It’s particularly interesting for me to observe what Clos Pepe is doing on Twitter (@clospepe), because we’ve been to their amazing annual events at least twice. Wes Hagen and his wife Chanda are both charming and hospitable people, and they make a more than decent (some might call it cult) Pinot Noir, too. The folks at Clos Pepe are so nice, that even the 1997 web site design doesn’t dim my great feelings of their barbeque/tastings at their Sta. Rita Hills home and winery. In fact, I think their Twitter feed is more enjoyable to follow than going to the site which has, among other turn-of-the-century features, centered texts and multiple Quicktime videos on auto-play.

Take a look at what Clos Pepe is up to on Twitter:

If I were living in the area (or even in a location where they could ship me their wines), I’d prefer to be following this Twitter stream than to have the same events and announcement arrive in my mailbox. This seems to be an ideal way to get news of Clos Pepe.

• Subscribing and unsubscribing is a snap on a Twitter client or mobile or even using the Twitter web page.
• I can see who might also be interested in Clos Pepe, possibly follow them and compare notes, etc
• The news doesn’t come into my email stream, which I protectively reserve for high priority messages (like the vi@gra offers and Yale diplomas I deal with daily).
• The channel works both ways, so they can also get (and hopefully respond to) feedback

Using Twitter in this way goes against traditional wisdom of “engagement”, aka “Don’t Blurt!”. In the Clos Pepe example, I know Wes has his own Twitter account as well, and we can see plenty of personal engagement there. I know that the winery’s production is small enough to require you to be on an allocation list if you want to buy some. This is an enviable position for any winery to attain. I wonder how many people who are on the list are also on Twitter? I know at least one person. I wonder if he follows @ClosPepe?

Eve disagrees with me on this one, I think of Clos Pepe as a brand. What do you think and why?

Is this assertion of Ron Washam a wake up call for wine bloggers? What is the purpose of wine blogging? What is the real influence or importance of bloggers in the wine industry – in comparison with micro-blogging on Twitter or talking on Facebook?

There are many types of wine blogs: blogs from producers, marketers, journalists, enologists or foodies as Pr. Liz Thach explained in her well researched paper on “Do wine Blogs impact your brands?“. Does it mean a blog post should help a winery increase its sale or a writer sell more copies of his/her book? Do wine bloggers have to carry the same role as print wine media? Wine bloggers have one advantage over print writers: they are their own masters and have to answer only to their own conscience, assuming they don’t take ads or too many samples or review copies.

Blogging is the privileged moment of the day when a writer, a consultant, a winemaker or a foodie can take a break and really think about real issues or topics. The wine business is complex enough to make room for any type of wine blogging: are bloggers really barking like lonely poodles? Not at all. Bloggers have now access to Twitter, this beautiful micro-chat tool letting them reach out to their readers in real time. A monitoring tool like Cruvee shows that there are hundreds of thousands of online conversations on Twitter going on at once every month. Conversations can also be carried out on Facebook with winemakers and news makers.

Ron Washam’s provocative assertion might be referring to the now defunct image of the blogger writing away in his/her Ivory Tower. Bloggers are now all over the Internet – talking, interfacing and reaching out to the wine industry and to the wine consumers. Welcome to the 21st century blogging world!

I just finished reading The Wine Trials 2010 by Robin Goldstein and Alexis Herschkowitsch. I must confess I’m very perplexed by this book. The authors blame the “lifestyle marketing” for overpriced wines. They also condemn the fact that a group like LVMH invest more money on marketing than to produce the goods, without mentioning that this marketing strategy covers all products manufactured by LVMH and not only their wine and spirits business. Because they reject marketing (they call it the “enemy” of the wine drinker) and the “taste of money”, they promote wines widely available in supermarkets and under $15. But, among the 150 selected wines, there are Two Buck Chuck, Norton, Almaden, Barefoot wines, to mention just a few. Do the authors sincerely think those wines are so widely available without heavy marketing and a lot of money? This selection by two main criteria – under $15 and widely available in supermarkets – is counterproductive for the wine industry. Wine drinkers and consumers need wines under $15 but original and well crafted. There are so many of them all over the world. It’s true it requires a little effort on the part of the consumers but it is well worth it. The Web 2.0 provides tools to look for, find and now locate affordable and not so easy-to-find wines.

All the selection of wines is based on blind tasting. I won’t make any comment on this choice: I’m not an enologist or a wine critic and have no opinion on the subject worth of mention. When they say blind tasting gets the truth out of a wine, I’m a little skeptical: why is it right to prefer a $15 cava over a $150 Dom Perignon and wrong to like a Dom Perignon? It’s just a matter of taste and education. I’m the last one to condemn somebody who likes a $3 Two Buck Chuck. As I already wrote, a wine is like a book: some people like reading detective stories or chick lit and others poetry or essays. There’s nothing wrong with it. But don’t tell me it is “un-American” to drink expensive wines because of their marketing strategy!

