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March 6 2010
For reasons I can’t explain (particularly given that I’m based in Indianapolis), I get an email or a phone call a couple of times of year from different wine entrepreneurs who are interested in receiving feedback on wine-related business plans or concepts.
I always meet up with these optimistic would-be wine titans in person or on the phone. Six years ago, pre-blog, I was the earnest entrepreneur seeking feedback and I was always pleasantly surprised by the willingness of wine-related people to lend a helping or a gentle guiding hand. It only makes sense to return the gesture in-kind while hoping these entrepreneurs find the fortitude to move forward that I couldn’t muster.
Now, that said, the message I give isn’t always so precious or fuzzy.
There are two key things that are very important to remember in business planning of any sort:
1) What does the total market opportunity look like?
2) How will you address a need or appeal to a specific sub-section of that market?
It doesn’t sound complex, but we’re all guilty of losing sight of the forest for the trees, particularly in the wine world, and especially when facing the realities of business and creating an ongoing concern that addresses a need or a market.
In addition, the blind spots in wine industry research are abundant.
The reality of wine industry research, from the following three different resources should act as a calibrating compass:
1) Barbara Insel, CEO of Stonebridge Research Group (Macro marketplace)
2) Nielsen sales data / Wine Business Monthly (Sell-thru data)
3) John Gillespie, Wine Market Council (Who and how many drink wine)
(As excerpted from Barbara Insel’s comments at the Vino2010 panel discussion on the, “Future of Luxury Wine,” as transcribed by Alder Yarrow at Vinography):
“By best recokoning there about 250,000 wines for sale in America. These wines are sold by producers to less than 700 distributors, which are then responsible for getting them to at least 431,150 places that sell wine. These outlets include approximately 143,864 off premise outlets (i.e. retailers), and 287,286 independent on premise outlets (e.g. restaurants, hotels, etc.).”
“These distributors are (a) very narrow, and shrinking, funnel that all wine must pass through. In the last 20 years the number of wholesalers/distributors has declined from roughly 7000 to 700 outlets. These remaining wholesalers are under intense pressure to stay profitable, and this results in primarily one thing: the reduction of inventory. Everyone is trying to unload slow moving inventory. Most wholesalers report dropping about 15% of their brands, and smaller wholesalers are going out of business because they can’t move their stocks fast enough.”
Eek. 250,000 wines for sale going through a funnel of 700 distributors, enough to give pause to anybody.
Nielsen sales data (presented monthly in wine industry magazine Wine Business Monthly) with the occasional review of table wine price tiers:
The specific graph data isn’t as important as the overall point: 88.7% of the wines they track are under $14.99
Also excerpted from the, “Future of Luxury wine” presentation and Barbara Insel:
“One of the problems those of us who track the trends in the wine industry have is that the primary source of sales data, Nielsen, doesn’t track what’s happening in the off-premise space (i.e. retailers), and it only covers the lowest 20% of the pricing spectrum, so we don’t really have industry-wide sales data on luxury wine.”
According to Jay Wright from Constellations, paraphrased in Wine Business Monthly:
“…the $20 and above category represents just 3 percent of total wine sales volume and 6 percent of the total dollars in the wine business.”
So, what we know so far is the following:
• There is one wine for every 1.7 places to sell that wine
• The predominant majority of wine is flowing through a declining number of 700 distributors
• The over $20 wine segment represents 3% of volume and 6% of dollars in the domestic wine business
Now, as we get to the consumer aspect of industry macro economics, the story doesn’t get much prettier. Excerpted from John Gillespie and the Wine Market Council:
Core wine drinkers (defined as somebody who drinks wine at least once a week) represents about 16% of the population, but they drive anywhere from 80-90% + of the wine market).
To make matters worse, the recession has caused marginal drinkers (defined as somebody who drinks wine at least monthly) to decline in numbers.
The net of the Wine Market Council is that wine drinkers represent a growing, but small percentage of the population and the wine business is highly leveraged against a small band of consumers with Millenials and Generation X representing the growth engine of the future.
At this point, a wine entrepreneur, before she has even gotten to actual marketing, might be very discouraged and that leads to the next decision path that needs to be tackled—strategic intent or pragmatic reality – and the difference between the two is significant.
Simply, developing a business with strategic intent means you envision a future and create a path towards a future that doesn’t exist; this then drives all of your decision-making for product and market – Cameron Hughes Wine and Crushpad both represent this kind of thinking. Or, alternatively, you can develop around a pragmatic reality by trying to fit within the existing market realities—virtually everybody else fits into this category.
