You know a technology is successful when you start seeing it all over the place. Most of my favorite French wine and food or lifestyle magazines now have an iPhone app, making searching for a recipe or a match with a wine a lot easier.

It happened that one of the most respected and widely read wine sites, Natdecants.com, just launched a new version of its app available for Blackberry as well as iPhone, DrinksMatcher. Who doesn’t know Natalie MacLean? Just for those a little distracted, let me remind them that Natalie is an independent journalist and author of the bestseller Red, White and Drunk All Over. Her site, NatDecants.com, is a resource for all wine and food lovers. Natalie has won four James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. At the World Food Media Awards in Australia, she was named the World’s Best Drinks Writer.

The first version of her free mobile app worked well. The new version is much enhanced. It includes 380,000 food and wine pairings and thousands of wine reviews. You can search the reviews by winery, price, score, region, grape, vintage, food match, check how many bottles of a particular wine are in local liquor stores or search a directory of 10,000+ wineries to buy wine or plan a visit.

It is always exciting to see a new technology, 100% user-centered taking off and being adopted by more and more businesses. It is so positive to see entrepreneurs, such as Natalie MacLean, ready to make the investment in a new technology and not charging the consumers for this new level of service. Thanks to all those customer-driven entrepreneurs who make the world such an exciting place to be!

A few months ago, I wrote about the clever initiative of a Rhone Valley producer, Laurent Habrard, in Crozes-Hermitage, who created little bottles to send samples to his potential customers. The wines were then presented by videos on the web site by a sommelier and the samples could be purchased on line. The customers could request the samples for a few euros then deductible from the price of the purchased bottles.

This clever initiative is now relayed in California by Crushpad. As you well know, I keep following since the beginning the progress and evolution of this innovative company. Crushpad just launched “Tiny Bottles” which is very similar to Laurent Habrard‘s process, but the American way.

What’s the story behind “Tiny Bottles”? According to their new web site, most of today’s consumers refer to “influencers” to buy wine, either a wine critic, a friend or a site. Those influencers are giving advice on a wine they enjoyed or disliked, and are influencing our choices. Crushpad is now offering a new level of services: the possibility to watch videos about wines recommended by influencers and before buying, tasting some wines for sale in “Tiny Bottles”. As of today, there are two packs of Tiny Bottles, one of four Pinot Noir and one of four Cabernet Sauvignon available for $19 or $29.

It’s always good news to see new services offered to consumers and this is one of great value. I just wished that the tasting of the wines included in the Tiny Bottles was made clearer among the many videos available on the site. I had to look around for little while but besides that “tiny” detail, the idea is fun and well implemented.

Last week I was interviewed for the French TV channel France5 on how to market efficiently French wines to international markets. The first question of the journalist was: is there any difference between “Old World” and “New World” wine labels? She wanted me to show some “New World” labels. I pointed the “Red Rover” label to her as being “fun” and efficient with the dog face, the name “Red Rover” and the obvious grape mentioned on the label. She was sure no French wine could feature a dog on a label. Really?

Next day I had lunch with a friend in a Bordeaux restaurant and we both ordered a glass of Château La Folie 2005 with our lunch. We asked to see the bottle. And bingo! There was the cutest little dog on the label. Of course the style of the design was very different: I didn’t have my camera and couldn’t take a picture but it was one of those nice looking dogs – not the impressive mean-looking dog of Red Rover.

What does it mean? First of all, French labels are getting more contemporary. Wine makers are now aware that pets are part of our everyday life, like our wine and food. This kind of design is a good way to reach the consumer and appeal to his/her emotional side. Then, it also means that wine makers are ready to simplify their message on wine: wine is not always a serious and difficult subject. It’s fun and can be drunk without commenting on it for hours. Enjoy your wine in front of the fire place with your dog sitting at your feet during the cold season or outside in the garden while your dog is playing when it’s nice!

Since the Social Media Report by VinTank published a couple of months ago, the notoriety of adegga.com increased tremendously and got a much deserved attention. Founded in Portugal by Andre C. Ribeirinho, adegga.com is a very innovative company whose technology is well advanced.

In spite of being Portuguese born, adegga.com is an international platform available in Portuguese, French, English, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. Adegga.com and its team, the two Andres and Emidio, were the technical wizards behind the EWBC: all technical problems and glitches were solved with energy and efficiency by the smiling guys. But the interesting part was the discussions with them about what is their very unique creation, the AVIN code (Adegga Vin Identification Number). You certainly heard about the ISBN code, the identification number for books that allows any libraries or bookstores to identify a book by its very unique code. Adegga created the same system for wine. An AVIN code will be given to every vintage of the same wine.