The Wine Trials 2010 is also very critic of wine critics and established magazines, such as The Wine Spectator. Critics of critics have been going on for many years. One of the answers provided by the Web 2.0 is the peer-to-peer recommendation system. Consumers have now a huge array of information through social media, forums, blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter. They can access this information instantly on their phone or through Internet.

Did I dislike this book? Not really. While reading it, I went from smiling to raising a perplexed eyebrow or being mildly offended. This said, I respect the effort behind the work: it is certainly very hard to carry such a tasting, even if I have a lot of reservations about the result. I also respect the thinking behind the work. Goldstein’s introductory chapters are worth reading thoroughly. As he says all along his book, the reader has to make up his/her own mind on the ideas and principles behind the book as well as on wine. Maybe the authors and I have to agree we disagree!

But what web site, what for and what use? My last post on “Does a winery need a web site?” generated interesting and well thought out comments from wine educators, winery owners and other readers.

First of all, it seems everybody thought a winery needed a web site. Some said a web site was the “brick and mortar” piece of their communication. I would call it a “click and mortar” but let’s not digress on semantics! The web site is usually seen as the place to send wine consumers, wine critics, educators and web users from Facebook, Twitter or any other social media to get information. I agree 100% on that point. But a web site can’t be “static” or it looses all its strength and usability. A “static” web site will lose visibility on any search engine if it is not regularly updated. If a once a year update is considered the norm, let’s forget about having a site. The site needs to be energized by news, tweets, videos and/or blog posts linked to social media.

Second, I didn’t get any comment on what kind of web site is needed. As for content, we usually see on most web sites a short presentation of the winery, the wines, a contact form and a news page (sometimes rather dated). It’s all good and well but what’s the point for the consumer? If a consumer knows and likes the wines, or if he heard about the wines from a friend or a forum/blog post, he’d like to be able to find and buy them. No information on the web site of the winery is no help. He’ll have to rely on the new search tools, like snooth.com, wine-searcher.com, cellar-tracker.com or cruvee.com. What about if he/she is not located in the country of the winery? What about if he/she is not familiar with those tools? All those questions are raised by the way most wineries’ web site are designed. They’re not consumer friendly. Most wineries design the site they want, not the site they need.

What I meant when I asked: “Does a winery need a web site?” was: if a winery has a web site, it has to be designed to help the consumer, not to look pretty or carry only information. A web site has to create a link between the winery and the consumer – through history, presentation of the team and description of the wines, of course – but also and mainly by helping the consumer to be a part of the life of the winery. Not only by giving him/her the way to buy the wine, but also to keep in touch with the winery and its team through the web site, the blog and all social media available. A web site has to address the consumers’ needs in order to fulfill its purpose. If it doesn’t, why invest in a web site?

For many years, the success of a communication strategy on the Web was measured by the traffic on the site or the click on a banner. It might not be still true. Because of the growing importance of social media, blogs and micro chats, it is more important for a winery to be present on the Net through all those channels.

I was talking to a winery manager a few weeks ago. He was complaining that all his actions on Facebook, Twitter and other social media didn’t bring much traffic to his web site. We looked at the mentions his winery was getting on the Net and we agreed it was more important to be talked about than to get traffic on the web site. Why is that? Consumers are all over the Internet. They might not keep in mind a specific brand. but when this brand’s name appears on the Net in their favorite blog or forum, or is mentioned on Twitter, it reminds them of the brand. Q.E.D!

What does it mean for a winery? It means… a lot of writing. It’s not an easy job when you are supposed at the same time to harvest, make the wines, sell them or present them at Pro-Wein or Vinexpo Hong Kong, to be also blogging, interfacing on Facebook, filming your latest event or chatting on Twitter. But it is worth the trouble. It is rewarding and a lot more efficient than a simple site.

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!

Marketers are always on the look out for new consumers. They seem to have bypassed an interesting category, the Boomer Woman. What is so different between a Boomer Man and a Boomer Woman? A Boomer Woman just spent 20 or 25 years of her life building her career, child rearing and managing a home. Women feel like they now have a lot of time and a lot more money to devote to themselves. Their discretionary income improved a lot and they now have an important professional and personal network. They are connected, they have a Facebook account and sometimes are even on Twitter.

According to a recent study by VibrantNation’s “Well-Connected and Wired,” a quantitative study of 1000 Boomer women, “boomer women influence 80% of the $2.1 trillion in consumer goods purchases made by the boomer demographic each year — the largest of any segment of the population. Every day, 8 of 10 boomers are online, making them the largest online consumer.”

