Evolution of a Pouring

Wineontheway.com has a unique dilemma.  As a wine retailer, it would love to expose its potential/customers to a broad array of wines in a large-scale event.  As a virtual enterprise, however, it does not have the facilities to support such an event.  Over the prior two years an event has been held in rented space at the Vue in downtown Orlando and, for this year, the venue was switched to the Winter Park Farmers Market.  Over the three years that this event has been held, there has been an evolution in approach which has, in my opinion, resulted in this year's event being the best yet.

As previously mentioned, the initial event was held in the social area (not the formal name but we are not standing on process here) of the Vue and everyone and his mother were there.  Wine resources were in great supply but they were obscured by the press of humanity and the L-shaped design of the room.  It was very difficult to get to individual tables because of the crush and patrons had to work the room based on the depth of the crowd at a table rather than the location of wines of primary interest.

For the second event, Wineontheway.com addressed the accessibility issue by limiting attendance to a little over 100 patrons but the room-shape problem still persisted.  With a little over 100 people in attendance, it was now possible to flow easily from table to table, to engage the pourers in more extensive dialogue, to hang around a table-of-interest for a longer period (without the feel of inconveniencing the entire hall), and to easily spot people that you know (assuming they were in the same quadrant of the "L" as you were).

This year's incarnation of the event was held at the old train depot that houses Winter Park's famous Saturday Farmers Market.

The old train depot, which has been restored as a historical landmark, is a brick construct with concrete floors and high ceilings that are adorned with string lights.  This setting, along with the exposed piping, is evocative of an industrial loft.

In addition to the one hundred 90+ wines of varying types, and from various regions, that were available for customer tasting, Loren and Angel Gil, the proprietors of Bodegas El Nido, were on hand to assist with the pouring of their wines.  The pouring was again limited to around 100 attendees.  This fact, coupled with the arrangement of the tables afforded by the single room layout of the venue, allowed for a free flow of patrons between the 12 pouring stations.

The company's best customers were afforded the opportunity to arrive a full 45 minutes before the official start time and thus were able to have a longer and more intense level of involvement in the event.

I think that wineontheway.com has nailed it in terms of locale.  I think that their focus on limited number of attendees, resulting in a 1:1 ratio of attendees to labels on offer, has resulted in a better, smoother, more engaging experience for both the attendees and the pourers.The attendance of the Gils at this event hopefully signals a trend towards a larger involvement of winemakers in future events and, if that is to be the case, it would be great if wineontheway.com took advantage of their presence to incorporate tasting elements into the program.  Wineontheway.com has shown that their customers are kings as they continue to evolve this event for their benefit and greater enjoyment.

Wine Pouring and Wine Tasting: Elements of an Integrated Wine Education Strategy

B21 gets it.

In an earlier post, I characterized wine tastings versus wine pourings and provided advice on who should be attending one or the other.  In my treatment, these were separate events and the customer made a choice as to which type to attend based on how well a specific event type met his/her needs.

B21, a Tarpon Springs (FL) full-service wine and spirits retailer, has shown that wine pourings and tastings can complement each other as key elements of an integrated, sales-driven, wine education strategy.  The elements of the B21 strategy are as follows: (i) Organize and publicize a large, region-based (Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc.) tasting; (ii) gain the commitment of high-profile winemakers and wine consultants to support you with their participation in the event; (iii) hold a wine dinner at Currents Restaurant in Tarpon Springs on the night before the event, said dinner to be led by the celebrity winemaker/consultant (wine tasting element); (iv) wines poured by the celebrity winemaker/consultant, among others, in the B21 facility during a 3-hour mega event (wine pouring element); and (v) three or four 45-minute seminars, to include theory and tastings, on selected wines from the relevant region (wine tasting element) occurring simultaneously with the pouring.

At every step along the way, the customer is reminded of the purpose of the event.  The mats on which the tasting glasses rest during the seminar has the name of the wine as well as its price.  Every one of the bottles being poured within the facility has the bottle price prominently displayed in front of it.

The actual workings of this strategy was on display for B21s Bordeaux Grand Tasting and Sale, held on Sunday April 18th.  The invited guests included Stephane Derenoncourt (proprietor of Domaine de L'A, noted wine consultant), Coralie De Bouard (part-owner Chateau Angelus), Jean-Philippe Janoueix (owner Chateau La Confession), and Jeffrey Davies (Bordeaux negociant) among others, but the full complement of attendees did not attend due to trip cancellations resulting from the Icelandic volcano.  Because of these travel disruptions, Jeffrey Davies led the Currents dinner as well as his and Stephane Derononcourt's seminar sessions.

By tying the varying elements into an overarching strategy, B21 exposes the customer to wine education at his/her level of interest and provided by the leading lights of the wine industry.  The customer has two solid opportunities for wine tastings (seminars and wine dinner) within the construct of the larger wine pouring and can choose, in real-time, the appropriate path.

Elusive Grape Pouring: Lessons Learned

So last Thursday(February 18th), I am travelling from Lake Mary to Tampa on my twice-weekly jaunt (three times a week now that we have a new employee who does not know, or does not care, that the national unemployment rate is just south of 10%), listening to Lady Gaga (yes I said Lady Gaga), when I get a telephone call from Robert Goulet (you have to be a "special" person to choose that hallowed name as an alias on a wine blog). "Hey," he said, "are you going to the Kapcsandy tasting tonight at The Elusive Grape?" Now I was totally baffled because I was not familiar with the winery or the scheduling of a tasting at the mentioned locale. I told him that I was unaware of the event but that I would give Bill (the owner of The Elusive Grape) a call. So I called Bill (I was a little hurt that Goulet knew about the event and I did not) and asked him how come I had not been invited. "I didn't have you on my mailing list," he said, "but come on over. It's going to be great." So I went.