Even more amazing is the ability for a consumer to access information on the AVIN coded wine through a mobile phone. A winery can apply either the diagram with the code on its back label or only the AVIN number. When the diagram is applied on the bottle, the consumer directs the phone camera on it and has direct access to the wine information on the adegga site or, very soon, on an other site.

This impressive technology is a big improvement for the wine consumer as well as the wineries. The consumer can access useful information while the winery has a direct access to its consumers.

Back to work and to reality after 3 days in sheer bliss working on wine and social media, meeting my virtual (but good) friends and getting to know more people.

Technology people are very often environmentally conscious as they mostly try to work without paper and if they use it, recycle it. They’re also aware of the environmental risks created by discarded computers’ parts and technological waste. That’s why I was not quite surprised when I got the pre-package of the conference sent by email by Gabriella Opaz. Under the self-explanatory title, “EWBC Supports Sustainable Living”, our Dream Team set the few sustainable principles of the conference:

- all the documents are available on a 4gb USB Flashdrive held to the nametag. It stores a lot of information on the sponsors, the speakers, the conference as well as various booklets. Having had a look at the contents when back in my room, I refrained to grab too many booklets from our sponsors, knowing the information was on the key.

- when arriving, we were handed a 100% biodegradable bag. It was very useful during the conference to carry around a laptop anda notebook (yes, I know but we usually use recycled paper notebook!). When leaving I packed it carefully – thinking it would be very useful to have it at the bottom of my bag for last minute grocery shopping at home.

- the Dream Team also convinced our 5* hotel to recycle the many bottles we emptied during our various tastings and meals.

I’m glad EWBC set such a great example of sustainable consciousness and I just hope other conferences sill follow the same pattern for the sake of our planet. Keep the good work and thanks for having set such a great example.

From time to time I love to venture in innovative systems created in the “real” world instead of my beloved Web 2.0 world. I was caught up in reading a web site on a very creative wine cellar management system – we could even call it exclusive because I think there are only 2000 devices available for sale.

What is it about? called “Mémoire du Vin” (Wine memory), it looks like an elegant dresser that can stand in the wine cellar. The goal is to preserve and manage the information on each bottle stored in the cellar. The ring you can see on the glass is the secret to the system: it registers and stores all the information of the bottle (producer, vintage, date of entry in the cellar, value bought) and allows the owner to follow the evolution of the cellar as well as the rising (hopefully) value of the bottles over the years. The cellar owner has a complete and uptodate image of the cellar.

Like technology? This new system is for you!

Twitter and Crushpad winery partnered to create two wines to support Room to Read,
a San Francisco-based non-profit which aims to empower millions of children in the developing world through education.

This is the first Corporate Social Innovation initiative of Twitter. The label is dubbed Fledgling Wine. In addition to its Web site, the project has a Twitter page launched a few hours ago.

“As a company that’s only one percent into its journey, we’re always thinking about our long term impact on the world,” Twitter co-founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone wrote on Fledgling Wine’s home page. “The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter’s mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change.”

Crushpad is associated to the project as the winemaking facility. It will help create the two wines, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay recently harvested. According to Michael Brill, CEO of Crushpad, Crushpad’s “goal is to seriously over-deliver on both quality and experience.”

The Fledging Wine site will provide multimedia content documenting the wine’s development step by step, in-person events at the winery, tweet ups (of course!), and even chances to taste the wine as well as the news and updates.

The Fledging Project is significant to the social media development for several reasons:

- it’s initiated by a very young company, Twitter, that gave itself the best way to explain its mission. Indeed, for many people, Twitter is just this micro-chat where privileged and educated people with time on their hands tell the world they just had their capuccino or they’re depressed because it rains in their part of the world. Twitter is a lot more than just a micro-chat for over-spoiled people. It has a social value and can expand its benefits to developing countries. Indeed, without reading skills, no tweets and no access to the world. It also has a professional value that is very often overlooked by people.
- it shows that the technological world is not cold and heartless: two technological advanced companies – Twitter and Crushpad – partnered to help Room to Read and to extend their hand to the world. Their partnership gives an other dimension and meaning to the expression “social media”. Technology is not self serving: it is at the service of mankind.
- Wine is the best link between people. When wine is often diabolised, this project shows it also links people together from the US to Europe, to Africa and to Asia. Wine might not be a world language like music, but it carries positive values.

Web 2.0 is about sharing not only knowledge but also riches. I wish the best to the three partners of this beautiful adventure and I hope there will be a lot of pre-ordering those bottles of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, lovingly made by all contributors.

