There are certain places that remain important to us, no matter how busy life gets. One of the most important to me is Jet Blue’s Gate 8 at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. I was reminded of this last weekend while flying from Buffalo to NYC.
Let me explain. Remember the great blackout in the Northeast in August of 2003? If it hadn’t occurred, I would never have met my husband, Rich at Gate 8.
At the time, Rich was living in Manhattan and working as a guidance counselor at a middle school in the South Bronx, NY. He had flown home to Buffalo to spend some time with his family while on summer break. His dog and companion Sam had just died while they were both in Buffalo. With an open-ended ticket on JetBlue, he suddenly felt the need to return home to NYC and booked his return trip to depart on Thursday, August 14, 2003…the day of the Northeast blackout.
After speaking to JetBlue, he was rebooked on a flight departing the next morning.
I had been in a go-nowhere relationship and decided that it was time to say good-bye. My boyfriend at the time lived in New York City and I had just graduated from SUNY at Buffalo and was looking to move ahead in my life. As I debated with him on the phone about the visit, I waited to press the “purchase” button on the JetBlue website until we had stopped arguing. I booked the flight from Buffalo to NYC as a farewell trip, welcoming the thought of some alone time afterwards.
The morning of our flight was a bit chaotic. Flights in and out of NYC were delayed by several hours to make up for the flights that were grounded the previous day. I nervously paced in the gate area debating whether or not to board the flight with such an unpleasant task to attend to on the other end. Little did I know that I had caught the eye of one of my fellow passengers who was waiting in the gate area. When we were finally asked to line up to prepare to board the flight, I noticed a handsome, smiling stranger next to me in the line. We muttered a few words about the delay to each other, smiled and were separated by the mad rush of impatient passengers.
After making my way to my assigned seat, I sat in the middle of three seats and got comfortable. To my surprise, the handsome stranger I had briefly spoken to sat down next to me on the aisle…he was assigned to the seat right beside me!
Needless to say, the handsome stranger was my now-husband Rich. We chatted for the one-hour flight and after exchanging numbers, he flew back home to Buffalo to take me on our first date that next weekend. The rest is history.
photo by Fisher Creative Image
Call it fate, luck, a blessing…all I know is that sometimes when you’re least expecting it, through many twists that may have prevented an event from occurring, what’s meant to be becomes reality and life changes in an instant. Needless to say, Rich and I are both big fans of JetBlue and their seating system
Okay wineries. I bet you have your Facebook fan page up and running. You update it with event details, photos from your winery, photos of your bottles and labels, new release announcements. You’re thinking that you’re on track and ahead of the pack, right?
Although these are all great elements for your page, take your strategy one step further. Gather your staff and have a no-holds-barred discussion of what it is about your winery that your customers and wine club members LOVE about you. Make sure that that core of your brand is woven into each and every post. Ceja Vineyards in Napa and Sonoma is a great example of a winery fan page that does this very effectively. Here’s why:
Ceja Vineyards is founded by a Latino family of first-generation Mexican-American winegrowers from Napa and Sonoma Valleys named Amelia, Pedro, Armando and Martha Ceja.
The Cejas’ page exudes a tight-knit, hard-working family winery that is proud of its heritage and carries its fun, warm Latino roots into each post. The Ceja Vineyards staff all contribute to the page and there’s a familiar, friendly voice that says, “Hola Friends!”
For example, a Ceja Vineyards staff person posted that it was Amelia Ceja’s birthday along with a picture of her. Amelia received birthday wishes there from fans.
The page has a post that links to a cool wine and music site that features Ceja Vineyards wines with music from Tito Puente, a famous Latin jazz artist. Click on the songs and it transports you to a fun time that requires a Latino wine.
The Cejas have posted a photo album called “In the Beginning” that tells the story of the winery’s roots. You can see the passion and enthusiasm in the faces of the family members. After checking out their page, you get a true sense of who they are and what their wines mean to them.
One family in the Ceja gang - Ariel, Amelia, Navek, Dalia and Pedro Ceja
Most importantly, the Cejas respond to comments personally and regularly. Muy bueno!!
David Breeden, Me, Amy Cheatle, Morgan and Evan Dawson and Tom Mansell
Our first Finger Lakes Wine Tweetup was a success. We had a small, hard-core group of Finger Lakes wine devotees in attendance, the day was beautiful and we were shown a great time by Sheldrake Point Vineyards‘ winemaker David Breeden, wine club manager Antoinette Di Ciaccio and staff.
The Past, Present and Future Riesling vertical tasting was set in a bright but intimate room with limited seating. David walked us through the tasting and answered some tough questions. He was interviewed by one of our attendees and my fellow blog contributor at LENNDEVOURS, Evan Dawson and even after that, wholeheartedly took us to taste several barrel and tank samples from Sheldrake’s 2008 vintage.
