Virtual Tasting On Twitter

Aussie reader Ken Burgin sent me a link to this story about Bin Ends, a Massachusetts retail wine store, doing a virtual tasting on Twitter.  The part that I found most interesting was this:

The first online tasting, held last week, drew 200 viewers from around the globe. About 10% of them ordered the promoted wines in advance from the company’s web site, according to a company spokesman.

Another interesting experiment using online technology to sell more wine, much like Gary V. deciding to do Wine Library TV.  There's nothing preventing a winery from doing something similar except time (always in short supply)  and interest.  Here's a link to the actual store announcement on their Web site (under "Tastings").

I think the right approach would be to try it out with a small group of your tech-savvy wine club members or regular customers.  They would view it as being "on the inside."  Based on your results, you could then decide if it's right for you.

(Here's a wacky idea - participate in a Bin End's virtual tasting, and see what you think!)

If you keep doing the same thing, you'll keep getting the same results.  This is a good mantra for making wine, but not so much for marketing it.

(Darn! Lenn scooped me on this one.)

Comments

[Wayne Young]

I hate to say stuff like " I thought of this stuff years ago," but I did, or WE did at Italian wine Merchants in 1999, and we had HUGE plans to do online virtual tastings with wines bought at the store, and tasted online. Then the internet bubble burst. and we held off. See that? One needs always to pick up that dropped ball...

[binendswine]

Thanks for the great post! We're a couple of hours away from Twitter Taste LIVE #2 and by the chatter online, it looks like its going to explode! Thanks again!