Vender vino

The EatsandTwitts second anniversary.

What is EatsandTwitts? It is an event that meets the most staunchest Twitterers every three month, seeking closer ties and meet personally with other Twitterers with whom they are already in touch via Twitter.

It seems like yesterday when the organizers of EatsandTwitts started this venture. They had a great intuition and excellent fore view, realizing that they could fulfill a necessity.

Perhaps this event is one more demonstration that Internet and Social Media doesn’t replace a way of life but enhances it and is complementary to that way of life. The twitterer’s desire is to have a personal contact with internet users. Twitterers like to establish a closer and better relationship with people who have met before and seen each other at least once.

In the other hand, Twitterers are generating trends and also have the tendency to be the type of people who try many different new products and also make recommendations about this new products to the network users, friends and acquaintances. This is what has become known as “early adopters“, a name most desirable by many advertisers.

In these EatsandTwitts meetings, twitterers simply come to eat, drink, chat and of course act as a twitterer.

Their twitter hashtag is: #EatsAndTwitts.

A good number of companies have seen an opportunity in becoming sponsors of this event which is carried out on a quarterly basis in 13 cities simultaneously, very soon some other Spanish cities will be joining the event. Further more, next EatsandTwitts event will be held in New York.

Many wineries and world wine players are questioning themselves on how to participate in the conversations that are taking place in Internet. This is one of the ways of doing it.

But is it profitable to become a sponsor? The actual sponsors are satisfy with their investment and hardly can’t hide a grin on their face, for sure some of them get better profit than others. What it really matters is to become a sponsor and be creative in the sponsorship proposal. The organizers have related data that shows the significant impact of their events on the social media and network.

Taking into account that a picture is worth a thousand words, the following are a couple of videos from two of the events.

This post in English: El EatsandTwitts mola.

I believe in private enterprise, because I believe that it’s the real driving force of the economy and that it generates added value and wealth. I firmly believe that the Government (or public institutions in general) should oversee and regulate the market economy, and create infrastructure and execute certain projects that private enterprise cannot or does not want to involve itself in. And I have serious doubts on what benefits accrue to the country from certain investments made by public institutions.

But even so, there are some public institutions that actually do what they’re supposed to do and invest in projects that private enterprise can’t or won’t handle. And a good example of these public bodies are certain Denominación de Origen.

I was invited by Mercados del Vino y la Distribución (MVD) to the event that they organized last Monday 15^th November for INCAVI, a body that is part of the Catalonian Regional Government, and which is responsible for “Catalonia, Country of Great Wines”. First there was a short introduction by Mónica Muñoz Blanco, the general director of MVD and then a talk by  Oriol Guevara, General Director of INCAVI.

In the audience were quite a few people from the press and specialized wine critics from Madrid.

Oriol Guevara’s presentation made it very clear that at INCAVI they knew how to add value to Catalonian wineries.

They start with the premise that most Catalonian wineries (like in the rest of Spain) do a wonderful job in certain areas but need help in other areas.

They know that competing on price and volume is a strategy that they do not recommend, and that successful competition in the global market has to be based on a different strategy…

… which consists of making very high quality wines, using modern technology, and without losing a single iota of authenticity and identity.

… and which also consists of recovering autochthonous grape varieties that used to be grown in Catalonia 50, 100 or even 200 years ago. Because today’s market is based on differentiation, authenticity, recovering one’s roots, maintaining one’s traditions; it’s based on making the most of wine tourism as a means of generating an alternative stream of income that improves a winery’s bottom line and allows it to differentiate itself even more and to build a stronger brand image. It’s about telling the story of each winery so that a consumer can really appreciate and understand the wine; a story that is interesting and that can reach out to a much wider audience than just wine experts and specialists and bring them closer to the wineries and the world of wine.

…it’s based on using the internet to enhance a winery’s presence and image.

… it’s based on being aware that the local market is important, but that the international market is even more important…

… and in order to be able to tell a winery’s story, both at local level and at the international level, the use of the internet and Social media is vital.

