Last year, I wrote in my French blog about winefair.com, this French initiative: a virtual and 3-D wine fair. I was impressed by the technology and the design of the site. This year, the second edition of winefair.com opens up to international markets.

During the last few weeks, I was in contact with many American winemakers and opinion leaders. The concept is not easy to grasp because it is rather innovative and creative: the site is mostly a business platform allowing winemakers and professionals to get acquainted, meet, talk and keep in touch after the show. In order to enjoy all the functionalities of the site, you must register as a visitor: you’ll then access the list of exhibitors, be able to see when they will be available on their booth (a green dot next to their name) and even make appointments with them on the agenda.

Wine enthusiasts are also encouraged to register as they’ll access a description of the winery, presentation of the wines available and also be able to chat with the producers.

Who are the producers ? A lot of them are French, some are American (Randal Grahm from Bonny Doon, Craig Camp from Cornerstone Cellars, Jeff “El Jefe” Stai from Twisted Oak Winery), Australian (Mark Gifford from Blue Poles in the Margaret River area), Portuguese or Spanish.  Consumers and professionals can take advantage of the agenda of each producer to come and meet them. It is a rare oppportunity as most of those international producers do not sell their wines in Europe.

As all fairs, conferences in French and in English will take place during the 5 days of the show: they are live video conferences. I listened to a couple of French conferences live today and was impressed by the level and interest of the content.

The first conference (image above) was with the CEO of the Spanish Qude Bodega about organic wines and wine tourism. This afternoon, the discussion was on the site wine-sign.com, linking communications and wine. It is a lot of fun to chat on line with the speakers using their tchat tool or Twitter.

There were some technical glitches yesterday during the opening. The site was even cut off for a few hours – thanks to a lot more connections than expected on Monday at 9:00 am!  But things seem to be fixed by now and hopefully the site will run smoothly from now on.  The wine fair might open an extra day next week to answer all the requests of people and give more time to the exhibitors to meet with the crowd.

Take the time to stop by the fair and enjoy the English-speaking program we designed specifically for you!

[Note: I work with winefair.com because I believe in the project, my first criteria to accept a new mission.]

A few years ago, when I mentioned Crushpad to my European friends, most of them told me that such a concept could not work in Europe. But it did! Let’s go back a little in time.  Crushpad is an urban winery allowing wine lovers to select a plot of land, a grape and be part of the process of making wines. Some of Crushpad users even created professional wine brands. Who are their customers ? People from the US, Japan and several countries happy to create a wine in the famed Napa Valley.

In 2008, when Wine Brands came out, a young French American man, Stephen Bolger, contacted me and told me there would be a Crushpad in France. He chose Bordeaux -  great location as Bordeaux wines are respected and know worldwide. As I understood, finding plots, good grapes, a winemaking facility and the help of a winemaker were not an easy task for Stephen. But he did it. Crushpad Bordeaux is now running and the 2010 harvest will bring several clients from abroad to take part in the process and start creating their wines. At the same time, Crushpad bottled their first bottles of Bordeaux, what they call their “First Crus”. Happy customers from the US, Japan, India or Australia will soon be the proud owners of their own Bordeaux brands.

Such a success story is comforting. It means that an original idea combined with an entrepreneurial mind  can lead to a successful company even in frugal time.

Adegga.com is a Portuguese start up specialized in the wine business. I met Andre Ribeirinho and his team during the 2009 EWBC in Lisbon. At that time, I was very impressed by the AVIN tag they created and even mentioned it in my French book on Web marketing for the wine industry.

During the Spring 2010, adegga.com drastically improved the look of the site, giving the web user a much more pleasant experience when visiting the site. Then I saw a few new features implemented and I had the feeling that adegga.com and AVIN went their separate ways. Andre confirmed the “suspicion”: “The AVIN is now an independent project. Recently we’ve split Adegga and the AVIN project in 2 in order for each project to focus on what they do best. This way, we’re opening a lot of new possibilities for the unique code. We’re also starting to invite some people to the project as ambassadors who will not only help promote the project but also have an active voice on where it should be heading.”

