In the pre-Internet days, think tanks could be impressive by the secrecy surrounding their members, their goals and their means of action. Today, in the (almost) full bloom of the Web 2.0, think tanks should be leading the way to the Web 3.0. And some do.

Who didn’t hear of VinTank‘s Social Media Report? It was certainly one of the most reviewed and commented upon report on the subject in the wine industry. Previously to reading the report, I had heard of Paul Mabray and some of his partners. We spoke from time to time through podcasts, Twitter or email. Think tanks in the wine industry are not common (maybe even non existent) in Europe and I was getting more and more curious about VinTank’s work and strategy. Their web site is very clean and to the point: they talk to the wine people (to introduce them to technology), to tech people (to introduce them to wine) and to people – the real wealth of any business, and more specifically of the wine business.

VinTank shows a great understanding of the new technologies and have deep inside knowledge of the wine industry. The team is full of ideas, creative and innovative while always offering new services, like the digital pipeline management system VinTank launched or helping develop a great idea like the social media monitoring created by Evan Cover and his team of Cruvee.

This new generation of think tank, dedicated to a very vertical market, is certainly the way to lead the wine industry to a better understanding of social media and marketing as well as providing wineries with the most up to date tools to monitor and develop their business on line. Does it mean that the wine business is very much aware of the newest marketing tools and can become one of the leaders towards a new economy, based on relationship inside the virtual world? Maybe, maybe not but thanks to VinTank, its innovative strategy and its network of partners, the wine industry is well equipped to face the hardships and the competition ahead. Ready to embark on a new adventure? It’s as exciting as space travel!

Allen Meadows, the famous Burghound, specialist of Burgundy wines, will soon publish a long-needed book on the
The Pearl of the Côte. The Great Wines of Vosne-Romanée.

As Allen explained in a recent interview on the newwineconsumer.com podcast, the idea of the book came to him when he was tasting 74 (yes, 74!) vintages of the greatest Burgundy wine, La Romanée-Conti. This very exceptional vertical tasting started him thinking about the best way to convey to his readers the secrets and beauty of those wines and terroirs. Of course, he’s going through the history of the wines and the terroirs. But more original, he put together exact maps of the terroirs, working from maps and archives of the French administration. This long and delicate work will bring a new knowledge of those difficult terroirs – so fragmented.

Allen’s book will be available soon. If you’re as eager as I am to get your hands on a copy, sign up to be notified on its release.
]]> http://www.winebrandsblog.com/2009/08/the-burghounds-book-on-vosne-romanee/feed/ 0 http://www.winebrandsblog.com/2008/12/marketing-to-hispanics/ http://www.winebrandsblog.com/2008/12/marketing-to-hispanics/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:33:00 +0000 Eve Resnick http://zeeek.resmo.net/wordpress/2008/12/marketing-to-hispanics/

A thread on ethnic marketing on OWC and our Wednesday podcast on Spanish wines started me thinking on marketing to Hispanics in the US. I mentioned in Wine Brands the initiative of Round Hill Winery, California, in 2004 with their “Bolsa de Recetas” or “Bag of Recipes” on their bottles of wine.

It was the beginning of a trend in the wine business. Wineries saw the huge potential of wine drinkers that the Hispanic community represented in the US by its diversity. The Wine Market Council targeted at the same time two main bodies: the Millennials and the Hispanics. In 2006, according to the web site, meetings with the Hispanic media in Miami were conducted with bilingual chef spokesperson Richard Sandoval. Included in this effort was a live appearance of Chef Sandoval on the national Univision morning show “Despierta America”. Their efforts were the results of a survey the Council organized in 2006. According to this survey, 31 percent of Hispanic wine drinkers are consuming more wine now than they were during the last few years, while only 11 percent of Caucasians say the same and they are 50 percent more likely than their Caucasian counterparts to enjoy wine only for a special occasion or celebration.

The Council hired Richard Sandoval, award-winning chef and owner of the leading international group Modern Mexican Restaurants to explain to Hispanics the pleasure of pairing wine and Mexican food. Hispanics show a strong sense of their roots in the choice of their wines. They favor wines from Spanish speaking countries, such as Chili, Argentina and now Mexico whose wine industry is growing.

Hispanics are making an impact on the wine industry more than any other ethnic group. “Current Hispanic consumption trends and increasing attention to this market by leading wineries around the world can together make for rapid and lasting growth of wine as a truly enjoyable part of the everyday lives of millions of adult Hispanic American consumers,” concludes John Gillespie, President of the Wine Market Council.