Nowadays, it’s perfectly possible to transmit authenticity and personal stories using new technologies. And that wider audience, which is probably less expert and more widely differentiated, says that it likes what it hears.

In addition, wineries can now get first-hand feedback from their customers, on their tastes and preferences. Today, success is assured for those wineries that are able to obtain and interpret those tastes and preferences, by supplying products that are in line with their target market.

Definió Oriol a estos vinos que se están elaborando en Cataluña como vinos con futuro. Y estoy de acuerdo con él.

Oriol defined the wines that are being produced in Catalonia as ‘wines of the future’. And I agree with him.

I’d hardly ever heard anyone from the production side of the wine world speak about the above things that Oriol spoke about.

I have to say that things are moving in the wine world. One of the places they say that they have heard the message from the market is INCAVI. And they say that they’re also willing to transmit messages too and to do some 21^st century marketing. Congratulations to INCAVI for their innovative work! And part of their work was organizing this event, which everyone enjoyed so much, with the aim of promoting the wines of Catalonia.

The whole presentation was a tremendous learning experience. Using drawings and photos, Oriol explained each and every common factor shared by the wines of Catalonia. He vividly explained the enormous efforts that are being made to recover autochthonous grape varieties.

After his presentation there was a tasting of 22 wines, where we could appreciate not only the common factors shared by Catalonian wines, but also the high quality and diversity.

The presentation was like one of those movies that you see sometimes that you really liked and would like to see again, rather than risk going to see a different one which would probably be boring and awful.

¿And what wines did we taste?

 White
Roura xarel.lo 2009
Torres Nerola xarel.lo 2008
Costers del Sio, Viña del Sios 2009
Castell D´Encus Taleia 2009
Marti Fabra Masía Carreras 2008
Albet y Noya Xarel.lo Classic 2009
Roqueta Abadal 2009
Escala Dei Les Brugueres 2009
De Muller Muscat Sec
Agrícola Sant Josep Vallmajor 2009 Garnaxa blanca
Agrícola Sant Josep Llagrimes de Tardor 2008
Concavins Clos Montblanc 2008
Perelada Finca Malaveïna 2006
Joan D´Anguera L´Argarta 2008
Coop Masroig Les Sorts Vinyes Velles
Can Bonastre Nata 2006
Roqueta Abadal 3.9
Coop SCL Onix Fusio
De Muller Aureo Dulce
Castellroig Gran Reserva

Rosé
Coop Sarral Portell 2009 Rosat trepat

Red
Roura Roura 3 ceps 2006
Ca n´Estruc L´Equilibrista 2007

Related posts:
Wineclan, the project of Monica Munoz Blanco (Mercados del Vino), will celebrate a party at Telefonica.
Doing new things to keep learning.

This post in Spanish: Presentación en Madrid de “Cataluña, país de grandes vinos”. Vinos con futuro.

What can I say about my trip to Vienna?

It has been like falling in love in slow motion –surprisingly, the same way it happened in Lisbon a year before in the previous editions of the EWBC.

In the days before the event, my head was completely out of this world. I gradually started to visualize my stay in Austria and to recall familiar faces I was to meet. It was a very nice feeling. Right on the plane, I met some of those people.

When we landed in Vienna, I suddenly felt I wanted to play the violin –and I don’t even know how to hold it!

The programme was perfectly organized. This was mainly due to the fact that the organizers –who arranged everything with great professionalism– were also participants to the event, and they wanted to enjoy it too.

Presentations? Michael Cox from Wines of Chile made a fantastic presentation. They talked about Chile as a great wine-maker, its wineries and, finally, its wines. This helped us understand why Chile is becoming a first-line reference in the wine global market.

What can I say about Wines from Austria? Not only they presented their wines, but also they organized the event in wonderful premises, the city of Vienna and their country with all its wineries backing their presentation. Our Austrian friends did really well. They have a wonderful country and a breathtaking city and their wines are simply gorgeous. Their wines (mainly white)have music. Their red wines are a bit flat, at least this is my opinion bearing in mind I come from Spain where red wines are much more expressive.