Even if working within existing market realities, I always recommend identifying a specific market, understanding that market, and creating tactics specifically for that audience.
Take Millenials for example. It’s been a frothy topic in wine for at least six years and continues to be a hot topic – how to address Millenials.
Tools to help do so include:
• Claritas Prizm Segmentation System
• Pew Internet Research (Millenials)
• Growth Panel marketing planning tools
Even if an entrepreneur gets to this point, there continues to be a slew of additional knowledge that is required – the least of which is additional macro information as provided by Adams Beverage Group or even compliance information as provided by Six88, not to mention technology-related information and enough funding to see you through the law of the thirds which says everything costs 1/3 more and takes 1/3 more time than anticipated.
There is no magic wand in the wine business and the money would seem to be better spent on lottery tickets, but the business continues to hold allure for many. My take-away message is always to research until you create self-doubt, plan until you go cross-eyed, account for the worst, and please give me a trade discount on your first case.
Posted in, Wine: A Business Doing Pleasure. Permalink | Comments (8) | Print |
February 2 2010
No offense to Jon Bonné, wine writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, but the reader comments elicited by his recent Chronicle blog post entitled, “Why California Wines Aren’t Selling” are far more interesting and insightful than his rehash of Jon Fredrikson’s address at the Unified Symposium.
No offense to Jon Fredrikson either but his presentation, by most accounts, seems to be a recitation of what anybody who has read the news in the last year already knows – the upper-end of the domestic wine price spectrum is challenged.
I caveat the “no offense” part in regards to Mssrs. Bonné and Fredrikson because my point here isn’t an indictment on their work specifically – they happen to be the tableau; instead, I want to highlight what was a lengthy list of comments across a wide range of loosely related points that neatly typifies exactly what is going on in the mind of the consumer as it relates to the state of domestic wine sales.
Simply, when the source “food for thought” runs 640 words (as Jon Bonné‘s post did) and the responses run over 10,000 words, you better believe there is some wisdom to glean.
Net-net – there is a problem that all California wineries should pay heed to. The comments, for the most part, are a referendum on California wine (and value) with enough mentions of price, Chile and Argentina to make a California winery bean counter see red … for a long, long time.
Below are selected excerpts from the (at the time of posting) 175 comments – every attempt has been made to provide whole comments within their intended context and as they were presented chronologically. I have, however, cleaned up syntax and spelling errors as appropriate.
The comments stand by themselves so I have added no additional comment to the obvious.
The Wisdom of the Crowd
“Heavy competition from Chile and Argentina, offering many good wines that represent very good value. I like to support local industry, but the prices of decent Napa and Sonoma wines went into orbit long ago.”
“Prices (were) absurd even before the Great Recession. For example, Stag’s Leap single vineyard offerings were maybe worth (purchasing) at $40 a bottle, the price they were in the 90s. At $70 to $90 dollars today, (they’re) pretty easy to pass up. The wine didn’t get twice as good over the last 10 years.”
“With globalization and the exchange of knowledge in winemaking you are now able to get great wine from abroad (that scores around 90 points by the Wine Spectator) for less than $20. Why buy a comparable Californian wine for $40? I usually support local business, but when the price difference is so outrageous I’m sticking to getting a bang for my buck.”
“There is some subtle psychological resistance, perhaps even unconscious, that will not allow us to align ourselves with the wealthy … Napa and Sonoma types. It just doesn’t sit (or smell) right.”
“It’s pretty well established that there is not a strong correlation between price and quality in wine. If consumers learn this and buy wine with their palates rather than their egos, producers and consumers might end up better off.”
“There’s also a partial backlash against conspicuous consumption. I have friends at a winery that make (a) $45 Napa Cab that can go toe to toe with $80 Cab, but the winery has awful PR and never submits to wine writers, so unless people have tasted it, they are guaranteed to have never heard of it. They say customers who ‘graduated’ to more well known, more expensive wines are coming back to their winery to pick up the wine because they love it at the price, and are no longer trying to impress friends with expensive allocated wines. Instead, they’re trying to impress friends by finding well-priced obscure things that aren’t name dropper wines.”
“(California) wines are still the same quality as before, but we are getting better and better Argentinean / Chilean / Aus / NZ / Spanish wines at a better price point. Why pay more when you can get the same quality at a lower price?”