Last night I was invited to speak during the launch of the new Wine Master created by the Bordeaux Management School (BEM), thanks to its Academic Manager, Florine Livat. Being in France, I felt under the obligation of talking about new technologies and wine, a topic unfortunately widely ignored by many. It gave me the opportunity to mention the latest trends for the wine business: podcasts, blogs, of course but also the new communities. Speaking to young people I was compelled to mention the communities dedicated to younger consumers or professionals: The Mutineer Magazine, founded by Alan Kropf, snooth.com and its original on line wine store. For the teachers and the professionals, I strongly advised them to join the OpenWineConsortium site.

Why is that? In France, the web and the new technologies are not considered as an efficient way of marketing wine to the world. I tried to explain – in 10 minutes! – how important it was for a vineyard or a wine business to address not only the consumer next door but also the consumer all over the world. Did I convince them? I don’t know but many talked to me after my lecture and asked questions. Hopefully part of the message will stay in their mind!

Technology and wine was supposed to be the subject of our Internet live radio show, newwineconsumer.com but since our guests never called in we had to switch to other topics. I feel a little frustrated as I had thought about other things to talk about besides communities, podcasts, etc.

Indeed technology covers also all those industrial processes helping the producer and the consumer to get a better wine in the glass. One of the nightmares of a wine buyer is to wonder in what conditions the wine traveled or had been kept by its successive owners. How many times I decided against buying a bottle in a store (even at a good price) only because I didn’t know the storing conditions of the shop or the way the wine traveled.

All those questions can now be answered, thanks to a special label that reflects a band of temperatures. If a shipment or a place stays within desired parameters, a light flashes green. If temperatures get too high or low, it flashes yellow. The stored date can be downloaded and show when and where the temperature variations occurred. No more risk to have a “cooked” wine! The price of this label is $20 a box for the labeling, a relatively small price for expensive wine.In California, Schug winery already adopted the device made by an Idaho company called PakSense.

I was hoping to be able to post at least 3 times a week while traveling in California. It is much harder to do so than I thought: so many meetings, tastings, day trips to vineyards, podcasts and generally speaking, a lot more things to do than expected. It also means I’ll have a lot to write about when back.

Sorry for the interruption but I’ll be back soon. In between, stay tuned to our Internet live radio show on newwineconsumer.com: tomorrow, we’ll talk about wine and generations, with special guest from the new Mutineer Magazine.

That’s it! I got it and I read it! I just couldn’t believe my luck when the post office delivered Gary‘s book on Friday. (My skepticism is just the result of a lost book package, actually MY own book, by… DHL.)

Last week, Gary was concerned about his book not being available in some stores. He Twittered the question to the world. Randulo saw this Tweet and invited him to call in live to the podcast he was doing at the time, which Gary did. You can listen to the short phone chat with him about the book, and his interest in tea, which he finds very similar to wine in many ways.

Anyway, Gary’s book is on my desk and I carried it along with me all weekend to read it. Funnily enough, on the cover Gary’s name is subtitled “star of winelibrarytv.com“. Fortunately, Gary is much more than a star: he’s witty, bright, funny, sincere and honest. He writes as he talks: with energy and passion. Do you know a lot of “stars” with those qualities?

Gary worked very hard to give us his opinion on 101 wines he really enjoyed and brought thunder to his world, as he put it in the title. The book is not a guide, it’s not the wines Gary recommends you to drink: “buy wines that are true to themselves and true to you”, Gary recommends. Why is that? Because “that’s how we’re going to change the wine world”: forget the ratings, forget the critics, forget the marketing strategies, the commercials and the ads. Buy a bottle because you think you’ll like it: if you don’t, you’ll have learned something about yourself and wine.

How did he select his 101 wines? They are “the 101 wines that I am most excited about and want to recommend to anyone interested in wine”, “wines that break down barriers, create new styles, and ooze charisma”. The program sounds intriguing. Should we get in a little more details about the wines? From #101 to #1, every wine is reviewed with the same info: winery name, price, origin, grapes, ABV (alcohol by volume), production and web site.

First Gary’s titles: “Making Mom Proud” for 2 Brothers, Cabernet Sauvignon reserve 2005; “It’s in the mail” for Ambulineo Vineyards, Big Paw Chardonnay 2006 or “Wine for your two-year-old” for Taylor Fladgate, Quinta de Vargellas, 2005. There is the humor and the odd comparisons. When Gary wants his reader to imagine how a wine tastes, here is what he advises to do: “I need you to take some pigs-in-a-blanket – you know, those mini hot dogs. Now you’re going to take a strawberry Fruit Roll-Up and wrap it on one more layer. That’s right! We’re going one more layer! Now bite it. Eat. Sprinkle some black pepper on it! That is this wine”. What is he talking about? a Languedoc wine, Mas de la Barben, Les Calices 2003 selling for $44! And in case you have some doubt about what a fruit roll-up is, there is a foot note on the subject.