Videos, Google-style search engine, blog, Facebook page – Millesima.com, one of the leading e-commerce site, is gearing up towards Web 2.0 level and entering the age of social media.

Millesima.com is positioned as a very high-end e-commerce site. It sells only 12-bottle cases of Bordeaux classified Growths, Burgundy or Rhone Valley wines. Their customers are passionate wine amateurs and connoisseurs. Prices are obviously high and there is no bargain or discounted prices. Millesima.com sells in Europe. In their US on line store, the offer differs slightly as it sells sought-after South American, Italian, American and Spanish wines.

The move towards Web 2.0 is not without danger. The image of Millesima is linked to the image of the Bordeaux Chateaux, Burgundy domains or Champagne houses the store sells – an image of excellence and prestige. Their chais hold over 2,000,000 bottles of the best wines in the world by cases of 12 or special formats (Magnums, jeroboams). That’s why its entry in the world of social media has to be well thought out. Gerard Spatafora, the Web Marketing Director, chose a rather elegant strategy. With the help of a former wine journalist and expert in communication, Frederic Lot, he launched a series of high quality videos about some of the estates and their wines sold by the company. Those videos are in three parts: a presentation of the estate, a more technical part and a third one wore consumer oriented with wine and food pairing or drinkability of the wine, for example. They’re implemented in a separate section of the site and have a different design. The videos are not meant only to sell more wines but also to share with Millesima’s customers the world of culture represented by prestige wines. At the moment, the videos are only in French but English and German versions are in the making. When the series will be completed, there will be 150 videos – one for each reference stored by Millesima. But even with only 3 videos, the section is like a little oasis of culture in the middle of an e-commerce site.

At the same time as Millesima launched the video section, it opened a Facebook page. It’s still a little too early to see any significant initative. For now their page is only announcing their events or the new features of the site. It needs a little kick up to become a real Web 2.0 tool in their communication strategy.

Let’s Millesima keep working on their Web 2.0 strategy. See you in a few months with more news on an innovative e-commerce site!

This is the very unusual sight I came across today. At first the title of the article read: “Wine for women”. I got mildly annoyed and was about to move away when a sentence caught my eye: “Every smile has a story. And many stories are shared over a glass of wine”. Banal? Yes, but true. In our days of bad news, a smile is to be treasured preciously.

Back to wine! SmileVino is a weird but touching try to reach people through the best of their heart. Each label depicts a woman smiling. Each smile carries a different emotion: compassion, accomplishment, whatever. The back label tells the story behind the smile. What about the wine? There are two bottles – one of Merlot and one of Chardonnay, both from California. My feeling is that the wine is just the messenger for woman’s charities in various communities in spite of Nancy Moore, vice-president, affirmation: “Our signature Chardonnay and Merlot were specially created in California and offer a fresh taste for wine lovers.”

I like the positive side of the story: smile, telling a positive story, giving back to the community. But why only women and why so little on the wines?

I have a couple of issues with gender marketing applied to the wine business. First, many studies showed clearly that women don’t have special attraction to “feminine” wines, such as pink or sweet wines. Second, women are now learned in wine: they know what they like and what they want to buy. Last but not least, they are usually sharp shoppers and detect easily the false bargain or the marketing trick. Because let’s be honest and even brutal: a wine designed for women is usually poorly made – too sweet, heavy, poorly balanced. Give us real wines – with a smile, yes but also a wine that will bring a smile to our face!

If you love perusing a heavy leather cover wine list in a restaurant, this is not for you! Exit the wine list painfully typed by the sommelier or restaurant owner and rarely updated! I usually get slightly annoyed when I order a bottle of wine of the 2003 vintage and hear the waiter tell me: “I hope you don’t mind having the 2004 because the 2003 is sold out.” Yes, I do mind because I enjoy an updated wine list with the right vintage, the right wine and… the right answer.

My wish will be granted soon (hopefully) when all restaurants will have adopted the SmartCellar, the newest product in the SmartTouch series of Incentient, a company based in Jericho, NY. SmartCellar is a a 9-by-5-inch wireless high-definition color touch-screen device similar to a tablet computer smartly designed to look good on a restaurant table. The SmartCellar is connected to the database of the restaurant and can be updated everyday if necessary by the sommelier or the waiter. No more disappointment!

If you live in New York, you’ll be able to experiment this new device at SD26, the restaurant of Peter May. I can’t wait to see it coming to more restaurants in the US and in Europe!

PS. By the way a funny little detail: Incentient didn’t update its web site and SmartCellar is not represented in the “Applications” section. So much for helping restaurant keeping their wine list updated if they don’t apply this very simple principle to their own company. Cheers!