When I got to The Elusive Grape in Deland, I found that the tasting was a benefit in support of Journey's End, a doggy hospice program. Attendees were assessed a $10 charge plus had to bring an item that could be used by Journey's End. All proceeds went to Journey's End. It is estimated that upwards of 100 people attended the event.

The wines on offer were from Kapcsandy Family Winery (2006 Estate Cuvee, 2006 Estate Cabernet, 2007 Estate Cabernet), Erba Mountainside Vineyards (2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 Merlot, 2004 Syrah, 2007 Chardonnay) and Pina Napa Valley (2006 Cabernet D'Adamo Vineyard "Yountville," 2006 Cabernet Buckeye Vineyard "Howell Mountain"). The 2007 Kapcsandy Estate Cabernet Sauvignon was rated 100 points by Parker so having this wine poured in his establishment was a coup for Bill.

The wines were set up on a table to the left of the bar and patrons rolled by this stately assemblage with outstretched glasses so that Gerard Moffet, National Sales Manager for Kapcsandy, could deposit the valuable juice therein. A number of issues here. First off, the glasses that were utilized were very small and, combined with micro-pours, did not allow for meaningful evaluation of the wines. Second, Gerard could have been more suitably attired in order to align with the general attendee mode of dress (Gerard is the one on the right in the picture. Bill is on the left.). He also could have been more forthcoming in his answers to questions posed and could have looked at his watch 50 fewer times.

The size of the crowd, and the method of wine distribution, made it very difficult for Gerard to control who had which wine in their glass at a specific time. He did try to go from white to red and from least impactful to most impactful but people knew that there was a 100-pointer in the house and wanted to get at it. The fact that only one bottle of the 100-pointer ws on hand for a crowd of this size exacerbated the problem.

So what did we learn? First off, this was a pouring, rather than a tasting (see my 2/19/10 posting). Second, the appropriately sized glass is key in an event such as this (see Robert Goulet's posting of 2/22/10). Third, the winery representative should have enough wine to adequately conduct the event. Fourth, have the winery representative send you a picture of what he/she plans to wear to the event.

Both 2006 and 2007 vintages of the Kapcsandy Cuvee were poured and the "07 was obviously a very special wine. The winery, and its products will be covered in greater detail in a future post. The Elusive Grape will be covered in fuller detail in a future post.

Wine Pouring versus Wine Tasting

Nothing ticks me off like being invited to the latter and running full bore into the former. What is the difference between the two, you ask? And why is it important? Well, let us step back a moment and take a look at this conceptually singular phenomenon that has, over time, evolved into a duality.

A wine event is generally put on by a local wine purveyor and can run the gamut from a group of regulars who have been called together, to a wine dinner, to a mega-event taking up many city blocks. The common characteristics are: it is generally pre-scheduled and publicized; the wines on offer are pre-announced; a guest-of-honor is generally associated with the event and is pre-announced; and, there may or may not be a "cover charge."

The wine retailer's objective in putting the event together is to drive increased revenue in both the short and long term. In the short term, there is a bump in revenue from the participation fee as well as the sales coming out of the event. If the product is on hand, the revenue bump is immediate. If the product is shipped in post the event, the revenue is further down the road (assuming that the retailer does not collect pre-arrival).

The objectives of the attendees differ depending on their level of sophistication but it is bound together under a common rubric: education. An equilibrium is reached when the purveyor provides enough information to allow the attendee to make an informed purchase decision. Further, if the attendee feels that he/she is consistently informed at this particular facility, he/she will keep coming back, with positive, long-term implications for the enterprise.

Now back to wine pouring versus wine tasting.

If your wine shop owner invites you to an event where there are four wines and these wines are poured into your glass by a salesperson who says "Parker gave this a 92" or "great wine" or "check out the nose on this baby," you are at a wine pouring. Note that the determining factor as to whether or not it is a wine pouring is not the size/scope of the event, but the activities within and the substance derived therefrom by the attendees. As a matter of fact, if you are at an event, and the winemaker is pouring the wine into your glass and making these non-value-laden statements, you are still at a wine pouring.

The hallmark of a wine tasting is an event that delivers quality (or not) wine and some relevant knowledge about the subject wine. Wine dinners are a classic example of a "true" wine tasting: The wine is poured by a team; each patron has the same wine in his/her glass simultaneously; someone with a more-than-cursory knowledge of the wine expounds on its qualities; and it is consumed in total before we move on to the next wine. In addition, a quality wine tasting has a limited number of attendees, has a clear, written description of the subject wines, has material available which the attendee can use to make notes about the wines and the event, and has an easy-to-understand order form.

The wine beginner should always opt for a wine tasting before a wine pouring. When I leave a wine tasting I hope to know: The wine-making philosophy of the winemaker; the region where the grapes were grown; any growing difficulties associated with the vintage; the wine-making process; what sets this wine apart from other wines; and the critics' perspectives. For someone who is familiar with the wine maker's style and previous vintages, a wine pouring fits the bill in that they can be exposed to the latest edition of the wine(s) without a lot of diversion.