I often get wineries, and wine professionals, telling me that they don’t have time for blogging, twitter, facebook or otherwise. These are fine and all, but their “very prestigious” winery can’t delve into these “triffles”. So let me make this crystal clear, your customers want these things, and no matter how prestigious you are, you better offer them.

There are many important wineries using social tools to get new customers, and with the entrance of Dom Perignon into this arena, it might be easier to convince the less sure.

From their short press release:

Making Dom Pérignon’s purpose is double: Richard Geoffroy has long aspired to not only share his experiences as Chef de Cave and artist, but to also tell of his encounters and travels from the cellar in Epernay to the four corners of the world, at public events or behind closed doors. The blog will be a privileged channel to browse through Richard Geoffroy’s memories or project into Dom Pérignon’s future.

It is also a place to foster new relationships and communicate directly with Dom Pérignon, Champagne and wine enthusiasts.

With links to facebook and twitter on their site, I think we can safely say that “serious wineries” should be in social media. Then again, maybe you think you’re better than Dom? Serious wineries who are not willing to play in the social internet will be the wineries who are not interested in selling wine either.

Cheers to Dom! Now to save my pennies so that I can toast to them with some of their wine!

Ryan

• Does a winery still need a web site? – January 29, 2010
• Best of Portugal: See, Eat, Do- Ten Ideas – January 31, 2010
  - Great post about all I love in Portugal
• Gary Vaynerchuk on Consumer Expectations – January 22, 2010

• How To Make $$$$ With Twitter – January 21, 2010
• On paper, this is not such great value – January 21, 2010

I like Social Tasting note sites. I’ve been a Cellartracker user since before you could freely sign up for an account. We also help consult with Adegga.com a direct competitor to Cork’d, so please consider that when you read this article. None the less this article is meant to not attack Cork’d but rather raise some possible ethical conflicts that not only should be looked at by Cork’d but considered by all who are trying to help wineries out in todays online wine world.

I enjoy is Cork’d, as well as Gary Vee, but unfortunately, I had a very creepy feeling yesterday after talking to one of my clients. Cork’d, after wallowing in neglect since Gary Vaynerchuck’s aquistion in 2007, has recently hired on CEO Lindsay Ronga to turn things around and get Cork’d back on the map. This decision, from what we can tell, was to leverage Gary’s voice to build Cork’d into a dynamic space for wine lovers to play and a profitable property for the Vaynernation. So far, so good and I was all for it until I saw something yesterday that made me do a double take.

A client of ours was recently sent a document on how they could become a “Verified Winery” on Cork’d. For a fee of $999, you can become verified, gaining access to as a winery, a list of extra features. I found this at first to be a great way to both generate income, while allowing wineries to control their brands more effectively, that is until I saw what you get if don’t pay. Turns out, there’s no free option, or even a way for a winery to participate, unless they pay. You see if your a winery who doesn’t pay you are given a default winery page that looks like this:

No image of the logo, no link to the winery, no information at all. Basically a “deadbeat winery” look, suggesting that you don’t care enough to take the time to curate your image. It may not seem unreasonable until you contrast it with the content on a “Verified Winery Page”:

Notice on the “verified winery page” you receive a nice badge highlighting that you’re “verified”; which is at the very least, ambiguous, and at the most, misleading. As a “verified winery” you are allowed to add an image, links, a map of your winery, a list of your wines, etc. What bothers me is that “Verified Winery” seems to suggest that, “We’ve checked this winery out, and these people are who they say they are”. This level of credibility is something you would imagine they would do without charging, but no mention of money exchanging hands ever shows up on the site. In fact, if you click on the “Verified Winery” banner, this is what you are told:

About Verified Wineries

So what does verifying your winery mean? We want to make certain that Cork’d community members are engaging with an actual representative from the wineries that are included on our site. In order to do this we need to be in contact with you, the winery, to verify that our users are communicating with a genuine winery representative. An e-mail will be sent to us alerting us that you’ve attempted to claim your winery profile page. Once we’ve confirmed that you are an actual winery representative, your profile page will feature a Verified Winery badge. This enables you to engage, discuss, and promote your wine to a concentrated bunch of passionate winelovers!

Maybe I’m blind, but do you see anything about having to pay to be a “verified winery”? A user who is simply adding my notes one by one to Cork’d and participating in the community I might take from this that all the wineries not being verified are just lazy or irresponsible, or not paying attention. I’m mean, if it’s as simple as “claiming your profile” why wouldn’t all wineries do it? At the very least, they should mention this is a paid service that costs real money. We at Catavino Marketing work with many small wineries, and a check for $999 is not often written unless there is a tangible return on that money. Cork’d may at some point be a great place to send that check, but for some wineries, it’s just not a reality. The issue being that these small guys are completely left out of the game. No cash means no image or profile. On the “non-verified winery pages, you are offered a link “Claim this winery” and though I doubt many people click this, there is a small note on the page you’re taken too explaining that there is a fee involved:

Step 1 – So, what does verifying your winery mean? We want to make certain that Cork’d community members are engaging with an actual representative from your winery. After we verify you, and after your payment is received, your profile page will feature a Verified Winery badge — This enables you to beef up your profile page with your logo, enter in detailed winery information, engage, interact, and promote your wine to a massive number of Cork’d members.

