Yesterday, the 2011 edition of Vinexpo opened in Bordeaux and Burgundy was the guest of honor of the ESC Dijon Institute of Wine Management conference. Three keynote speakers presented the success stories of their business or organization : Florence Ragonneau of the Bureau of Burgundy wines (BIVB), François Desperriers, founder with Aurélien Ibanez of BourgogneLive.com blog and Jean-David Camus, who manages the Albert Bichot Hospices de Beaune sale every year.

The BIVB is the “official” voice of Burgundy wines on all markets. Florence Ragonneau’s mission was to carry the image of Burgundy wines on the Net and all social media.  First of all, she launched a web site in 8 languages to reach the most important international markets. The site provides information targeted to professionals, journalists and bloggers, influencers and consumers as well as e-learning facilities. Then she took the BIVB on Facebook and created a strong community of about 2,500 “friends” around the Burgundy wines.

Jean-David Camus is a young entrepreneur who saw the strong possibilities of taking in the 21st century a 200-year old brand, Albert Bichot.  For various historical reasons, Bichot is one of the biggest buyers of wines of the Hospices de Beaune during the famous November auction sale. Camus gave the opportunity to consumers to get together to buy a barrel of the Hospices de Beaune wines: a barrel allows 48 people to buy each a 6-bottle case for a price between 30 to 70 euros a bottle. It puts the buy at a reasonable financial level for lovers of great Burgundy wines.  What is new is that the auction and the buy take place on the Internet: the prospective buyer registers on the dedicated site and agrees on a price (usually around 4,000 to 6,000 euros a barrel): if the barrel costs less during the auction, the buyer pays less. If the auction takes the price of the barrel over the agreed maximum, the sale does not take place. It is a wine-win deal for the Hospices and the consumer. To promote his action, Camus resorts to all available media: Twitter, Facebook, web site, links to blogs. The results are convincing: he brought over 1,500 new customers to Albert Bichot and sold several barrels of wines.

last but not least, François Desperriers told the amazing success story of Bourgogne-Live.com. Launched in January 2010 by a few “tweets” on Burgundy wines, Desperriers saw his audience grow because of the consumers’ interest in Burgundy wines. In March desperriers and Ibanze launched their blog, Bourgogne-Live.com. They were rapidly frustated by the lack of comments and of conversation. They then created a Facebook page where conversations regularly engaged on their blogs’ articles and videos. Meanwhile they also carried out links to news and other blogs they thought of interest to their community.

Those success stories put Burgundy wines on the digital map. Burgundy producers also got involved, helping to spread the word about their wines. By now, consumers would have to be very distracted to miss Burgundy on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and any other media. Enjoy!

During the Symposium of Masters of Wine in Bordeaux last June, the first panel was on “Wine on the Web”. The moderator was Christophe Macra, one of the four French MW. Christophe invited four prestigious panelists to talk about Wine and Web: Jancis Robinson, Rowan Gormley, founder and CEO of NakedWines.com, Eric LeVine, founder and CEO of cellartracker.com, Mike Linton, consultant for Peet’s Coffee and Tea and now on the advisory board of venture capital companies.

I will not bother you with a longer text as the panel was filmed and is now available on the symposium site:

The Wall Street Journal published lately a long article explaining why buying wine on the Net became a real headache for many shoppers and listed some problems: “phantom inventory”, slow delivery, cluttered sites, “tedious drill-down menus”, 20th Century web sites, etc. The author lists some solutions and recommends a few great sites.

I was a little surprised to see so many great online wine stores ignored: americanwinery.com, snooth.com, thewinespies.com and many others. All of those have a vibrant community and a good marketing strategy. They’re the Web 2.0 online wine stores and are fun, well done, efficient and trustworthy. They deserve to be considered as very professional and answer to all the prerequisites of an online store: good inventory, good structure of the web site and a contemporrary tone that make sthe experience fun and enjoyable. Thanks to all those young entrepreneurs for taking the irsk of creating something new and good!

In his fascinating book, Futurewise, Patrick Dixon explores the world around six letters – the letters of the word “F.U.T.U.R.E” : F as Fast, U as Urban, T as Tribal, U as Universal, R as Radical and E as Ethical. It is the definition of the new consumer. Let’s see what the “fast consumer” is about in the wine business.

The international consumer lives in a fast world : fast-changing technologies, fast-changing products, fast-changing world, fast food, fast travels. “The developed world, is cash-rich, time-poor and intensely impatient”, Dr. Dixon sums up in a striking sentence.