What does it mean for brands in general? Most of the time, those women don’t refer to advertising or television to make their buying decisions. They listen to other women of their kind, whether on line or off line. They are ready to indulge and pamper themselves. How can a wine brand tap in this market? Wine and food are very seductive and part of everyday life. Wine brands should appeal to the tastes and skills of those women. Pink labels and silly names? Why not? Wine can be fun. If behind the pink label and the silly name, there is a good wine, then there will be a happy consumer. This happy consumer will refer the brand to her peers and this piece of good news will go around. QED!

Wine tourism is a difficult topic when you’re not a specialist of… tourism but love wine. Promoting both at the same time is a difficult exercise: wine is part of a local culture. When you didn’t travel to the place where the wine comes from, you discover a region through the wine. How to connect both?

Some people found the right answer and founded 10 years ago the “Great Wine Capitals Network” or GWC. The network includes the major wine regions of some parts of the world: Bordeaux in France, Mendoza in Argentina, Bilbao and Rioja in Spain, Mainz in Germany, Napa Valley in California, Cape Town in South Africa, Porto in Portugal, Firenze in Italy and now Christchurch in New Zealand. It is the only such network to encompass the so-called ‘Old’ and ‘New’ worlds of wine, and exists to encourage travel, education and business exchange between their internationally-renowned centers. In its 10 years of existence, the network has created many interesting initiatives: the “Best of Wine Tourism awards”, an annual international grant for students, organization of many symposiums and conferences as well as facilities to promote wine tourism.

The GWC is managed by its General Secretary, Catherine Leparmentier, based in Bordeaux, France. The group is very active on the Net with a Facebook group, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn Group and now a blog. Quite recent, the blog opened about 3 weeks ago but has already many interesting posts. I especially enjoyed the ones on Tourism 2.0 and the Vivanco Dinastio Wine Museum.

The Great Wine Capitals are really in Web 2.0! Long live to their blog!

Saturday Oct. 31st was THE day of the EWBC conference. We actually worked hard going from one session to an other one, getting in touch with each other and working on important topics: what is a social wine brand? What is the impact of the social media on wine travel? How can wineries answer the challenging issues brought by social media? What kind of relationship can wineries and wine bloggers build? What is the future of the social media in the wine industry?

Of course none of us brought a definitive answer to any of those questions. But a few ideas emerged of the lively and sometimes contradictory discussions while some problems were clearly addressed. Wineries in Europe are not really set to receive consumers and travelers. With the rise of the social media, can they afford to turn away a consumer and risk their reputation through a blog post (Winery X could not receive me for a tasting: how rude!), a Tweet or aFacebook notification (Don’t go to winery X)?

The way we use social media was also widely discussed. Should we have a very large and indiscriminated circle of friends on Twitter and Facebook or be more selective? Should we all try to be Gary V. or be ourselves? Should we make money with our blog or social media use or should we be more “conservative”? The session on “Monetising the social media” did not provide THE answer but helped clarifying the various issues: a commercial endeavour (nakedwines.com, a retailer such as Bibendum Wines or a wine travel site) will make a commercial use of the social media and they’re right to do so. But what about a wine blogger? How should (s)he use his/her influence if (s)he has any?

Doug Cook, founder of Ablegrape.com and now head of the Twitter Search, comforted a more selective approach of search engine and developed what he called “search engine friendliness”. He gave us useful tips on how to get good search engine results: trying to get the widest traffic might not be the best strategy as the web visitors are not qualified or relevant to the topic of our site or blog.

After so many hours of work, we needed a nice break which Charles Metcalfe, the “wine singer”, provided through a tasting of amazing Portuguese wines. We then ended the day at the Eleven Restaurant on their beautiful terrace overlooking “Lisbon by night” and nibbling on their delicate food.

EWBC might be over technically today. But there are still many things that happened we’ll discuss in the next few days. EWBC is just the once a year meeting allowing us bloggers, wineries, Facebook and Twitter friends to meet face to face and talk about social media, blogging and wine but it keeps linking us over the year until the next conference. The discussion will keep going on through social media between us and next year, when we’ll meet again (hopefully), we’ll have even more topics to talk about.

I just arrived at the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon. The conference started yesterday with the live tasting of Cortes de Cima and I’m really sorry I missed the experience.

But the fun began as soon as I stepped in the beautiful VIP Grand Hotel in Lisbon (5* – nothing less). I met Gabriella Opaz from Catavino who told me a conference by Ryan and Andre from Adegga was starting. I ran to my room, threw my bag in the closet and went back down. Ryan and Andre were lecturing wineries owners about launching a blog. Very interesting topic that generated a lot of questions from the audience.

The real fun will start at 5:00 pm with tastings and a great dinner and tomorrow, back to work. The EWBC agenda will keep the participants busy all day and the speakers will need a lot of energy to carry on. Stay tuned on twitter and facebook for more info!