1 Wine Dude » Wines of Chile

Social Media As Wine Retail Sales Weapon? (“Wine Marketing In The Digital Age” Post-Panel Musings)

1WineDude — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Can social media be used as tool to drive sales for wine retailers, distributors, and importers?

Yes, I’m seriously asking that question. Stop laughing, okay?

Despite the fact that even well-attended and publicized retail events don’t seem to be moving umpteen cases of wine, the consensus answer seems to be “Yes – with caveats,” based on a panel discussion I took part in recently in New York.

The title of the thirty-minute sessions was Wine Marketing in the Digital Age – I shared the table with with Jody Rones from Thrillist.com (a daily email marketing blast with a ridiculous number of subscribers), Lindsey Johnson from wine PR mavens Lush Life Productions, and Gregory Dal Piaz of Snooth.com (Editor in Chief for the one of the largest wine websites in the world – he chaired the session). The panel was part of a sponsored event by Wines of Chile, who concurrently put on a pretty kick-ass grand tasting of something like 300 Chilean wines, of which I had time to taste about twelve before having to hoof it to Penn Station to catch a train back to the ol’ dancin’ waters of Philly.

Thirty minutes isn’t a lot of time to cover such a potentially diverse and broad topic, but it won’t surprise 1WD readers that I said “screw it, I’ll try it anyway!”…

A major theme that came out of the discussion (attended mostly be those ITB – in wine sales, distribution & importing) was that treating on-line engagement (via social media) as somehow different or alien to off-line engagement is, of course, the wrong way to go. As in, one-way-towards-the-collapsed-bridge-with-no-breaks wrong, or horror move oh-god-don’t-go-in-the-basement-the-evil-homicidal-maniac-IS-DOWN-THERE-WAITING-FOR-YOU-I-can’t-look-tell-me-when-it’s-over! wrong.

Thinking out loud about this here… I continually find myself surprised by the fact that people are surprised by that fact.

Which isn’t to say that I’m somehow smarter than anyone else, it’s just to say that I don’t understand why engagement with people – which really is the whole point of being on social media tools like facebook or twitter – should be any different on-line than off. We’re still talking about people on the other end – it’s just that instead of being on the other end of a handshake or telephone call, their on the other end of a tweet, facebook wall post, or email message. In fact, most of us who are old farts… ahem… more matured than the majority of the Millennial generation have already gotten used to this kind of human-interaction-at-a-distance as done through email. It’s not like once someone is on twitter they suddenly are monkey alien beings from another galaxy or something. That more-or-less sums up the gist of what I tell people when I’m asked how I built up a following for the blog around the topic of wine – I didn’t really build up a following, people passionate about wine built up a fun community and 1WD happens to be one of the convergence points.

Get out of the way, facilitate, don’t force it – and let it happen naturally as a result of engaging those passionate peeps.

The caveats, of course, are that work has to be done one-one-one, and the payoffs are longer-term (loyalty and high-quality interactions via an organic, slow growth of a group that might not be extremely large, but wants to engage with you). And, if you want to stand out among the crowd, you need to get as geeky as possible on the things that really differentiate you, because the on-line world is not kind to generalists. If you specialize in Hungarian table wines, then you need to be the most kick-ass, geekiest Hungarian wine-lovin’ fool out there to stand out and provide value to the people most interested in what you have to offer.

I’m no Nostradamus either for bringing up these ideas, by the way. Tons of social media and marketing gurus have said this for a few years already. But people always seemed surprised to hear them.

And, I’m find more an more often, relieved.

A example: After the panel, I was approached by a attendee who makes his living in the wine sales world, and over a glass of very decent Chilean wine from the grand tasting, he told fellow panelist Jody Rones and I that our discussion helped him to realize something. What he said he realized was that the on-line world is just a vehicle for reaching real, off-line people – some of the specific rules of engagement are different on those platforms, which might be why people make the mistake of, at first, treating them as somehow fundamentally different than off-line engagement; but it’s just good old-fashioned one-on-one engagement at the end of the day. And he was already pretty good at doing that.

“I can do that!” he told us, clearly invigorated (or maybe buzzed… or both!). Here’s a guy who’s been successful doing that over luncheons, meetings, telephone calls, and email – of course he could adapt those successful tactics to engaging people directly on twitter or facebook, given enough time.