Is Gary not taking wine seriously by any chance? Not at all. Gary is certainly one of the more erudite people I read on the subject: he’ll tell you everything on the most obscure grape, like Kekfrankos or about a label, like Ceago Vinegarden. Ceago is a Pomo Indian word, meaning “grass seed valley”. He will give you insights on the winery and the winemaker, tell you what he felt and smelled and tasted in the wine.

You can agree or disagree with whatever Gary says but there is something you have to agree about: Gary’s book is easy to read, gives you an in-depth appreciation of the wines he tasted, plenty of information on almost everything related to wine, taste, aroma and flavors. The book is informative, easy to read and you’ll get a good laugh out of Gary’s comments and remarks. How many wine books make you laugh?

Last week, I spent 2 days at the 2008 conference of the Society of Wine Educators in New Orleans, Louisiana. SWE is a non-profit educational organization (501c3) whose mission is to advance wine education through professional development and certification. It holds an annual conference with about 60 seminars that attract about 2,000 attendees every year.

I was invited to speak about Web Marketing for the wine industry. It was the first time SWE provided a session on this very topic. It shows how much the wine industry is getting more and more aware of the importance of the web in brand marketing. My main concern was to inform the attendees of the latest technologies they could use for their business. I especially mentioned the growing importance of professional communities, such as OpenWineConsortium (or OWC) whose groups and forum allow meeting fellow professionals or wine consumers through lively discussions and exchanges.

Podcasts and live Internet shows are also very important tools. I’m especially fond of live Internet radio shows: professionals and consumers can call in and spread the good word on their business or their favorite brands very easily. There are a lot of shows all over the Internet on wine: choose the one you like best after listening to a few and get in touch with the host. Those shows are usually linked to a site or a community.

An example? The technical platform, Talkshoe.com, hosts a number of live shows through their phones and technology: those shows are organized by themes. The “Food and Spirits” section hosts various shows: newwineconsumer.com linked to the Open Wine Consortium by Randulo and The CellarDweller by Dave Nelsen, CEO and co-founder of Talkshoe. Feel free to call in during the show if the topic interests you. Indeed it is a very good way – cheap and efficient – to get your name around the Net.

How so? The “buzz” gets your name or your brands around. It is cheap, easy and efficient.

Robert Mondavi just died. The Internet is buzzing with tributes, articles, blogs, comments on his legacy and what he means to the wine business and community.

As a European who discovered California wines in the ’90s, I mostly saw Robert Mondavi as the American winemaker who built a bridge between Europe and California. For Americans, Mondavi is the patriarch of the American wine industry, the charismatic winemaker who carried the image of American wines all over the globe and made the world aware of the growing quality and strength of American wines.

Mondavi was that and a lot more. He is the man who created Opus One with the Rothschilds, the man who contributed so much to Copia along with his friend Julia Child, knowing that wine and food are partners. He’s the man who invested in the Italian Ornellaïa and went back to his roots. He’s the man who understood that wine is a global cultural heritage and who tried to build a bridge between all wine cultures.

For all that and so much more, thank you, Mr. Mondavi.

Don’t miss randulo’s interview about Mondavi’s influence with Thomas Duroux for the NewWineConsumer.com weekly podcast and conference.

A large part of one of the chapters of Wine Brands was dedicated to crushpad.com, this luxury winery based in San Francisco. Why was that? Crushpadwine.com and crushnet allow want-to-be winemakers to make wine… on the Net if they don’t live in California. They have access to all the facilities via videos and podcasts. Crushnet goes even further, as stated in their press release: “Crushpad is at the forefront of the Wine 2.0 movement, providing new wine makers with the resources and support to create their own luxury vintage from grape to bottle — and a unique opportunity to express their creativity through wine making. Something that until now has been reserved only for professional winemakers living in wine country.”

There are three features that really attracted my attention:

- “Real-time, streaming video that allows individuals to direct the action from the comfort of their living room: panning, tilting and zooming in on all the activities at Crushpad’s 34,000 square foot winery and communicating with Crushpad staff; even cheering on members of their wine making group from afar.”

- A wiki : “Enowiki, an online resource that demystifies many of the more technical aspects of wine making.”

- “Wine Styler, an online tool that enables individuals to graphically define the style of their wine and automatically drive the associated technical wine making decisions. Wine Styler is also tightly integrated with Enowiki and educational videos to provide a comprehensive wine design environment.”

I just wish we had such a tool in Europe!