There were quite a lot of Austrian wineries present at the event, as well as some Portuguese (Wines of Portugal) and Spanish that offered their spaces, time and wines to the participants.

The conferences by Elin McCoy, who wrote The Emperor of Wine; Rowan Gormley, CEO of nakedwines.com; Evelyne Resnyk, author of Wine Brands; and Andre Ribeirinho, CEO of Adegga.com, were really interesting.

Dinners. I spent three nights in Vienna and I had the chance to experience three very different styles of dinner. The first one took place in a beautiful restaurant. The second one in a super-modern bar where we could dance; and the third in a popular place where we were served dishes that recalled Obelix’s dinners. All these places had three aspects in common: 1) Loads of good wine. 2) Wonderful people around the wine. 3) High spirits adults get when they want to have fun with good wine.

The perfect end? I had not planned which trip to get for Monday. Right after arriving in Vienna, I decided I wanted to take a boat ride on the Danube. “A boat ride on the Danube”, I think no more words are needed –tasting wines and seeing vineyards from the Danube; doesn’t it sound great? It certainly does and it was simply marvellous.

Every time more and more we hear about the power of social networks. In fact, a new film on this matter has just been released and I do recommend it. There is not a single economic sector that has not been influenced by the power of social networks. In this sense, many of the agents trying to change the way wines are seen and appreciated in the world were gathered there.

Social networks are changing the world in general and more specifically the world of wines. But what makes the sector of wines especially interesting is that a lot of consumers assume as unique and/or main source of information the Internet and Social Media, and only a few Wineries understand this tendency.

A few days ago I read in Twitter: The sector of wines ignores Social Media. And I replied to that tweet, “maybe the sector does, but certainly not consumers”.

At this meeting, there were 200 consumers from 30 countries. Their passion for wines encourages them to gather once a year to meet other people with their same likes. They usually find other people in the Internet and try to get to know them outside the net in events like this. Or maybe they look for other people with their same interests with whom they may keep in touch through the Internet. They are all linked by their passion for wine and its culture. Most of them see it as a hobby, but they write and read a lot about wine. And there is nothing else they like more than tasting different and good wines. Therefore, they flew or drove thousands of kilometres to be in Vienna. They know a lot about wines. And they went to Vienna to write in their blogs about which wines they love and why. Then a lot of people will read their opinions.

Will Wineries start to understand how important it is that these people get to know their wines and make a good evaluation of their products? If they had understood that, they would have been there. However, many of them were not present in the event.

Congratulations to Robert, Ryan and Gabriella because this edition was even better than last year’s. Because this format works. Because I really enjoyed my stay in Vienna and I got the feeling that most of participants share this opinion.  

And to all participants to the EWBC 2010, I hope to stay in touch with many of you. Big hugs.

This post in Spanish: European Wine Blogger Conference, en Viena 2010

In Ontanon Winery there are concerned people, trying to be trendy. Their latest initiative under the program “The First Wine Online“, that I will probably talk about it later, has been opening its vineyards and wineries to some of the participants in this program and others as lucky as myself.

 We first harvested, and then visited their facilities in Aldeanueva de Ebro and Logroño.

 We were treated as kings. And we learned a lot about the ellaboration process.

The visit to a winery is something that has become usual nowadays. This is because wineries begin to understand that the closer they get to their consumers the better in sales.

 A further step is to do it during harvest. It is a big effort for the winery because they are very busy, as it requires to be focussed on doing a good job in the vineyard and in the winery at this time. But I believe this effort is worthy. It is nice to visit a winery when it is quiet and empty, but it is wonderful to visit when in full production.

Congratulations to Ontanon Winery team for their initiative.

And as an image is worth a thousand words, here come a few images.

 Video of instructions of we would do when harvesting.

Harvesting

Sandwiches with good wine, after having done some exercise!!!

Previous to the Cellar entry

And some pictures of the event and lunch.

 Thanks again to Ontanon Winery, and the other participants. It was a very nice group.

 This post in Spanish: Viñedos y Bodegas Ontañón. Vendimia 2.0.