“There are plenty of good wines at $20 that can compete against wines that are in the range of $60 – $80…”
“It really shouldn’t have taken an industry conference for those in the wine biz to wake up and smell the must. As others point out, there are plenty of fabulous bottles from France, Spain, NZ, Argentina, and Chile to be had right now – for a lot less money than more expensive, lower quality California wines. And, many of those non-California wines even bring – horrors! – the joys of terroir with them.”
“No mention of the elephant in the room? Oregon and Washington wines are providing some very stiff competition. It is easier to do that when all the factors of production are less expensive in these other states.”
“We needed Fredrikson to tell us what we already knew 12-18 months ago? Any winery that is shocked at this news has been asleep for a while.”
“The problem with GOOD expensive wines is that they have to compete with mediocre expensive wines. Some wineries seem to almost declare themselves as high-end by just slapping on a fancy label and charging a high price. That worked in 2005, but not so much today.”
“I can get better deals on Chilean, Argentinean, French, South American and Australian wines …”
“Why are California wines not selling? It’s because you can get much better deals and interesting wines and much lower costs in anything that is NOT a California wine. They have simply priced themselves into redundancy.”
“There are simply too many tasty wines for the consumer to choose from today, this drives prices down. Except for some very famous French wineries, there are all competing for the consumer. Grapes can be grown almost anywhere, and the secret of making wine is no longer a secret. Result = huge supply worldwide. Think cotton t-shirts – they are all about the same, just some people who seek status will pay $50 for a designer t-shirt.”
“If you go to Costco and you can’t find a good wine for under $20 you are not trying. It does not have to be CA wine to be good, as we all know. Look to Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, some Italian and, yes, even France for decent value under $20.”
“$13.99 - $15.99 is a great price point to get unique wine with quality and complexity to threaten the wines at $20 + that California is selling. The everyday values are Southern Hemisphere and unpretentious – hello Australia and Argentina.”
“If it is over $15 then make sure you are drinking someone else’s bottle. Do you say, ‘damn it’s only a grape so why so expensive,’ or do you say, ‘damn it’s only money and you can’t take it with you…’ What would Buddha say?”
“… Screw you JCrew farmer man. I’ll get my wine from France or Spain or Chile and get better character and flavor for half the price.”
“The California wine industry is in denial? HA! Of what? California built the Chilean, Australian and NZ wine industries. Our tax dollars paid for it – all straight out of UC Davis. Visit any winery in Argentina, Chile, etc. and ask how many have attended UC Davis – I guarantee you, you will meet someone EVERY time.”
“Mr. Fredrikson’s analytical work must always be looked at with a sharper set of eyes. The wine industry has scant in depth research and tends to paint each year’s data with broad strokes. Gallo has in-depth research, maybe the best in the industry, and knows what is happening, where, why, when, etc. and moves to capture opportunities. Few others do much besides go to gatherings, drink heartily and be amazed at everything. Read the article carefully and you will find that you learned little to nothing about the world of wine as a business which needs to show profits if it is to survive.”
“It took decades for people to realize that, ‘Wow, it’s not that bad’ is not the same as, ‘Wow, this is great.”
“The vast availability of very drinkable, inexpensive Australian, and Chilean wines is the reason I don’t buy much California wine. I would guess that for most people this decision is mostly economic, too. If California wines were more affordable fewer people would buy imports. The difference of course is that an acre of wine growing land in Australia or Chile is a fraction of the $50K an acre in Napa. California wines are more expensive because the cost of growing and processing grapes is higher than other countries. It’s a shame because California wines are as good or better than many imports. In tough economic times though, price means more than brand loyalty.”
“California wines didn’t just become unaffordable – they also became (for the most part) extremely unpleasant to drink. Way too much alcohol, tons of oak, massive fruit overwhelming any subtly or structure. I stopped buy CA wines a long time ago and focus on inexpensive Europeans – Italy most, but a fair amount of France, Spain and up-and-comers like Austria and Hungary. I’ve seen stories in the ag(riculture) press about CA winemakers that are getting the message, toning down the booze and fruit and actually trying to make structured, food-friendly wines again. If this takes off and prices come down, I’ll come home.”
“(California) wines seem to be extremely expensive compared to wines from places like Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, and Argentina. Even Italian and Spanish wines are usually a better value. Unfortunate. There are some great (California) wines, but, whew, they are not cheap!”
“A lot of the problem is many California wineries use ‘snob appeal’ as their marketing, then jack the price above reality. Why pay $60 bucks for a bottle of wine from a vineyard with attitude when you can get as good a wine from Europe, Washington, or Australia now for 1/3 the price and none of the B.S.?”