I told him that, to me, he’d hit on the key point, the real takeaway gem of the discussion. The brief exchange made me happy – it gave me hope and some reassurance that I was earning the paycheck I’d receive for sitting in on the day’s panel.

He then told us about someone he works with for whom various favors were done, such as providing her person’s company booth space at wine industry events, gratis. She never offered any favors to his company in return, and never said “thank you,” which (rightfully) pissed this guy off. “We’ll never work with her again,” he said, “neither will anybody that we work with, either.”

“Imagine how fast that negative word would get out about her company on twitter and facebook,” I added – same issue, same violated human expectations of shared benefits and mutuality, just a different (albeit faster) platform for getting the word out (even if the word is negative). Nobody likes to work with ungrateful people – and if you’re ungrateful, you no longer have the benefit of lag time before people call you out on it; the word is gonna get out about you really, really fast on-line.

When we parted, I just thanked him for his comments and said goodbye – I didn’t need to wish this guy good luck. I figured, if there’s only so much luck to go around, then I’d better reserve for the people who aren’t (and maybe never were) even close to this guy in terms of “getting” the concept of engagement.

Cheers!

(images: facebook.com/winesofchile)

Get Your Chile On (Wines Of Chile Grand Tasting Event Next Week In NYC)

1WineDude — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:00:00 +0000

As if you weren’t sick enough already of my South American wine coverage (and believe me, people it’s not over yet!), in an oddly synchronous but otherwise completely unrelated turn of events, I’ll be a panelist next week at Wines Of Chile’s 2011 Grand Tasting event at the Metropolitan Pavilion in NYC.

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!

Chile and Peppers (or “Wine Shopping in the Veggie Aisle”)

1WineDude — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Am I crazy for thinking Chilean wines still have way too much pyrazine/green pepper action?

Well… am I???

That’s a question that’s been on my mind lately, especially after taking part in the Wines of Chile red blends on-line tasting recently and finding myself in the minority of participants who found the levels of nettle / green pepper aromas in the reds almost… distracting. The Syrah-based wines showed the most promise (and to me the lower amounts of pyrazine action). In my experience, those green-ish aromas are ok in very, very small quantities, adding hints of interesting smells to the dark fruits and giving reds the occasional bump from “very good” to “astoundingly complex” territory.

Notice I am saying “very very small quantities” and I mean just that – the pyrazines that contribute to those aromas are potent and a little goes a loooooong way, baby.

To be honest, I’m beginning to think that Chile may never really get it totally together on this; it might just be part of their climate, their terroir, their vinous destiny.

Which means that Argentina might be poised to clean Chile’s clock in the South American fine red wine market.

Not all Chilean reds are overly green, and I’m not the only one who thinks that Syrah might be the variety with the brightest (and least green) future in Chile: Michael Cox from Wines of Chile said the same thing during his talk at the recent European Wine Bloggers Conference in Vienna.

BUT… After tasting more and more examples of excellent, complex, and reasonably-priced higher-end red blends from Argentina, I’m growing increasingly more convinced that Argentina’s future is looking rosey… er, make that dark red… and that the one who might suffer most from that success is Chile, at least in the U.S. because consumers here probably don’t prefer the wet blanket of green bell pepper aromas laying all over the dense black fruit of their supple reds.

This all really hit home for me when I caught up with Argentine producer Doña Paula’s Edgardo Del Pópolo, their head Viticulturalist and Operations Manager, for dinner in downtown Philly to taste through their recent releases and generally talk shop. Edgardo didn’t think I was crazy for being turned off by the pyrazines in Chilean reds, but he was a bit more diplomatic about the differences and saw them mostly as complimentary. He did, however, offer this tidbit:

“In South America, we have a saying: shopping for wine here is like shopping at the grocery; in Argentina you get your fruit, and in Chile you get your vegetables…”

Never mind that Doña Paula’s Torrontes is a killer entrant into invigorated the S. American white wine market (it’s got a killer nose of passion and star fruits); their Seleccion de Bodega Malbec is not only proof that Argentina has nailed the dark-fruit-profile red thang, it’s also a great example of how complex (think hints of graphite) and age-worthy Malbec can be in the right hands.