Adegga.com is now launching three new features:

- the “Producer Verified Accounts and Videos”
- A mobile application
- The “Adegga Selection”.

What are the Producer Verified Accounts and Videos? “We want more wineries to use Adegga to promote their wines online using our Verified Winery accounts”, said Andre. These accounts allow wineries to add videos, photos, news and winemaker notes to all wines on their wine list. In the specific case of videos we want wine lovers to better connect with the people making the wine. Seeing a video of a wine producer will certainly add a human touch to the online conversation. ” As far as I’m concerned, Andre is preaching to the choir! I’m all for a human touch and helping the consumer get a nice experience on line. Example: Cortes de Cima winery is a premium member.

The mobile version of the site exists but adegga is working on an iPhone app.

Last but not least, adegga’s team launched this summer a new online wine promotion program called Adegga Selection. What is the goal? According to Andre, “We want to help wineries sell their samples instead of giving them away.” That’s a piece of good news but how can you reach such a goal? “A wine producer, said Andre, approaches us wanting to promote the launch of a new wine. As a community we’ll be talking about the wine and deciding if it’s interesting to promote. Some of the top Adegga members will even get a few samples. If the wine is “selected” then it will go on sale on the site for 15 days on a limited quantity and a special price. We’ll have some interesting ways to get people who bought the wine to return to Adegga and talk about it, raising the profile of the wine.”

For now, the program runs as a pilot in Portugal but will be extended to the US and the UK very soon. For this month the Adegga Selection is Mark Stephen Schultz Touriga Nacional Reserva 2005. Great choice!

I’ll have the pleasure of seeing Andre and his team during the 2010 EWBC conference in Vienna. I am absolutely amazed by how fast adegga.com became a sophisticated, user-friendly and nice site for wine lovers. I just wished we had more of ambitious and entrepreneurial spirits like Andre Ribeirinho and adegga.com in Europe to help wineries to compete internationally.

Nothing new or exciting about it? Wrong! This new app is really innovative and for once it comes from France. It feels good to be able to write about an innovative feature launched by a French company, believe it or not!

Millesima is a Bordeaux “negociant” house founded in 1983 by Patrick Bernard. It is a family owned and run business.  Millesima launched its online store in 1997 and the online sales now account for 40% of the gross turnover. It is present in 11 countries, including the US since 2006 and just opened a branch in Shanghaï.  Their wines come directly from the producers and are stocked in their huge cellars in the heart of Bordeaux.

Since Gerard Spatafora joined the company as Internet Marketing Director 3 years ago, an innovative web marketing strategy was implemented: development of the Internet sales from 5% to 40% of the turnover, rich media with a series of videos to present the properties and their owners or managers run by Frederic Lot, an intense presence on Facebook mostly in French unfortunately, a Twitter account and now an iPhone application for their online store.

Gerard Spatafora and his team strongly believe in the future of the smartphones (IPhone, BlackBerry, Samsung ) as well as  in the future of the mobile Internet.  The keyword for Millesima is: personalization of the relationship. That’s why the app was preferred to a mobile site.  The customer just downloads the application to the smartphone and is master of the game.

On a technical point of view, the app is really outstanding by its features and very much user-friendly:

- Multilingual (6 languages), it provides access to 4000 references and a  stock of over 2,500,000 bottles. The traditional information making up the specification sheets of each product (visual, description, AOC, vintage, format, price, critics marks…) are automatically available.

- History of the orders

- Wish list,  allowing the customer who would postpone his search to save a great deal of time if he wishes to find back the wines added into the cart or into his favorites.

- Works for iPhone, soon on BlackBerry and, if needed, with Samsung.

-it allows a real direct and full purchase, without having to switch from your mobile Iphone or Blackberry to a computer.