Posted in, Wine: A Business Doing Pleasure. Permalink | Comments (6) | Print |
January 22 2010
The micro-trend of being a “locapour” – a derivative of being a “locavore” meaning to advocate and practice drinking wine from close geographical proximity—is about as difficult of a commercial trend to execute as they come. It’s close to (but not quite as difficult) as a nascent winery relying on three-tier distribution for growth. Yet, in between conflicting market trends, wineries still need to divine a path to grow their business.
Enter Direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales, available in some form in 33 states.
Now, of course, DTC isn’t anything new, but given the economy in the last year and a half, it seems as if wineries are paying more heed to direct consumer engagement with dedicated focus and planning.
According to news reports from the well-attended Direct-to-Consumer wine conference that took place in Santa Rosa this week, alongside continued froth over the importance of social media, another bright, shiny object was added to the “must-do” list – mobile.
While these types of marketing strategies can work, I have a hard time reconciling the “me-too” nature of following the flavor du jour.
Can it really be that last year’s winery “must-do” of having a Twitter and Facebook account along with video will now evolve to the “must-have” of an iPhone application?
It’s no wonder wineries are in a constant state of dizzying disarray when it comes to marketing.
I’m not a winery marketing consultant, but if I were I would be advocating a Led Zeppelin-like, “In through the Out Door” strategy instead of running with the pack … more salmon swimming upstream than a Lemming running off the cliff.
Specifically, If I said: “Come up with a marketing solution for penetrating a specific geographical market for Direct-to-Consumer sales, leveraging video assets you’re already doing for your winery while trying to actually sell wine, and do so in a 90 day time period,” what would you come up with?
Personally speaking, I would learn to love local TV. I would ride the balance between creating a local presence while also moving faster than the slow burn that is a Twitter following.
If a fleece blanket with arm holes (the Snuggie™) can become a pop culture phenomenon there might be something to low budget TV advertising.
In addition, if there is enough room in the online market for at least five online wine-a-day direct response companies like the very reputable Wine Spies to sell on behalf of wineries, there might be room for direct response in a different execution.
In fact, there might be something to the extent that a national campaign for beer trades on this type of phenomenon – witness the ubiqitious Bud Light “Tailgate Approved” campaign this fall – which is earnest and falls just short of irony, while actually creating mindshare and selling products.
Every television market in the country has a recognizable local cast of characters in the form of auto dealerships, hot tub manufacturers, residential realtors and punctual plumbers. These local “personalities” are always exuberant, mildly cheeky and definitely memorable in an endearing way.
There’s nary a reason that a winery couldn’t pick a specific TV market, come up with several low budget commercials, and blanket the area with fun, kitschy ads that drive viewers to their web site. If customers happen to buy wine, well, all the better and kind of the point ...
In fact, this national / local approach is, in its own right, a burgeoning trend.
A small business services company called MicroBilt has deployed two ace videographers to do free local-style commercials based on nominations that can be made via the web site, http://www.ilovelocalcommercials.com.
It’s a brilliant idea and their work is brilliant. Acorn Winery in Healdsburg has been nominated for a commercial, as well as several other wineries across the country.
Here’s the other dirty little secret about local TV advertising – we’ve been conditioned to think that TV advertising is too expensive. Super Bowl commercials cost $3 million dollars. But, the reality is that buying in local markets is pretty affordable and made more affordable by the week with the declining traditional media advertising market (see also: “I need a Facebook Fan Page”).
In sum, my overall point is I wish wineries would think specifically and creatively about driving business. If a winery is serious about ramping up direct-to-consumer sales there are specific factors that go into success – 1) focus 2) focus 3) focus.
Social media and many Internet strategies don’t lend themselves to focus (geographical or otherwise), nor do they lend themselves to specifically moving the sales needle. But, we all love local messages and we can all name a local TV commercial.
It’s something to think about. With trends moving local and wineries needing to sell wine in ways beyond the tasting room and distribution, the answer may be in identifying markets one-by-one and joining the coterie of zaniness that is local TV advertising.
The below links are resources for more information:
F.A.Q on Television Advertising
Spotrunner for local TV media buys
Wine Institute Guidelines for Advertising
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January 13 2010
Wine information of all kinds wants to be free from constraint, but there is one area where legacy ways of doing business have been slow to evolve making it difficult for consumers to penetrate the veil of the unknown – restaurant wine lists.
