In recent posts I have written about how to connect with friends and family to do social drinking online and the associated etiquette. Thanks to everyone who has responded and made comments…it seems to be a hot topic at the moment! In this post I’ll cover the approaches some wineries and wine distributors are using to share their wines and wine knowledge in this age of physical distancing.
Interestingly some of these approaches may actually continue after we go back to ‘normal’ – they’re great ways to connect to consumers without lengthy travel, the threat of booze buses and the associated carbon footprint. Maybe tastings have finally been brought into the 21st century?
The first method is a one-way tasting where you don’t actually have the wine to drink. This is where the person conducting the session can’t see you and tastes and describes the wine for you. This is commonly done via Facebook Live.
Pros:
- Free (no cost outlay)
- Quick and easy to setup and participate
- Works well for a large number of participants were interaction is impractical.
Cons:
- Impersonal
- You can’t try the wines
- Difficult to give feedback and get advice
The next method is a one-way tasting where you do have the wines. This allows you to follow along with the tasting and gain more from the experience. The wines can be shipped to you or purchased beforehand from a wine store. Once again it can be done through Facebook Live but some interaction can be done through chat/comments.
Pros:
- Relatively quick and easy to setup and participate
- Can fully experience the wines
- Works well for a large number of participants where interaction is impractical.
Cons:
- Cost and time to obtain the wines
- Difficult to give feedback and get advice
The next method is a two-way tasting where you both have the wines and can converse as you taste them. This allows you to gain much more from a personal experience. Again the wines can be shipped to you or purchased beforehand from a wine store. These are normally done through Google Hangouts Meet or Zoom and interaction can also be done through chat/comments.
Pros:
- Can fully experience the wines
- Can give feedback and get advice
- More intimate and boutique
Cons:
- Cost and time to obtain the wines
- Requires more time to setup and participate
- Doesn’t works well for a large number of participants where interaction is impractical.
I recently did a two-way tasting with Sanguine Estate where we got a bottle from our cellar (in my case an excellent 2012 Progeny Shiraz) and they retrieved the same wine from their cellar. We ended up with only four callers which allowed a lot of great interaction and information.
Two-way tastings are what we recommend at Wine Matchmaker – they’re the most personal method for remote wine tastings and education. To aid these we can supply reasonably priced back vintage wines from our selection, and if the participants like the wines they can buy more from our store. If this might be of interest to you please feel free to reach out to me and we can discuss it further.
In the meantime if you need any tips or advice then feel free to reach out to me on our Facebook page and sign up to my mailing list to get access to our newsletter and wine specials.
Cheers,
Antony.
