Two years ago, in January 2008, I shyly started blogging on wine, wine brands and innovation in the wine industry. My goal then was to update on   a regular basis the contents of my then to-be-published book, “Wine Brands”.  18 months after the publication and over a few hundreds posts, it’s time to move on to something different.  The blog had already by itself driven me to other places and horizons.

What’s different? The blog is still the expression of what I think important in the wine industry : new technologies, creative initiatives and brands, innovative software or strategies, new trends and new consumers.  I’m just moving a step ahead by integrating it more deeply in my professional practice. I’ll still be searching for new trends and new consumers, watching new markets but I’ll be more aware of the European side of technology. Weirdly enough, at a time when the European wine consumption is sharply declining, I sense some  growing interest in the French and European wine industry for innovation. A new generation of winemakers and vineyards’ managers is rising and opening the doors to a fascinating new world. Welcome in winebrandsblog.com generation 2!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

I’m fascinated by the use of the Web 2.0 tools made by consultants, wineries, start-ups in the wine business. Everyday there is a new site, a new application, a new idea by someone or a company. We know VinTank and its super innovative process, Cruvee, ablegrape.com, snooth.com, thewinespies.com, vinobilia.com and many many others. Don’t be offended if I didn’t mention you: I’d like to finish writing my post before breakfast tomorrow morning!

Is the user of the Net – you, me, anybody who is not in the business of producing wine or communicating/selling/marketing wine – as innovative and creative? Do we use those tools to organize a trip to a wine country? I just read the post of Rebecca Kelley on her trip to Napa Valley. She used yelp.com and an iPhone to identify the wineries she’d like to visit. This strategy requires from the wineries to be social media savvy. And it worked! Rebecca had a wonderful time.

Could we do the same thing in Europe? Why not? More and more wineries are now now using social media for marketing and branding: some have blogs regularly updated, some have mobile sites available from iPods or 3G phones, a lot have Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. They’re accessible also on various wine communities who share tasting notes or trip experiences. Unfortunately we don’t have any yelp.com – yet! – but it could be a good idea for an European entrepreneur to start such a site.

Whatever the outcome of this idea among European start-ups, it seems the European wine world is getting more and more Web 2.0 savvy. My next travel trip will be done only using Web 2.0 tools and I’m sure it will be a great adventure!