And, while it can be quite fashionable for wine enthusiasts to lament the restaurant wine scene where mark-up’s are high, wine lists are frequently unwieldy and esoteric, and by-the-glass programs are wastelands of mediocrity, change on this front will be slow until it is regularly scrutinized and covered by dedicated media, warts and all.
If you think about it, over the course of the last 15 years, the wine industry has undergone a remarkable transformation – aside from restaurant wine, there isn’t a single niche or geographical area that isn’t competently addressed by coverage in the form of a magazine, a newsletter, a web site or a blog.
And, not only is there competent coverage in various forms, but there are also (now) blurry lines in between consumer and trade reporting. The wine business subscribes to Wine Spectator and wine consumers track industry news.
This 360 degree evolution in information consumption occurs, I should note, in all pockets of the wine landscape save for coverage of restaurant wine which is still reasonably segregated. Ronn Weigand’s Restaurant Wine, Santé and Wine Spectator’s (or, I should say, Marvin Shanken’s) Market Watch are very trade-oriented.
If a consumer reads anything about restaurant wine in a consumer-oriented magazine (Wine Spectator or Food & Wine) it’s usually a puff piece with enough stroke to make a 14-year old boy go blind. Not until the Sommelier Journal launched in 2008 was there an easily accessible wine media outlet for understanding more about wine as it relates to restaurant dining – the business of the business.
Now, of course, the restaurant scene itself is well-covered by media outlets, as well, but that focus tends to be (and rightly so) on the food. Wine and wine lists are left as an ancillary function in restaurant coverage and the coterie of review books.
This rather lengthy preamble is a lead-up to point out an interesting new business called WineChap.
If ever there was a good time, room and need for a business to focus on consumer-based informational coverage in a niche like restaurant wine and wine lists, it’s now. Why? Not necessarily because the economy is good for white table cloth restaurants, but because it’s the last niche left.
WineChap describes itself as:
… Fearlessly deliver(ing) news and reviews of restaurant wine lists in an independent quest for value, variety, and character. We spend our time poring over lists, so the only pouring you need to do is in your glass.
WineChap is a unique online resource. We provide you with access to real-time wine lists, reviews, and recommendations, and our selections cover a range of different budgets and occasions.
Huzzah to that.
Started last year by Boo Murphy, a U.K. technology entrepreneur and former food critic for Vogue magazine in the U.K., WineChap is currently covering New York, London and Hong Kong with plans to expand to Sydney and Los Angeles in the coming year, according to Murphy. The other components to the WineChap business are a “Premiere crew” service – a concierge or personal Sommelier of sorts and a private tasting and event segment.
Not to be left out, as any self-respecting business has done in the last year, WineChap also offers an iPhone application, as well.
Here’s the thing about WineChap – as much as I love the premise and stated core focus of “fearless” delivery of news and reviews of restaurant wine lists, I’m nervous that coupled with their concierge service and private events that this is a business that will thin-slice the need for objective information and journalism on restaurant wine lists into addressing the ½ of 1% of wine lovers that are global travelers and well-heeled, a sort of Robb Report for the kind of industry titan that melts an Amex by dining at Per Se before jetting off to Hong Kong.
Likewise, I’m also nervous that as a young business they’ll start to focus on where the money is coming from, which is likely to be everywhere but providing reviews of wine lists.
In my opinion, the real need is for a Zagat’s of wine lists that goes broad, reasonably deep, and completely objective.
Regardless, WinChap is an interesting business off to a fast start according to Murphy and should be another informational tool in the hands of the consumer in major markets, who, for all of the pot clanging, won’t have means to drive change with corkage, high-mark-ups and poor by-the-glass options until somebody goes the last mile in wine transparency shining a bright light into the only corner of the wine business left out of the glare of daylight.
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December 10 2009
Technology is coming hard at the wine industry – harder than the first few waves of the Internet, eCommerce, and social media over the last 12-14 years. The technology innovations that are forcing change will make previous technology iterations look like the halcyon days of simplicity. However, at the core of all of this technology progressiveness is data – not just data that helps run a wine business internally, but also data that helps the sales value-chain sell, too.
But, here’s the rub – mobile applications, third-party eCommerce sales and all of the other technology-related opportunities that can have a positive impact on the bottom line while creating new customers for the wine business all run on a very important thing – the ability to have clean, re-usable information about the wines that are available for sale in the U.S. Unfortunately, that data is very difficult to come by and its cloistered by individual companies with propriety. Gathering this data is so difficult, it could almost be its own currency.