The rise of the Internet is certainly one of the most significant changes in the way consumers can access new products, new information and new people. News now travels almost instantaneously, as the phenomenon of “breaking news” on the American news channel CNN shows. Consumers are used to zapping from one TV channel to another, and apply the zapping technique to brands. They are not loyal to a brand anymore and keep changing, depending on the ad, the novelty or the appeal.

Because the technology is changing, the market is changing. The consumer requests diversity and quality, as well as immediate access to the product he wants to buy, taste or try. The answer is e-commerce or the sale of the goods on line.

Yesterday, Europeans were drinking their father’s cellars and building cellars for their children. The Americans were recovering from the Repeal of Prohibition and were building their wine industry. The Japanese were recovering from World War II and getting acquainted with Europe. Today, the French, Americans and Japanese are “zapping” from one wine to another, experimenting with new tastes, new countries and new styles. Yesterday the French were drinking 80 liters a year; today they are drinking 55 liters a year. Americans were drinking beer, cocktails and whiskey; they are now drinking 8 liters of wine a year. Japanese were drinking sake and tea; now they are drinking French classified growths and other European fine wines. Yesterday, wine was served everyday at lunch and dinner in Europe. Today, the French, the Americans and the Japanese are eating sandwiches in front of their computers, reaching for the bottle of water and the cup of coffee. Dinner time is very often some frozen food reheated in the microwave by an overworked parent, or some pizza ordered by phone. Yesterday, before the family meal, Mr. Dupont went into his cellar, chose his bottle carefully and put it on the table to complement the nice dinner home-cooked by Mrs. Dupont. Today, Mrs. Dupont chooses the wine and gets in her car to buy it at the nearest supermarket. Yesterday, Mr. Smith was drinking beer and Mrs. Smith milk. Today, they are all drinking sodas, beers or wine. Yesterday, regional branding was an important element to help wine enthusiasts develop an understanding of the global wine world. Today, the New World favors varietals, while the Old World is switching strategy.

Today, all of them – Japanese, Europeans, Americans, Indians, Chinese, Russians – are connected by phone and through the Internet, and to the Internet through their phone. The M Generation of Patrick Dixon could also be called the “Mobile Generation”, because their mobile phone connects them to the world through the Internet. The M Generation can buy on line by phone after they have got the information they were looking for on the Internet. Because it is connected to the world by phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if it want to be, the M generation is also a giant online community. Ben and Linda Smith, two young Americans interested in wine, are connected to the Internet. Their counterparts in Europe are Pierre and Sylvie Dupont, in India Chandra Singh and in China Yin Li. All those people are going to surf the Net to find information on wine, exchange ideas and tips or share their tasting notes on their favourite wines or addresses of good wine and e-commerce sites.

What do those people living in different cultures and speaking different languages have in common? Mostly they share the same interest in wine, food and a quality lifestyle, speak English or have a decent knowledge of English and have access to the Internet. Sooner or later they will cross paths on a forum, on a blog or on an informational site on wine. They will be part of community-building projects, such as wine encyclopedias, wikis, blogs or forums. “The spirit of the online community,” explains Patrick Dixon, “will continue to be a passionate belief that information should whenever possible be given away for the benefit of humankind as a whole. This ethic will have a profound effect on many businesses […].” Dr. Dixon can now switch to the present tense. Almost everyday a new site is born to sustain the international online community of wine consumers. Wine forums, wine blogs and even wikis are now so popular that their numbers have exploded.

Yes, Boeing employees are making wine! I’m not joking: it was in the International Herald Tribune issue of last weekend.

What’s the deal? Thirty years ago, some Boeing employees created a wine tasting club. Nothing fancy, nothing original. In later years, it changed into a beer and wine making group offering tastings, trips, equipment and grape purchases. The club members buy grapes from vineyards, store them in a Boeing facility and crush them with rental equipment. They also attend seminars with wine makers for their education.

Results? Thousands of bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay or Syrah were produced over the years by Boeing employees. About a dozen wineries of the Washington area were started by former Boeing employees. Others used their experience to get a job in a winery. Brad Sherman, vice-president of the club for wine, told journalist Kristina Shevory that many people asked to join but were rejected because they weren’t employed by Boeing.

Those people shouldn’t be too disappointed. There is an alternative solution: the Crushpad experience, launched in San Francisco, California, in 2004. Crushpad provides grapes from the West Coast’s best vineyards, a wine making team and a winery focused on making wine in small lots. Customers choose their level of involvement, and Crushpad does the rest. At the end of the wine making process, customers get their own “cult” wine. The customer monitors the wine making process through a private account, a blog and some videos. Crushpad also launched Crushnet, its online wine community, to serve over 2000 Crushpad clients that live in more than 35 states and eight countries.

Web 2.0 is full of resources for people with energy and imagination !