And the pepper? Black, white, but definitely not green. Sign me up, baby.

So… I ask YOU… am I crazy? Shout it out in the comments.

To get you started, here are some of the responses (the serious and not-so-serious!) to that same question when I posed it on twitter and facebook last week…

	ryanlkeith @1WineDude no not crazy at all. Totally disappointed in Don Melchor one time because tasted like a peppery green bell pepper
	SwirlGirls Not lovin gp RT @1WineDude: Am I crazy for thinking Chilean wines still have way too much pyrazine/green pepper action? http://ping.fm/kKAO5
	acfoodandwine @1WineDude You’re not that crazy. Varying levels of vegetation seem to come up, but sometimes hidden by smoky notes, too.
	EatingInSJersey @1WineDude No, it’s your worshiping of the Steelers that makes you crazy. ;)
	SorStrappo @1WineDude no. they tend to suck.
	cliffordbrown3 Agree! RT @1winedude: Am I crazy for thinking Chilean wines still have way too much pyrazine/green pepper action? http://ping.fm/kKAO5
	CraigDrollett @1WineDude nope, you’re right on the money.
	Steve Liberace I think you’re way out of line Mr. However, I chew gum when I drink my Mad Dog 20/20.
	Mary Maynard Okay, this suddenly explains why my husband loves Chilean wines

Cheers!

Wine Gives Back: Relief for Haiti and Chilean Wine Workers

1WineDude — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

A few tidbits to end the week on some hopeful notes:

Palate Press Kicks Ass for Haiti Relief

Mad props are due to on-line wine e-zine Palate Press for their efforts (mostly spearheaded by yeoman David Honig, its Publisher) to raise money for the Red Cross’ Haiti Relief & Development activities.

David organized a stellar wine auction catalog that leveraged the generosity of dozens of wine producers and wine industry stalwarts. The result was well over $10,000 raised in donations to the Red Cross for the people of Haiti. David’s work was nothing short of amazing and he’s really shown what the wine blogging world is capable of when it’s determined and focused.

THANK YOU DAVID!

In a similar vein, the wine world is also reaching out to help Chile take care of its own after the recent earthquake there impacted not just wine production, but also affected the lives of many of Chile’s winery workers and their families…

Helping Chilean Wine Workers

As most of you will already be aware, Chile is now in recovery mode from a major natural disaster, and this has hit the wine industry directly. To help in the disaster relief, Wines of Chile has recently joined forces with NESsT to promote Levantando Chile, a fund that will benefit Chilean winery workers and their families who have been affected by the recent earthquake. From the press release:

“’We were initially relieved that our co-workers and friends in Chile were not harmed, but there is a huge need for relief aid with many towns and villages completely wiped out,’ notes Lori Tieszen, Executive Director for Wines of Chile USA.

People wishing to help are encouraged to donate to NESsT’s "Levantando Chile: Wines of Chile Fund," established to specifically go in support of winery workers and their families, which was set up in the aftermath of Chile’s devastating earthquake. WoC and NESsT will channel funds to on-the-ground Chilean organizations working in the affected communities. The focus will be placed on providing support to vineyard and winery workers to rebuild their lives, homes and livelihoods.”

Donations to Levantando Chile can be made on-line.

Get Yourself A Trip To Chile

Finally, on a (tangentially) related topic, the excellently wine-geeky magazine Sommelier Journal and Wines of Chile will be running a contest this year in which one person can win a spot on the Wines of Chile Sommelier Immersion trip in the spring of 2011 (bear in mind that buying and promoting Chilean wine is actually one of the things that Wines of Chile and the Chilean government have cited as a means to help Chile recover from the damage done to the country’s wine industry by the recent earthquake – which isn’t to say that you should promote any old plonk just because it’s from Chile, but is to say that my inclusion of the contest here seemed to make sense to me). Here’s the press release skinny on the contest:

“The contest will take place on the forums at www.sommelierjournal.com. Beginning April 1 and ending Dec. 31, anyone who creates an account can join the contest simply by participating in the forums. This can take any form within the forum rules: tasting notes, views of news events, great deals on wine, philosophical wine discussions—anything that helps advance the knowledge and experience of the other forum members. Participants do not have to subscribe to Sommelier Journal to create an account and post in the forum. At the end of the contest, the community members themselves will be given two weeks to nominate the best participants over this time period. A committee will then determine the final nominees, and the community will vote. The winner will receive a coveted spot on Wines of Chile USA’s Sommelier Immersion program in the spring of 2011.”