Very simply, wine industry data standardization needs to occur—a mechanism in which all selling information for all domestic wines for sale in the U.S. (direct or distribution) can be accessed, including label shots and selling copy, in the same format. For that reason, services like OwnIT by Cruvee, which is attempting to create a free winery-supplied storehouse of this information, and the AVIN, similar to an ISBN for books, are very, very interesting.
But, here’s the rub. I mentioned in part I of this post that any large industry-wide standardization that has occurred (in any industry) has typically been done so by a non-profit that didn’t have commercial interest outside of benevolence for the common industry good. Typically, these associations are member-supported – like any association or consortium. Without the support of a swath of leadership and influencers in any industry, the collaboration that is necessary to get to a standard and drive action that benefits everybody doesn’t happen. Period. End of sentence.
This would all be well and good and another rhetorical “what-if” conversation best enjoyed three glasses into the evening were it not for a very pregnant opportunity unfolding.
Custom Top-Level domain (TLD) names, the equivalent to .com, .net and .org are now going to be made available for sale – there are a couple of stipulations, however. It’s not easy to get an extension and it’s expensive. Reports indicate that securing a Top-Level domain like .ibm or .fedex will cost north of a $500K. If it’s a general extension like .wine for example, the registering party will have to demonstrate some greater value for the domain than capitalistic interest, amongst other things. Net-net, this is a perfect time for the industry to come together in collaboration to secure the domain .wine, for the benefit of all.
Of course, the practical application of this would still be a mystery to me if I didn’t see and hear what the plans are for the domain extension .jobs.
The .jobs domain is being administered by a non-profit employer/HR association called DirectEmployers. As an industry consortium they count most of the Fortune 500 as members. And, they are administering the registration of the .job extension to companies like IBM and others who are listing all of their job openings at the domain extension.
Are you interested in working for IBM, but tired of sifting through Monster.com and the rest of the job boards that are populated with “work from home” ads? Likewise, are you having a hard time navigating seven layers deep into IBM’s mammoth web site to even find their jobs page? Ah, instead just go to IBM.jobs where their career section is directly navigable.
In addition, DirectEmployers is also creating a vast data-driven web presence that will aggregate all of the jobs that are listed on .jobs domains. So, they’re opening up what has previously been closed off via competing job board web sites. As a part of this development they are setting up the job data such that “Joe Consumer” can search for a job by virtually any criteria – nurses.jobs, floridanurses.jobs – it’s all there.
I’ve been working professionally around the Internet since ’96 and while I occasionally get hyperbolic, not much gets me excited. I had a mouth agape moment when I connected the dots on the Top-Level domains, .jobs and the translation to the wine industry.
You should have a mouth agape moment, as well. Why? Because if direct-to-consumer and direct-to-trade sales are the future of the wine business given the woeful state of three-tier distribution then what I’m talking about makes the universe of U.S. wine for sale much more navigable, findable and useable, for the benefit of the industry.
It’s would be a utility service like other infrastructure that we can’t imagine living without – um, like city sidewalks and running water.
In simple terms, here’s what it could mean (emphasis on “could.”)
• A wine industry consortium secures industry-wide support and develops a central repository for domestic wine data
• This same wine industry consortium applies to ICANN for the .Wine extension
• Once approved, the wine industry consortium allows domestic wineries to register their .wine URL – like drycreekvineyard.wine, for example
• Dry Creek Vineyard places their eCommerce store on this domain
• The wine industry consortium uses the central repository of domestic wine information to start slicing and dicing it based on the 1001 ways you can search for a wine
• The wine industry consortium creates a web-based application like jobs.jobs is creating (American.wine, for example) to act as an open interface for wine searching.
• A consumer searches for “Sonoma, Dry Creek, California Zinfandel” and ALL wines that are available for sale direct from the winery appear, with unified, standardized copy, label and selling information. Consumer decides between a couple of choices and buys the Dry Creek Vineyard Zinfandel by clicking through directly to the winery web site.
• Consumer is very happy having navigated the universe of domestic wine into a smaller pool of wine and finally to the wine he wants to buy, directly from the winery.
• The wineries and the U.S. wine industry is very, very happy with this, as well
Now, admittedly, there is much work that needs to go into this in order to make it happen, but my fundamental point is this – the wine industry has a very real opportunity to not hew to the vagaries of market development, but rather lead it for the benefit of all, untethering itself from the feeling of lack of control – the wine industry has always been benevolent and altruistic for the common good, now is a great time to apply that same social philosophy to itself.
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