Yet no mention of how much money is being requested.

What Cork’d offers beyond the profile page is a wealth of possible benefits from the perspective of a winery: things that I believe are worth the $999 investment, or soon will be when their user base grows. Access to mailing lists, front page exposure, and an ability to interact with user; all of which are extras that I would think as you go forward would be of great value for wineries.

Apart from all this there is one other problem. Cork’d is left with a small issue of value for their users. What good is a social tasting note site without good content about the wineries people are drinking wines from? Cork’d seems to be cutting their nose off to spite their face in this case. By letting wineries simply upload an image and a link, not to mention list their wines, they would be creating content for their users that would enrich the community. By charging for this basic information, you set up a barrier for wine lovers to research a winery, or learn more. Consequently, wine drinkers need to head over to Google or AbleGrape to find more info when they are researching their latest purchase. I guess maybe Cork’d doesn’t care.

If Cork’d wants to become a defacto Facebook for wine lovers, it needs better content and wine data. By excluding wineries from adding their info, or rather blackmailing them into it submitting it, they are not setting a standard in the wine world that I think many will look to favorably on.

Cheers,

Ryan Opaz

A confluence of factors has led to my landing in London, not one week after getting back from an extended holiday in the States. Meetings and future event planning all made for a trip that without a single landmark event, has allowed me to enjoy a few days of sightseeing and tastings. This opportunity has even afforded me the opportunity to attend Bibendum’s annual tasting at the amazing Saatchi Gallery in London.

I had heard about the event prior, and almost made it last year, but didn’t regret my inability to attend. But let’s be clear, the event is worth attending! Bibendum is one of the largest importers of fine wines in the UK and their annual event is reportedly the second biggest event in London for wine, right behind the London International Wine Fair. With over 4000 RSVP’d guests, the event can make some rather large claims.

What’s key to take note is not the tasting, but that this very mainstream and well respected wine importer, distributor, and online retailer has fully embraced social media; though they may still wonder what they have gotten themselves into. With the help of A&N Media, Bibendum has recently launched The Bibendum Times.

What is the Bibendum times you ask? Well depending on who you ask, you receive may receive a different answer. But at its root, The Bibendum Times is a virtual space where content about the wine world is being communicated with a team of bloggers and Bibendum employees.

Comprised of travel photos, wine tastings, food tasting notes, the site has the potential to be a hub for not only Bibendum’s customers, mainly the retail and restaurant trade, but also by extension, their customer’s customers. Social media is about creating an environment where people congregate to converse. What I find interesting is that Bibendum is willing to spend a signifiacant chunk of cash in order to create content whose audience is not necessarily defined yet. Social media can provide content for a hungry audience, and with access to fine wines and wine stories, Bibendum is able to create a destination – a destination for wine lovers can learn, explore and communicate.

The site has almost the perfect storm needed to create a destination for wine lovers: design, content and solid wine knowledge. The question is, are the retailers and restrauntuers able to see the value in what their wine provider has created? I would hope so. Retailers have been given a community hand made for them to use to cultivate sales. Smart retail shops would make sure that information is given to customers at each purchase “To learn more and to tell us what you think…” or something similar.

The one element missing, however, is the interaction aspect. Yes you can send a twitter message ,or comment on a post, but Bibendum is a wine portal, and they should be soliciting feedback about the wines. This one simple step would make this site a step towards total customer engagement. I feel they maybe headed that way, but it’s a significant gap in the overall value of the site. In the end, the site does not benefit from the full “stickiness” factor that would be possible with a bit more interactivity.

But let’s be clear, from my perspective, this is the first time an importer/distributor is engaging the public in a fully social way. Having talked to and received feedback from several of the Bibendum employees, they truly hope this initiative will be picked up by both their customers in the form of social campaigns from restaurants and stores, as well as by their winery clients. When I inquired on how many wineries have been active in the project, only 2 or 3 were reported. As far as retailers and restaurants, the answer was a bit higher, but there’s still ample amount of room for growth.

The industry is changing. This we know. Bibendum may not know exactly what tomorrow will hold, but they know that they need to adapt; and rather than waiting to find out what they missed, they’re helping to create tomorrow’s wine culture. Bravo.

Enjoy the short video with Gal Zohar who is the Annual Tasting and PR manager.

Ryan

Gal Zohar – Bibendum Times from ryan and gabriella opaz on Vimeo.

A quick interview with Gal Zohar of Bibendum wines about the role of social media at their annual tasting.