Drinking For Charity
Written By: Randy Torban on Fri, Apr 11th 2008
This past weekend, the Miami Wine and Food Festival brought together 60 wineries and some great restaurants in beautiful Merrick Park -- an outside, upscale shopping center. The weather was a gorgeous 75 degrees, and the setting sun painted stunning colors across the sky. What could be better than an outdoor wine event? How about the United Way receiving all the proceeds.
There were some great labels present at the festival -- Rodney Strong, Ridge, and Fess Parker just to name a few. And to my enjoyment, there were also producers who I have not seen out and about as much. Peachy Canyon had all of their Zinfandels available, and in my opinion, their bottles give you the most bang for your buck. In addition, 585 Wine Partners had their Red Truck wines available to add some refreshment to the warm evening. One stand-out was Bouchaine and their late harvest style dessert wine -- made from chardonnay. After tasting it, I would have sworn it was a Dolce. The flavor of honeyed apricots was so delicate and smooth, I was happy to visit their table more than once.
A beautiful night to taste at The Village of Merrick Park
While I'm sharing some opinions, I'd like to point out something else that's troubling -- the lack of virtual tastings on the Internet. Wineries clamor to have their bottles poured at events such as the Miami Wine and Food Festival where they can brand their wines in front of target wine buyers, but there doesn't seem to be any push to do the same thing online.
As part of the online wine industry, I get to see first-hand how wineries utilize (or fail to utilize) their online potential. Some wineries are ahead of the curve and have heavy Internet visibility. They set up virtual display tables, talk about their wines, and engage in Q&A sessions with costumers from all over the world. These wineries enjoy an impressive boost in branding and sales. Unfortunately, the majority of wineries see no value in building their brand on the web.
A wine distributor pours one of her many bottles
So my question is this: why are public tastings so much more popular than virtual tastings? Is it because that has been the industry standard, and the internet is still so new? Certainly there is no substitute for human interaction and experiencing the wine first hand, but that hardly explains neglecting the most widely used informational medium in existence. Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier, representatives from wineries are often absent from tastings.
What do you think? Am I online biased, or is there a real lacking here? Please input your opinion in the comments section below!
Randy Torban is the Director of Business Development and contributing editor at ClassicWines.com
