A New Approach To Introducing Wine Directly to Consumers
Mark Norman
Lifetime Wine Lover, mostly retired wine professional. Future Centenarian living a focused life! Experimenting in nutritional farming for the purpose of living a healthy lifestyle, fulfilling a vision and a passion!
Last night I attended my first Virginia Wine Chat in person...a big thank you to Frank Morgan, Kerry Woolard, Jonathan Wheeler, and the entire Albemarle Estates staff.
Rather than write about the wines (I know Frank, Tricia Traugott, and Elizabeth Smith are...or will be doing this shortly) I would suggest to many to think about what was happening there.
In the beautiful Library room (see pictures) about 25 people sat around trying 4 wines from the Trump selection...but more than this people across the country (from Dave McIntyre in MD..to others in Virginia...to Elizabeth in California...to many guests at the Trump properties spread out across America) were united virtually trying the wines.
How often over the past 5 years have I had to tell producers that it is not that Americans don't like their wines...they simply do not know they exist? How many importers struggle to get a foothold in many tens of thousands of brands with one wine?
How many times have I had conversations with wine experts from around the globe and we always reach the same conclusions...unknown grape varieties struggle because there needs to be an education of consumers but no one seems able to do it?
If you are unfamiliar with Virginia Wine Chat they use video streaming to broadcast the event and using a Twitter feed allow virtually attendees to ask questions.
Last night Trump's winemaker (Jonathan Wheeler) shared his enthusiasm and insights into the wines he makes and how his love for sparkling wine has catapulted the selection of his sparkling wines into the limelight.
Do you think maybe that some of those other struggling wines would benefit from this kind of exposure?
Wine industry people should be passed the "I'm amazed" stage of technology and start embracing this capability to bring the message to their ultimate customers...wine loving consumers!
Epicurean - Skeptic - Observer - Chicago forever ! |DipWSET Level 3|
9yMark, congrats for your first speech. And I agree with you by the fact that education is the key. So many people believe that wine is a grape. I explain that all the time : in the New World, the names of the wines are attached to the name of the grape. In the Old Wolrd, we do not use the name of the grape often. Because of our history and the appellations we have created. I am talking about : France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, etc... So yes "we" have to educate the consumers about what the wines are. And know I am in the Cognac industry, trust me it's the same thing. Maybe worst because people have no idea of what is cognac really.