongues wagging and opinions flowing, there were several interesting Rioja wines being poured courtesy of Vibrant Rioja (I can now attest personally to the tastiness of a well-chilled 2010 Marques de Caceres dry white Rioja on a stiflingly sultry Virginia Summer evening, by the way)…

In this mini-event/side-show, I was a member of a panel that included Paul Mabray (Vintank’s Chief Strategic Officer), Anthony Schiller (Co-Founder of Crushd), Pia Mara Finkell (of CRT/Tanaka, who works PR on the PR side of Vibrant Rioja and was one of the members of the Millennials & Wine panel that I moderated at this year’s WBC). Our discussion was moderated by direct-shipping crusader and veteran wine blogger Tom Wark (of Fermentation & Wark Communications), to whom I owe a bleated thank-you for mentioning me recently in his wine media equation (though I personally think that my numeric equivalent in that lineup is probably a fraction… with a denominator that has a lot of zeros…).

Things got heated when we talked specifics about Crushd. It’s not that Crushd isn’t a nifty app – it is, and if I owned an iPhone I would have already downloaded the thing and used it during the “speed-dating” wine tasting format to which we are subjected during the Wine Bloggers Conferences.  The secret sauce of Crushd is that it has a sophisticated way of quickly and accurately determining where you can find and purchase any given wine that you find in its system as users journal and recommend what they’ve recently tasted.  I’ve little doubt that functionality will find avid users in the already-crowded wine mobile app space. Mobile wine apps like that are incredibly useful to us geeks… but transformative for non-geeks?  Probably not; in fact, mobile apps seem most transformative for those making wine (and growing grapes) rather than for those consuming it.

What got the intellectual-debate-temperature rising was how Anthony (who I should note is a very intelligent guy who has helped put together a very well-designed app) pitched Crushd, namely as a means of elevating the average consumer from not-even-very-casual wine drinker to budding oenophile.  Pretty much no one agreed with that, including me, because (in my logic, at least), that task isn’t even possible.

Paul Mabray underscored this with a few stats which in summary boiled down to this: there are generally three categories of wine consumers, the Uber Oenophile, the Aspiring Oenophile, and the Causal Wine Drinker, generally increasing in number from 250K to 62 million as you head down the pyramid (see inset pic – click to embiggen!).

Most U.S. consumers (obviously) fall into the Casual Wine Drinker category – and they don’t give a sh*t about wine, and many of them never will. No app is going to change that. In fact, nothing is going to change that.

Why not? Because wine geekism isn’t for everybody, just like needlepoint geekism isn’t for everybody. This is not to say that wine or needlepoint cannot be enjoyed by just about anyone (though I’d caution trying to enjoy them at the same time, I suppose – no drunk needlepointing, people!) – they most certainly can. It’s just to say that some people will never care about wine appreciation passionately, just as some will not geek out over needlepoint.  In the pyramid of wine consumers, a tiny group of hardcore geeks sits at the top, a slightly larger core of people who care enough to possibly take a photo or a wine, and/or journal it somehow (usually in relation to a shared experience in which the wine was enjoyed) sit in the middle, and then there’s everybody else – and that everybody else is a huge number of people, but not necessarily a big potential market.

You’re outnumbered at the bottom of the pyramid by about 250 to 1, hombre!

Personally, I don’t really care about actively trying to convert people who don’t yet give a toss about wine. I’d rather help grease the skids for those entering the tippy-top of the pyramid, the potential wine geeks, to help speed up their journey of appreciation and get them moving towards their own personal moments of wine enjoyment enlightenment.  I think apps like Crushd can help in the same way, but they cannot create a market that just isn’t there.  And while that means a smaller market of like-minded geeks, it’s okay because we’re a prolific bunch. We’re the kind of people who blog, stick hundreds of tasting notes into CellarTracker, and hold tasting parties.

The way I see it, chances are very high that the people who don’t care about wine now will never care about it that deeply – some might, and will, but most probably won’t.  Trying to swim against that tide by “converting” non-wine-lovers into wine geeks is a waste of my time – and, more importantly, a waste of theirs.  When and if they decide they are into wine, I’m hoping they will come to me and I can add some value to their lives. Until then, I remain happily trying to add value to the lives of the already hopelessly-converted wine geeks drinking the “oh-my-GAWD-is-that-a-Pinot-Noir-icewine-I-have-to-try-that!” kool-aid.  Awwwww yeeeeeaahhh!!!!

Here’s why – If you’re already a geek at the top of the pyramid, then ascending even higher doesn’t seem so bad, so far, or quite as difficult than it might appear from the very bottom of that climb, now does it?