Safety and confidentiality are of course primary concerns.  Using a SSL V3 certificate awarded by GlobalSign, the cart is  entirely secured. But it is remarkable that it is a premiere for an online wine store to offer to the web users the full experience of buying from their phone without switching to a web site to complete the transaction.

By offering its customers full services and access through the app to the full site of the country of origin of the consumers, Millesima hopes to gain a more global vision of the specific needs of its customers. This “one-to-one” marketing strategy will provide a better segmentation, therefore a more efficient development of customer’s loyalty.

Of course, the cost of the app was not advertised but anybody involved in technology is aware of the costs. The management considered that 200 new customers a month would make the application profitable – but after how many months?  No information yet. But one clue was provided: the iPhone app of Nespresso brings the company 38,000 euros a day of gross turnover.

And you know what? I wish Millesima and its daring team as much success as Nespresso in this new adventure. They deserve it: in our difficult times and with so many business people being afraid of making the slightest move, it is refreshing to see a medium-size company show such an entrepreneurial spirit.

French wines are still the benchmark for China: they’re the best. Unfortunately, they’re very expensive: the high taxes are an important part of the outrageous prices.

Fortunately, some restaurants are ready to give their customers the opportunity to taste our greatest wines by the glass. And when I say the greatest, I’m not exaggerating: Château Palmer, Château Haut-Brion, Château d’Yquem, Clarendelle and many others are on the wine list.

The restaurant is M. and Mrs. Bund, owned by the French Paul Pairet. In the middle of the dining room, several Enomatic wine dispensers attract the attention.

Enomatic systems dispense wine directly from the bottle using  inert gas preservation. The flavors and characteristics of the wine remain intact for more than three weeks, as if the bottle had just been opened. This technology allows M. and Mrs. Bund restaurant to offer the  wines at a very decent price. The consumer can enjoy a glass of a wine he can’t really afford by the bottle.

M. and Ms. Bund Restaurant made its reputation thanks to this “wine by the glass” strategy. Of course, the food is deliciously French and the customers mostly Westerners, but it is a very original feature that is appreciated by many people. In this city where everything goes fast, evolves rapidly and everybody is improving skills and competences, a creative strategy based on a technical innovation is the best way to attract new consumers. In fact, most people in the restaurant were young business people, not afraid of a rather high price tag for a meal and nice wines. Shanghaï and its inhabitants are on the way up to success and a nice lifestyle – in contrast.

I’m not an Apple afficionada or endorsing Apple. I just have an iPod Touch and my regular Windows laptop. But I’m a communication person at heart and just saw the most amazing feature for the iPhone platform today. Of course, it will not be available for a few months, but I started dreaming of all the possibilities of communicating for the wine business.

Called iAds, it is an Apple-hosted advertising platform targeted at app developers.  There are hundreds of thousands of applications developed for iPhone, some free, some at a very affordable price. We consumers all have our favorite app and we would hate to be thrown out of our app after clicking on an ad. On the other hand, if we could click on an ad, interact with compelling content and then come back to our app where we left it with no fuss, what a thrill! This is advantage Number One for the consumers.

Advantage Number Two, the ad can have the quality of a TV ad and be interactive: we can have movies, games, animations, build our own product – all the possibilities offered by a regular computer or on TV, plus interactivity. As Mr. Jobs said in his presentation, the consumer has the interactivity of the Net with the emotion of TV and movie.

What’s the point? More ads on the last ad-free space? In some ways it is true. But let’s look at the advantage for a wine brand. There are a lot of apps for wine. With the iAd,  consumers could get interactivity and information in their favorite app. Wineries could create great movies, quizzes, games for their consumers and attract their attention via this new device.

As a communicator, I am very excited by the almost unlimited possibilities of the iAd: let’s be creative, let’s move forward and towards our consumers. Wine is a cultural and fun product. Whether you like a Classified growth, a Super Toscan, Casillero del Diablo or Champagne, you’ll find the right app and the right message to listen to and to share with all your friends.

