Wine Bar/Retailer Maximization of #Cabernet Day

In a recent open letter to Orlando-area wine purveyors, I exhorted them to participate in the upcoming worldwide virtual Cabernet Sauvignon tasting and, in so doing, provide their customers with a novel and scintillating experience and themselves with increased business and a customer-tying event.  On #Cabernet Day, that varietal is being exalted above all others and wine purveyors should, by their actions, promote this cause.  Consumers should be given every opportunity to participate in this event and purveyors could help with price relief and/or provision of the wherewithal to participate.

Purveyors should by this time have a pretty good idea of what they are going to be doing for that day and when and where such action is going to occur.  Program pieces should be falling into place at this time.  Beyond the details of the event, the purveyor should be taking steps to promote the varietal.  Retailers should be considering things such as price breaks for Cabernet bought on that day or one free bottle (same or different label) after the purchase of a case.  A purveyor may want to try featuring a Cabernet from a different region each hour and have samples of that Cab available for tasting in that hour.  Price breaks may apply to the region that is being featured in that hour.

Wine bars may want to have special pricing on Cabs during the course of the day and then transition into their specific, Cab-focused activities during the evening hours.  Many neighborhood wine bars have trivia nights; maybe the trivia that evening could focus around the Cabernet grape.

In any case, have social-network-access tools available and be sure that you know how to use it (in case you are confronted with questions).  Keep one eye on the network traffic to see what is happening and whether there are any successful initiatives that you can easily adopt.