You’re already most of the way there, my friend – why not just keep going?  Momentum is on your side, and the homework of delving deeper into the wine tasting and learning “geek forest” sure is fun, and amazing, after all!

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Most People Will Never Get Into Wine – And Why That’s OK (The Launch of Crushd, And Analyzing The Wine Geek Pyramid at WBC11) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

There’s both industry and consumer portions, and if you hurry your ass up you might still be able to get in on the action! If you need extra incentive (besides the lure of a lot of wine and food, I mean), some of the proceeds from sales of the consumer event tickets will be donated to the Surfrider Foundation, dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s coastlines and beaches, and purchasing a ticket automatically enters you for a chance to win an iPad (I could use one of those myself, come to think of it…).

Here’s the skinny:

This year’s WoC event theme is “A World of Taste,” and in addition to pouring 300 wines from 60 wineries at winery stands, there are four specially themed rooms where you’ll have the opportunity to taste those Chilean wines with different types of foods.  There will also be two seminars for the industry side of things (one of which is the panel on which I’ll be sitting, along with Jody Rones from Thrillist.com, Lindsey Johnson from Lush Life and Gregory Dal Piaz of Snooth.com, being held 1:30-2PM on the topic of Wine Marketing in the Digital Age).

If you’re going and you’re of the tweeting persuasion, the hashtag will be #tastechile. Event details are below after the jump - hope to see you there!

What: Wines of Chile’s 2011 Grand Tasting in New York
When: June 14, 2011
Trade & Media Tasting:  2:00 – 6:00 pm
Consumer Tasting:  6:30 – 9:00 pm
Where: Metropolitan Pavillion:  123 W. 18th Street (between 6th & 7th avenues)

Wine & food pairings:

• The Carmenere & Curry Room
• The Sauvignon Blanc & Ceviche Room
• The Cabernet & Carne Room
• The Green Room (Organic and Sustainable Chile)

Professional seminars:

• Wine Marketing in the Digital World – How to leverage social media to drive your business Hosted by a panel of experts including Snooth.com. 1:30 – 2:00 PM
• Chile’s Best Kept Secrets Experience a tour of Chile’s “undiscovered” regions and wines Led by Fred Dexheimer, MS.  3:00 – 3:45 PM

Tickets & such:

• Trade Reservations – www.winesofchileny.org
• Consumer tasting tix – http://winesofchilenyevent.eventbrite.com/

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Get Your Chile On (Wines Of Chile Grand Tasting Event Next Week In NYC) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

It’s that time of year again – the time when I miss the annual NY Wine Expo because I’ll be in Napa.  Doh!

But just because I won’t be there doesn’t mean that you can’t get in on the fun via 1WineDude.com – and you can get a $10 discount on the price of the Grand Tastings on Friday and Saturday, just by being a 1WineDude.com reader!

The 4th Annual New York Wine Expo is scheduled for February 25-27, 2011 at the  Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in NYC, and will offer the opportunity to seriously up your wine tasting IQ by sampling over 600 wines from over 150 winemakers from around the globe in the Grand Tastings.

To score your discount, enter the Discount Code WINEDUDE when you order your tix online.

In the past, the Grand Tasting has received mixed reviews from 1WineDude.com readers – some find the big crowds off-putting, others are more inclined to brave the large turnout for the chance at networking and getting to taste the large array of wines from all over the world.

Personally, I’m somewhere in the middle – I love a good crowd, meaning a crowd that’s passionate and energized with a feel-good vibe going (and of course I dig the chance to taste a nice variety of fine wines), but if too many folks get plastered because they’re not spitting then things can get ugly.  And if that happens, those big events can sometimes turn into big bug-outs.

Where do you stand on big wine tasting events?  Good?  Bad?  Indifferent?

If you’re going, check out my mini survival guide for getting through these big tasting events alive.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Attend the 2011 New York Wine Expo With a 1WineDude Reader Discount! from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Asia, as most of you are already aware, is THE NEXT BIG THING in wine consumption.  China, of course, is the current big thing in Asia, which means that the Chinese market is THE NEXT BIG THING in wine consumption.  So big, it must be stated IN ALL CAPS!

This is not news – it’s all over the place in print and on-line.  Most of the talk of the Chinese market in the wine community is cloudy, amorphous, and short on understanding of the real scope of the potential dollars involved.  And the real scope is real, real BIG.

Here’s a recent quote from Wines-Info.com on Chinese wine consumption trends, to give you some perspective on what a bold, capitalized and italicized BIG represents:

“The current situation in China is that domestic wine production doesn’t meet its market’s need, which has resulted in surge growth of imported wine. Statistics show that imported bottled wine to China has increased 2368% since 2002 to 2009. With bigger number of Chinese enterprises joining to wine importing business, more foreign vintners and wineries from France, Italy, Spain, Australia, U.S., Chile, Argentina, etc. also step into Chinese market, sharing the hope of wine bonanza in China.”