Trust French people to associate love with (almost) anything fun and sensual! The luxury wine and food store Fauchon launched a fun concept, the “Wine Dating”.  Based on the idea of an “after work” meeting, the “wine daters” meet in the restaurant at the top of the Montparnasse Tower. They’re offered a tasting of 6 wines and a choice of cheese while walking around looking for their soul mate.

Great way to promote wine among young people? Yes, it is. Especially when you know that wine consumption is going down drastically in France. The French wine industry needs to come up with new and trendy ideas such as this one to attract younger people and give them the message that wine is easy and fun. Congratulations to Fauchon for such an innovative strategy!

In 1999, the Web was still considered an innovation in Europe. In France, 11,6% were connected; 100,000 adventurous people are managing their bank accounts on line; e-commerce brings 200,000 euros! It was also the time of the Internet boom: start-ups are getting millions from angels and investors. After two years of euphoria and craziness, it is the krach. But, in spite of that, one third of the French population was connected – mostly by cable. Amazon.com and ebay.com opened their French site. A healthy sign of confidence in the new economy! In 2004, 12 million French were on line, more than 50% connected by cable or high-speed. Apple launched its iTunes platform in France. In 2005, two years after the US, French people became addicted to blogs. 2 million French bloggers appeared almost over night! In 2006, advertising on line brought several million euros. In 2007, the iPhone became available in France. In 2009, over 32 million French people were connected; they were aware of Facebook and discovering Twitter.

Of course, France is not the most Internet friendly country. Regulation is the keyword for the French administration on connectivity, privacy, wine, advertising, e-commerce. In spite of all the restrictions, France is opening up to the 21st century. To look at the future, one has to look at the US. In the last ten years, I saw tremendous innovations coming from the US in the wine industry: services for wineries such as VinoVisit.com, search engine specifically tailored to wine like ablegrape.com, think tanks like VinTank.com, on line wineries such as Crushpad, new packaging. I also saw some innovations coming from Europe, like the unique code designed by adegga.com in Portugal.

New consumers generated new marketing strategies and new trends: women and Millennials, emerging countries. China and India became the new powers – first by the exponential number of wine consumers but mainly by their potential production.

Let’s not forget the incredible wine communities spread all over the Internet in already existing communities: wine groups in LinkedIn.com, pages or groups on Facebook, networks on Twitter now helped by the search. Individuals became leaders and carry the new trends to new countries and new consumers. It would be incredibly long and difficult to mention all the innovations but i’m really amazed by what happened on the Net in ten years.

I look forward to witnessing and being a modest part of the formidable innovations that will take place in the next ten years. Welcome to 2010!

Today I met Jean-Claude Rieflé, owner and wine maker of the Domaine Rieflé in Pfaffenheim, near Colmar. The Rieflé family goes back to 1850 in the history of Alsace wine. Jean-Claude is also an expert in international commerce. As many of his peers, Domaine Rieflé produces Riesling, Late Harvest and all the varietal wines of Alsace.

Jean-Claude is very aware of a coming European regulation that will be operating in 2013. By then, producers will be able to create varietal brand, such as Riesling, from any place and apply on their label “Riesling”, “Wine of France” or “Riesling “Wine of Germany”, whether the grape was harvested in Languedoc, Mosel or Alsace. Those wines could be sold as low as 1,50 euros when a good Riesling on the right terroir can sell for up to 7,00 euros.

To counteract this problem, some Alsace wine producers, led by people like Jean-Claude Rieflé who have a vision, decided to stage the terroir more than the grape, as their Burgundy or Chateauneuf-du-Pape counterparts have always be doing.

In fact, as jean-Claude explained to me, this strategy is such part of the real Alsace tradition. Until the end of the 19th entury, Alsace wines were known by their terroir more than their grape. This change gives the Alsace producers the possibility to go back to their traditional roots and to make them express their terroir more than the variety.

