According to the Silicon Valley Bank’s Wine Division 2021 State of the Industry report, restaurants and tasting room sales made up about 43 percent of the average USA winery’s sales prior to April 2020.
       
Government issued shelter-in-place orders, closing both channels.  Wineries scrambled to replicate the in-house winery experience online to stay financially solvent.

The New Remote Wine Tasting Room Experience

Wineries were quick to turn their in-person tasting room into a virtual experience in order to survive.    

Every winery creates their own unique model for a remote wine tasting experience. Initially, wineries offered a wide variety of experiences and price points. Many wineries offered free online “happy hour” style events. These appeared on social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Choose a live host or pre-recorded sessions.”]

Others created lower-priced tasting packs that included access to a virtual a host. This host in a pre-recorded session, imparted information about the winery and the wines.

Today most wineries have invested in new technology and packaging for the wine. This allows them to create remote wine tasting experiences that more closely replicate an in-person tasting experience.

From Full-Sized Bottles to Tasting-Size Samples

Historically, most wineries have packaged wine shipments to include full-sized 750 ml bottles. So when they focused on virtual tastings during the pandemic, the shipment included full-sized bottles.
       
A full-sized bottle might contain too much wine for a remote wine tasting experience. So Clos Du Val Winery in the Napa Valley included a Coravin (wine preservation system) in the package so that the consumer could conserve the wine for a later use.

But now, nearly a year into the pandemic and the new focus on virtual tasting events, wineries like the Paso Robles’ Onx Winery is sending 2-ounce samples of their wine in their tasting kits in response to consumer demand.

Wine and Food Pairing Kits

St. Supery, an exclusive award-winning winery in the Napa Valley, offers an entire remote wine tasting  experience with their virtual seminars. The St. Supery team creates regularly scheduled online sessions designed to replicate an actual wine tasting experience.

The vineyard manager makes an appearance via video to explain harvest conditions, while the winery’s “Chef Tod” creates main courses and salads specially designed to pair with the wine showcased during the event.

What’s unique about these virtual tastings is that consumers may show themselves on video if they wish, drinking the wine in their tasting kit and eating the food made from one of Chef Tod’s suggested recipes.

Large Online retailers, such as Wine.com, are also launching remote wine tasting events featuring celebrities. The subject ranges from producers such as Francis Ford Coppola speaking about their own wine, to wine experts like Kevin Zraly (best-selling author of several wine books) talking about a specific wine region.

Ingredients for Successful Remote Wine Tasting  

Nearly a year into the pandemic, wineries have launched remote wine tasting events. These use a combination of virtual wine tasting kits and Internet-based meeting technology such as zoom.

Remote wine tasting kits are similar. Each pack contains wine, collateral material about the winery, and sometimes branded wine glasses or wine openers. Recipe cards so that guests can match the wine with food can be a bonus.

Kassidy Clark, Director of Marketing for Onx Wines in Paso Robles, says that her team wants the remote wine tasting kit to excite the consumer when they receive it in the mail. “The “unboxing” of the kit should be a joyful, and satisfying, event,” she says.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Tips for success include a simulcast on Youtube.”]

Kat Stark, Director of Experience at Wine.com, has compiled five tips that she believes are the basis for a successful remote wine tasting event. They include wine tasting notes, food and wine pairing suggestions, technical notes from the winemaker or vineyard manager, and tasting mats the consumer can print out.

In terms of the tasting itself, Ms. Stark suggests limiting the remote wine tasting to an hour. She also encourages consumers to purchase wine in advance. Ms. Stark also encourages consumers to ask questions in advance. Finally, she encourages wineries to simulcast the remote wine tasting on YouTube.

Remote Wine Tasting: Final Thoughts

Robert McMillan, Executive Vice President and Founder of the Silicon Valley Bank Wine Division, notes that the pandemic serves as a much-needed wake-up call for USA wineries.

For years now, he has been warning wineries that relying on consumers to stumble into any tasting room, even in the prestigious Napa Valley, is an inappropriate business model.   

Mr. McMillan notes the pandemic has forced wineries to invest in technology that will allow them to market and sell wine online.

Even when the pandemic ends, he predicts it could be some time before tourists will travel comfortably again so that the investments in remote tasting events and online marketing are a positive outcome.

The post ?3 “Secrets” For Remote Wine Tasting You’ll Love appeared first on AWINESTORY.COM.

Highlights from Wine Business Monthly Technology and Financial Webinar

Are you curious about wine business trends 2020?

Most of us know that e-commerce is booming in the US wine industry.

Some wineries boast record sales, but others struggle.

Why?

What role does technology play into a winery’s bottom line?

Virtual tastings have been an important way to sell wine since COVID-19 first closed tasting rooms.

But what are the recent wine business trends?  

Wine Business Monthly Wine Industry Technology and Financial Webinar

In mid-September 2020, Wine Business Monthly held a two-day conference focusing on technology and finances in the US Wine Sector.