No, that’s not a typo. That’s an increase of over two thousand percent of wine coming in from other countries to fill the demand created by the emergence of a bona-fide middle class in the Chinese economy. In less than ten years. YOWZA.

My bruthah-from-anothah-muthah Jeff Lefevere over at the award-winning GoodGrape.com, recently highlighted some of the Chinese wine market numbers – and they’re similarly downright shocking:

“It’s anybody’s guess how China will impact the domestic wine business, but we know that the existing auction market and Bordeaux futures are largely being driven by the Chinese. According to reports, US wine exports to Hong Kong totaled $49 million in 2009-2010.  And, it’s been said that the U.S. wants to be the number one exporter of wine to Hong Kong and mainland China.”

That’s a fair chunk of change – and an impressive commitment by the U.S.  And one in which I think they should be deeply cautious, because our businesses are so busy looking at the dollar signs that they aren’t seeing the imprisonments, tortures, and executions that made those dollar signs so big…

In my view, China’s is not an open market economy within a Communist government, contrary to what you might be told in the news; it’s a totalitarian regime that is trying to integrate aspects of a free-market economy.

It’s a much larger difference than you might think.  If you believe that using the totalitarian tag is a bit harsh, then you ought to check out the more recent human rights reports on China from Amnesty International.

“An estimated 500,000 people were subjected to punitive detention without charge or trial through “re-education through labour” and other forms of administrative detention. Progress on legislation to reform “re-education through labour” remained stalled in the National People’s Congress. Police extended the use of “re-education through labour” and another form of administrative detention, “enforced drug rehabilitation”, to “clean up” Beijing in the run-up to the Olympics. For an estimated 11-13 million people, the only practical channel for justice remained outside the courts in a system of petitioning to local and higher level authorities, where the vast majority of cases remained unresolved.”

The picture on the Chinese human rights front remains far less rosy than its wine consumption outlook.  Now, my position is a bit biased and I’ve been known to say things like “a copy of the U.S. Constitution – italicized, bolded and in ALL CAPS – ought to be stuffed into every case of U.S. wine bound for China.”  So here are some more interesting – and telling – tidbits from the AI report to help prove I’m not totally insane for my views:

• “Human rights defenders and their relatives, including children, were increasingly subject to harassment, including surveillance, house arrest and beatings by both government officials and unidentified assailants. Lawyers were particularly targeted, and an increasing number had their licence renewal application rejected.”
• “Millions of people were impeded from freely practising their religion. Thousands remained in detention or serving prison sentences, at high risk of torture, for practising their religion outside of state-sanctioned channels. Falun Gong practitioners, Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and underground Christian groups were among those most harshly persecuted.”
• “Cases of domestic violence increased 120 per cent in the first three months of the year — a rise attributed to a greater willingness to report such abuses to the police…”

Still want to give China our wine business?  Let’s take a look at another example that hits closer to home for those of us who fancy ourselves writers – the case of Chinese journalist Hairat Niyaz, from a late July 2010 AI report:

“Hairat Niyaz, a journalist from China’s ethnic Uighur community, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on 23 July 2010. He continues to be held incommunicado and has been denied access to legal counsel of his choice.   Hairat Niyaz  was arrested at his home on 1 October 2009. At the time, the police told his family that he was detained because he had “given too many interviews”…Hairat Niyaz was last known to be held in Tianshan detention center in Urumqi, although his current whereabouts are unconfirmed.”

Arrested for giving too many interviews.  By that account, I’d already have been put away for life.

I know that the economic and human rights situation for both the U.S. and China is far more complex than it appears in AI reports, and that our respective economies are ridiculously interconnected (and that you’d have an easier time with alchemy than you would trying to find a piece of U.S. consumer electronics that wasn’t made in China).  And I fully realize that the first major focus of the wine push is likely to be Hong Kong, which is nowhere near as poor on their human rights record as mainland China (yet).  And that the Chinese human rights record is not the fault of the average Chinese consumer.

But…

Ask yourself this: will the situation change if we don’t help to give the growing Chinese middle class enough reason to demand it to change?  Like, say, giving China less business, and less wine to fill those thirsty gullets?  If you think a wine boycott wouldn’t impact things, I’d argue that you might be thinking too narrowly given the potential product volumes we’re talking about.

At the very least, maybe some Bill of Rights back-labels are in order on a few of those bottles being sent to quench the Chinese wine thirst?

Cheers!

(images: sanooaung.wordpress.com, dailyskew.com)

Copyright © 2011. Originally at China: The Next Big Thing In Wine and Continued Totalitarian Oppression from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!