Cheers!

Finding the Lost Grape of Bordeaux (Tasting With Chile’s Top Carmenere Winemakers)

1WineDude — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:18:00 +0000

Last week, I attended an on-line video conference / wine tasting that involved a handful of wine bloggers from around the U.S., as well as eight of Chile’s most talented young winemakers (congregated in Santiago), moderated by Wines of Chile in N.Y. While I’m used to this kind of cross-time-zone, cross-cultural meeting (as well as utilizing video and conference call across the same) from working in IT, I had no idea how this would transpire in the context of wine.

And I’ve never tasted eight samples of Chilean Carmenere wines on an IT conference call.

So… how did it go?

I’m happy to report that I found the event to be great fun and quite well executed. The technology worked well and I only found minor cavils – like wanting the in-conference chat to work like twitter, preferably integrated with twitter – which I think speaks to the professionalism and quality of the event overall if those are my only complaints.

Last week, I’d written that this event could prove to be a seminal moment in my wine-lovin’ days, as it focused almost exclusively on Carmenere, a grape with which I’ve had a troubled history. In summary, I’ve been critical of Chile’s ability to deliver on the potential of the grape as (in my experience) they’d yet to get pyrazine (which imparts ‘green’ aromas of bell pepper and pine) truly under control and balanced with the dark fruit flavors of the grape.

I was placing (perhaps unjustifiably) a lot of pressure on this event, as I was expecting (perhaps justifiably) that Wines of Chile would ‘go big’ and bring some heavy hitters to the party – i.e., really show what Chile was capable of when it comes to Carmenere.

So… how were the wines?

In summary: a mixed bag…

Taking part in the event were the following winemakers – this was a (predominantly young and) lively group, who were happy to discuss their wines, and were able to shift gears easily from jovial puns to waxing philosophically about the virtues of Carmenere:

The wines (representing primarily the Colchagua Valley, with Maipo, Central and Rapel valleys also in the mix):

2008 Santa Carolina Reserva Carmenere
2007 Odjfell Armador Carmenere
2007 Via Manent Carmenere Reserva
2007 Cono Sur Vision Carmenere (85% Carmenere / 9%^ Cab Sauv / 6% Syrah)
2008 Vina La Rosa ‘La Capitana’ Carmenere
2007 Ventisquero Grey Carmenere
2007 Terra Andina Altos Carmenere / Carignan (60/40)
2005 Carmen Wine Maker’s Reserve Red (50% Cab Sauv / 20% Carmenere / 20% Petit Syrah / 10% Merlot)

The standouts for me:

The Carmen was easily the best wine of the event, and provided everything you’d expect from a wine in $44 price range. Plum, fig, sweet spices – sexy, refined, elegant (and expensive). If this is any indication, both Vina Carmen and the Maipo Valley are key to watch for the future of Chilean Carmenere.
Vina La Rosa’s La Capitana – cocoa powder, plum, a little boozy but… wow. It had the faintest hint of green pepper, which made the wine more complex rather than competing with the fruit for the most nose-filling power from the glass. At $18, it’s a crazy good value.
Honorable Mention goes to the Santa Carolina Reserva, which certainly had bell pepper going on but in a balanced way; a touch woody but the spiciness more than made up for that. For $10, the QPR is just off the charts.

As for the rest, there were definitely some interesting wines (the Cono Sur was intriguing, going from barnyard aromas to green garden veggies to dark berry fruit), and others that, while they didn’t exactly put the “eewwww” in “New World,” didn’t exactly float my boat, either.

My verdict: Carmenere is capable of making very good wine, and blended can help make excellent fine wine, but there is still a lot of work to be done to get pyrazines in check if Chile wants to be seen as the world leader in providing the most balanced Carmenere wines possible.

Cheers!