Enthusiastic speeches alone from Annette Alvarez-Peters, former wine buyer for Costco, and Mel Dick, President, Wine Division and Senior Vice-President of Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, energized and enlightened.

They covered wine business trends that included online purchases, as well as new packaging for wine.

Wine Business Monthly Webinar: Hidden Gems

In roughly a dozen panel sessions and presentations, wine market experts revealed “hidden gems” and lessons learned from surviving—and even thriving—during COVID-19.

Machine Learning? Artificial Intelligence? How Insights from Microsoft Can Help Your Winery Thrive – Wine Business Trends for 2020.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”How Insights from Microsoft Can Help Your Winery Thrive”]

Machine Learning: Training the Wine Consumer

Most of us are familiar with how Amazon quickly learns our preferences in literature and clothing.

We see how this online retailer instantly suggests “also bought” or “similar to” items for our perusal.

In her talk titled Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine Learning (ML) and Recommendations to Elevate Experience, Ms. King spoke about the tests Microsoft performs to show wine business trends.

Particularly the importance of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in predicting the customer’s (already established) preferences.

While almost everyone in the wine industry will agree that machine learning is the key to selling more wine, Ms. King highlighted some challenges specific to the wine industry.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Amazon quickly learns our preferences in literature and clothing – now also wine“]

Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in the Wine World

In the Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning world, success depends on user data.

First challenge – In the wine industry, “user data” remains scattered across retailers and distributors.

Second Challenge – wine prices range widely from under $10 to over $100. US wine drinkers range from absolute beginners to seasoned collectors.

Third Challenge—the specific language of wine often defines logic (at least, where Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is concerned).

In normal parlance, the opposite of “dry” is “wet.” But in the wine world, this means a wine that is not sweet.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”In the wine industry, “user data” remains scattered across retailers and distributors. “].

Click here for Wine Discovery Resources

How to Elevate the Consumer Experience: Wine Industry Trends 2020

Elevating the Wine Consumer Online Buying Experience

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Elevating the consumer experience can be the “keyword” of Wine Industry Trends 2020″]

Not every winery is yet at the level to use Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in their e-commerce.

Yet as the two-day conference went on, a surprising number of medium-sized wineries already have highly skilled chief technology officers overseeing e-commerce.

In her presentation on wine business trends, Ms. King also stressed the importance of Machine Learning to “elevate the consumer experience.”

By this, we can interpret it to mean that machine learning and artificial intelligence make it faster, easier, and more efficient to buy the right product.

And in a very broad sense of the word, elevating the consumer experience is what this conference was all about.

It can be the “keyword” of Wine Industry Trends 2020

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”machine learning and artificial intelligence make it faster, easier, and more efficient to buy the right product.]

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Click here for Wine Discovery Resources

The Virtual Tasting Room: Elevating the Consumer Experience

First of all, what is the “consumer experience” in a virtual tasting?

And does it really need to be elevated at all?

If you’re a Wine Business Monthly (WBM), subscriber,  you’ve read how various wineries have held virtual tastings since COVID-19 forced tasting rooms to close. (You can search for them on the WBM website).

Both the enlightening WBM Packaging and Online Selling conferences also touched on virtual tasting events.

This two-day wine business trends seminar focused more directly on technology and finance regarding virtual tastings.

And also, in line with the wine industry conference theme, many panels also focused on how to elevate the consumer experience within the virtual tasting room environment.

Wine Industry Veterans: Setting the Tone

With his 63 years in the wine industry. Southern Glazer’s Mel Dick discussed how the pandemic changed consumer wine drinking and buying behaviors.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Many panels also focused on how to elevate the consumer experience within the virtual tasting room environment.”].

Wine Business Trends Selling Wine Online

The New Wine Consumer: Living in a Cocoon

“The Most Relevant consumer trend to dominate in the next ten years is cocooning.”

Today more wine consumers—and new wine consumers—shopping online.

Kaumil Gajrawala, Managing Director, Beverages, Household & Personal Care Products, Food Retail & Wellness at Credit Suisse Securities, elaborated on this consumer retail wine trend in his presentation.

In more than a dozen financial slides and graphs covering every aspect of wine business trends, the basic message is that consumers are spending money on their house and related furnishings—because they are staying inside their home.

As Wine Business Monthly highlighted in their Central Coast webinar, consumers are spending more money on wine in supermarkets because they are entertaining at home.

The trend of wine consumers spending money on their home and home entertaining (in the form of wine) is a trend Mr. Gajrawala feels will continue well into the future.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”The trend of wine consumers spending money on their home and home entertaining”].