Wendy Narby is one of the best representatives of the links between Britain and Bordeaux. She moved to Bordeaux about 20 years ago and is now one of the best specialists of the Bordeaux wines, acting as a consultant, a teacher and a guide. She came to France in the ’80s to study wine marketing and got her master from a school of the ESSEC Group in Paris. Her dissertation was on “Marketing Bordeaux wine” – what a surprise! In 1989, she married Hamilton Narby, an English speaking Canadian from Montreal and a negotiant in Bordeaux. Hamilton convinced her to move to Bordeaux – “not a hard sell”, said Wendy with a smile.

I met Wendy a few months ago and I liked her warm and outgoing personality as much as her passion for Bordeaux, wine, food and everything good in life. I discovered her professional talent when she presented to a group of Napa Valley winemakers invited to Bordeaux the industry of the region. She mentioned the “innovative” aspect of the Bordeaux wine industry – to the surprise of her American listeners who pictured Bordeaux as the epitome of conservatism. She very nicely agreed to answer a few questions on this topic.

What makes Bordeaux “innovative” in the wine business?

I think it used to be conservative and for many properties it is perhaps an image they choose to cultivate but, for the vast majority, it is just no longer the case. Examples – look around some of the cellars, we have some of the most modern cellars using the very latest wine making techniques. Of course, Bordeaux is all about the place (terroir) but technique is nothing new. Blending but has always been a keystone of what is Bordeaux and if that is not a technique…!

Haut-Brion was one of the first properties to have stainless steel tanks as early as the 60′s and the innovations have been coming on ever since. One major reason I believe is the influence of the Institut d’Oenologie (Enology Institute) here, not just for the R&D going on there but for the rapid dissemination of this information from the institute to the growers and wine makers via the structure of consultants and through the role of the negociants that often get such criticism commercially but play a major role in many cases in advising their suppliers – growers – and offering them expertise that they would not normally have access to. They are also a very innovative force as they are in direct and constant contact with the market place which, for smaller growers, is very difficult, and they can relay this market information and translate it into practical wine making, packaging and marketing advice.

How do you foresee the future of the Bordeaux wines on the international markets? I’m referring mostly to the estates that are not part of the Grand Cru system. How could they manage to fight competition and innovate?

I see many young wine makers and managers at the properties I visit in the region. These young people are highly trained individuals either in oenology or in business or both! They speak foreign languages and have usually spent a period wine making or working in other wine regions throughout the world. They are bringing this experience and this market knowledge back home.

As a consequence they are making wines, especially in the ‘Everyday’ price range that are not just extremely good value for money but of consistent quality (often a criticism of Bordeaux with the vintage effect that accompanies our climate), of a style that suits the market for their price point and attractively packaged. They are also aware that making a fine wine is not enough. They travel and meet the customer either opening their cellars and their homes to visitors – hence, the increasing number of tasting rooms and chambres d’hôte (B&B) in the Châteaux especially in the Côtes region – or getting on the market place via the negociants, through initiatives like Everyday Bordeaux or in wine shows where they have direct contact with their final customers.

I also think that these wine makers show a side to Bordeaux that is uncomplicated and I believe that education as well as wine tourism is the key to reassuring people that choosing Bordeaux from a supermarket shelve or from a restaurant wine list is not automatically an expensive or an intimidating choice – Education is the key. The CIVB (Bordeaux Wine Council) via its wine school ‘l’Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux’ has betted on this by training 145 international wine educators about Bordeaux; its innovations and accessibility and also by partnering with 19 wine schools internationally to spread this message – being very aware that not everyone who is interested in Bordeaux can get here to learn about it. Since 1990, over 100,000 people worldwide have followed the Bordeaux Wine School programmes: amateurs, distributors and educators. As of 2007, 14 000 professionals had benefited from these training programs. Education is definitely a key.

Technical innovations in wine making and blending, a new generation and a new style of Bordeaux producers, education are indeed the keys to the new world of Bordeaux wines. Wendy Narby will be our guest on our live radio show, the new wine consumer, on March 17th. She’ll give us more details on this topic and you’ll have a taste of her warm personaility and passion for life and wine.