Tweetup or die, says Rick Bakas. If you want to sell wine to the generation drinking more fruit of the vine than any previous American generation, host a Twitter tasting.
While most California wineries are stuck in a recessionary downdraft, sales are climbing at Napa Valley's St. Supery Winery, where Bakas is director of social media. Hosting 27 tweetups since September, wine sales are up 35% for the first quarter of this year when compared to the same period in 2009, Bakas says.
Going online increases visability
It's not a radical concept, says Bakas. “The digital space is just another place where people talk to each other.” But instead of 20 people talking to each other at a traditional tasting where the winemaker has flown in to host a dinner party for wine collectors and journalists, there are 200 people sitting at home with a bottle of the same wine, tasting it at the same time and twittering back and forth with each other about what they think. The winemaker (Michael Scholz, in the case of St. Supery) is sitting at his desk at the winery, available via video to answer their questions.
Other vintners are following St. Supery's lead. More than 50 wineries have experimented with Twitter tastings, says Kendall Johnson with Charles Communications, a PR firm that has helped create Twitter tastings for winery clients including Wente and Deloach Vineyards. “They have become part of the discussion with every marketing plan.”
Twitter events draw young participants
Wente Vineyards uses TasteLive.com, a platform created by Braintree, Mass. wine retailer Craig Drollett. Any winery or wine group can organize a Twitter tasting anywhere using the online site. “The viral nature of Twitter means that more people hear about Wente wines and get to talk to me," says fourth generation winemaker Karl Wente. “We get a younger audience. And our sales were up 2% in 2009, which was a down year.”
“Twitter tastings are going to be a part of my life for a long time to come,” Wente says, and that's a good thing. While he still believes in the importance of face-to-face meetings, with Twitter, “I reach people I wouldn't otherwise reach.”
When you count the number of friends following tweets from folks who are participating directly in the tasting, the number of people St. Supery reaches with a Twitter tasting can be staggering. “We estimate that 150,000 to 225,000 people are seeing tweets about our wines,” says Bakas. “Nothing else could get us that reach."
An American invention, Twitter tastings began with more problems than promise, according to some publicists. There were gaffs in the presentations and glitches in getting wine to people. Wineries are solving the problems by making it easier to get the wines, often at a discount. “Now we tie retailers directly in with consumers through the tastings,” says Johnson.
Tweetups work in different ways. For a group of bloggers, a winery may ship samples of the wines directly to everyone involved in the tastings. It's not legal in most states to give away wine to consumers, so wineries pair with retailers to offer in-store discounts or online coupons as incentives to attend.
The early adopters are a geeky bunch, says Bakas. But St. Supery's tweetups are evolving to embrace a broader range of wine fans. The winery has helped organize six international Twitter tastings showcasing a broad range of wines from several producers. At many of these events, the live Twitter feed is projected on a screen at a central location with perhaps 100 tasters sipping the wines while they follow the comments on the screen.
Participant numbers are skyrocketing
Last November, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon tweetup involved more than 20 producers. It was so successful that St. Supery helped to organize a California Cab tasting in January. A month later, a Sauvignon Blanc tasting attracted 600 tweeters who posted 3,600 tweets in two hours. On May 6, a 24-hour Chardonnay twitter tasting with participants coordinated by hosts around the globe resulted in 6,000 individual tweets. “Twitter tastings have a life of their own now,” Bakas says.
When Bakas started tweeting in 2008, he was just another wine enthusiast eager to engage in an endless dialogue about eating and drinking, 140 characters at a time. St. Supery hired him to be its first director of social media last August, and he threw his first Twitter tasting one month later. That makes Bakas a social media expert, or at least he thinks it does. This month, he releases a how-to book he calls “Quick Bites: 75 Savory Tips for Social Media Success.”
“Wineries are trying to connect with the millennial generation, which is drinking wine but there is no brand loyalty,” he says. “They are smart and like being able to make smart choices. Twitter tastings allow wineries to give them what they want.”
Corie Brown, the co-founder and general manager of Zester Daily, is an award-winning food writer at work on a book about climate change and wine.
Photo: St. Supery Vineyards & Winery winemaker Michael’s Scholz's Twitter page.
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Maybe all the bird wineries (Adler fels, Eyrie, Duckhorn, Duxup, Hawkcrest, Heron,Screaming Eagle, Duck Pond, Osprey s Dominion, Falcon Crest, Goosecross, Eaglepoint,etc) should have their own tweet.
Will eventually the beer and or distilled spirits take over this concept?? Instead of going to a bar we ll pour ourselves a scotch and soda and go on line??
Or is it that 'on tweet'??