Surviving and Thriving with Data: Tips, Strategies, and Tools

This lively, engaging panel featured top wine market experts including:

Alex Kessler, manager, consumer insights and business intelligence, O’Neill Vintners & Distillers;

Stuart Henry, director of technology, DuMol Winery;

Jill Whitfield, senior marketing manager, Biltmore Estate;

Ashley Trout, owner & winemaker, Brook & Bull and Vital Wines:

According to the panel, over 55% of all wineries collect and analyze consumer data.

The focus of this talk was to underscore the importance for wineries to collect—and manage—customer data.

More than ever, wineries must rely on wine clubs and past purchases to be profitable.

But how much data do wineries really need on their customers?

How can they reach out to buyers, or wine club members of the past?

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”More than ever, wineries must rely on wine clubs and past purchases to be profitable.” display_tweet=”].

Wine Business Trends: Is it Possible to Push Too Hard?

Click here for Wine Discovery Resources

Data “Reshaping” in the Winery

The panel spoke at length about new technologies, including “data reshaping,” that allows winery personnel to analyze data from past purchases and classify customers in a variety of ways. All the wine business trends panelists agree data collection is imperative and growing more important daily. The panelists underscored that regular contact with customers is important. But how much contact is too much?  What frequency means that the winery is ‘pushing too hard?’ Customers, the panel concluded, might be presented with a box on a form, allowing them to dictate how often, and by what means, they wish to be contacted. 

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”But how much contact is too much? What frequency means that the winery is ‘pushing too hard?“]

The Virtual Tasting Room: Getting Your Website in Order

  Russ Mann, CEO, WineBid;

 Celeste Hope, director of digital marketing, Hope Family Wines;

  Sarah Conde, digital consumer success, Stoller Wine Group;

  Michelle Kaufmann, communications director, Stoller Wine Group;

This dynamic panel focused on how wineries navigated from the tasting floor to a virtual experience after COVID-19 closed their tasting rooms.

Panelists also highlighted the importance of improving the online website experience.

The Stoller Wine Group, for example, used a combination of storytelling and videography to make virtual customers feel as if they were in the actual tasting room.

“Storytelling is the oldest form of connecting,” Stoller explained. “It’s a way to bond and connect with people. It helps people engage in our brand.”

The wine business trends panel discussed the importance of connecting with the consumer and reaching them on a personal level.

It was also felt important to segment their list or club members.

A key recommendation from the panel urged wineries to focus on their top twenty percent of consumers, favoring them with special allocations and new releases.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Focus on your top twenty percent of consumers, favoring them with special allocations and new releases.”]

Click here for Wine Discovery Resources

Best Winery Practices for Virtual Wine Tasting Events

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Wineries also agree Virtual Wine Tasting Events are here to stay, even after the COVID-19 situation is resolved.”]

Since managing editor Erin Kirschenmann first began highlighting virtual tasting events in Wine Business Monthly, these virtual tasting events have become more sophisticated.

Wineries also agree Virtual Wine Tasting Events are here to stay, even after the COVID-19 situation resolves.

One reason is that it is increasingly unrealistic for wineries to expect wine lovers to travel to a wine region, rent a hotel room or Airbnb, and buy wine.

It is much more practical to bring the winery to the consumer in the form of a well-planned virtual tasting.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”One reason is that it is increasingly unrealistic for wineries to expect wine lovers to travel to a wine region, rent a hotel room or Airbnb, and buy wine.”]

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”The panelists agreed that expecting consumers to open four or six wines during a tasting event is too much.”]

Evolution of the Tasting Room 

Though only six months have passed since the first wave of virtual tasting events in April 2020, much has changed.

The panelists agreed that expecting consumers to open four or six wines during a tasting event is too much.

The new trend is to creating tasting packs with smaller bottles.

Besides having a winery staff member deliver the tasting event, many wineries are also getting their winemaker involved.

Some wineries are even pairing virtual tastings with cooking demonstrations from the winery or local chefs. For example, St. Supery has a dynamic program that gets team members, club members, and wine lovers involved with live cooking demonstrations and wine pairing. 

Stoller Wine Group mentioned that they have four videographers on staff, and that this helps enliven the virtual tasting experience.

Retaining Wine Club Members

Wine clubs are the bread and butter for many wineries. Keeping wine club members engaged should be front and center.

A newsletter can be part of this engagement. Celeste Hope of Hope Family Wines mentioned that often light-hearted and fun newsletters resonate the best.

She mentions she often writes about things from her family life in relation to the winery, or what is going on with her children and pets. “Even cooking videos do well,” she says.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”She often writes about things from her family life in relation to the winery, or what is going on with her children and pets.”]

Wine Industry Trends: Conclusion

Technology—especially for smaller and family owned wineries—may prove initially challenging.

Yet adapting to technology is best addressed sooner rather than later.

[socialpug_tweet tweet=”Technology—especially for smaller and family owned wineries—may prove initially challenging.

Yet adapting to technology is best addressed sooner rather than later.”]

Many thanks to Wine Business Monthly for making this possible. 

Click here for Wine Discovery Resources

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