With a new appreciation for the ageability and finesse of “older” Riesling vintages, I grabbed up the 2001, 2005 and 2008 and have resisted cracking into them. (The ‘08 will not be available for sale for around another year, but was for sale to attendees of the tasting.) I was excited by what I learned that afternoon in a setting with other enthusiasts: I detected the petrol on the nose of the ‘01! I picked up beautiful honey notes in the nose and palate of several vintages! I really should hold onto bottles and cellar them more often than I do, etc.
Great day, fun company, new insights…we’ll be doing this again soon.
Why: for fun, to get together and explore wine with like-minded Finger Lakes wine geeks
I’ve had the idea to start a local wine tasting Meet Up or tasting group for some time now. With a few more Finger Lakes wine industry members jumping into conversations on Twitter, I thought it would be fun to blaze forth with a Tweetup. In this case, it will be a mini-Tweetup because the Sheldrake vertical tasting has limited seating, so for the next one we’ll work to include more tweeps (people on Twitter). Ideas welcome.
Thanks to Tom Mansell of Ithacork blog for coming up with the Sheldrake tasting idea. Watch Twitter on Sunday afternoon …you may see some live TwitPics and tweets. More details on the next Finger Lakes Wine Tweetup soon.
Diane Letulle, Remy Charest, Robbin Gheesling and I at Wine Bloggers Conference
As a girl with a dream to bring together my passions for learning about the wine industry, its people and places and social media, I’m celebrating the one-year anniversary of my first blog post. One year ago, I didn’t know a soul in the wine business. I started devouring wine blogs and publications and most-importantly, joined the Open Wine Consortium on the recommendation of blogger and wine PR guru Tom Wark. It has been a year of wine events, tastings, classes, projects, obstacles and friendship. I have learned much, thanks to many of you who have stuck by me, rallied for me and advised me. I have grown to admire many of the thought leaders in this industry and the business world. See “Thought Leaders I Follow and Admire” in the sidebar.
And if this last year is any indication of how much fun, how challenging and rewarding this business is, I foresee pursuing it until I can no longer take a breath or communicate with you in some way (I wonder what the medium of choice will be by then!)
Thank you for returning to this blog, for telling me your stories and helping me to find my passion in life outside of my family and friends. I am happy and grateful to be a part of the wine community.
I had the opportunity to participate in the recent online wine blogger tasting for the Wines of Chile. The tasting included a live webcast moderated by Michael Green, Wine & Spirits consultant at Gourmet magazine. Eight winemakers were available via live webcast from Santiago, Chile…cool. Michael led the tasting and asked each winemaker questions as we swiftly tasted through the eight wines.
There was also much activity on Twitter as the bloggers tweeted their impressions live. The hashtag #winesofchile was used and the Twitter conversation was one of the highlights for me. Check out the tweets related to the tasting. I did click to the Tweet Chat room to read and engage with the live tweets and minimized the winemakers and Michael in my browser, but listened to their conversation as I tweeted.
Key Takeaways:
Although not a replacement for in-person or group tastings, the Wines of Chile online tasting was a fun way to learn about Chilean wines, regions and the winemakers in a virtual group setting.
I enjoyed that the winemakers were available live.
The pace was rapid, I would have preferred a bit more time to taste and tweet about the wines.
Like some others, I was impressed with the 2008 Cono Sur Pinot Noir from Colchagua Valley. I had no impression of Chilean Pinot Noirs going into the tasting, but liked the elegance of this one and Chilean Pinots will now go onto my radar.
Prior to the tasting, bloggers were actively Tweeting and updating Facebook statuses with a countdown to how long until the tasting began. (”one more hour until Wines of Chile tasting!”)
Some bloggers posted pictures of their tasting items to Twitpic.
This tasting lends to positioning of the Wines of Chile brand as forward thinking because they demonstrated that they embrace technology, social media tools and wine bloggers.
One idea for a next step:
Create a Facebook Public Profile (fan page) for Wines of Chile with video of the tasting, videos of winemakers, tab with technical info including bottle shots and invite participating bloggers to become a fan and invite others. Keep these excited bloggers engaged with the Wines of Chile brand.
Encourage blogger questions and have winemakers respond directly there
Create a page of links to blog posts about the tasting
Promote Wines of Chile events and tastings via Facebook events, targeting via location
There was a nice mention of the tasting in a round up story on Forbes.com. The article is titled, “The New Way to Learn About Wine: Twitter.” I’m not sure if live tweeting was a part of the strategy developed by the team at RF Binder, the agency representing the Wines of Chile, but it happened organically and was a very relevant part of the tasting. Another fun thing was that my husband, Rich tasted along with me. His palate is different than mine but overall he liked the wines with his favorite being the ‘06 Los Vascos Reserve blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Syrah and Malbec. Mine were the ‘08 Emiliana Natura Sauvignon Blanc and ‘06 Veramonte Primus, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Carmenere. One of the first things he said to me the next morning was that the tasting was a lot of fun. We’re packing up what’s left of our bottles for a trip to visit our good friends to taste through the wines again with them.
How does 15% of a day’s sales measure in your book? Naked Pizza, a New Orleans pizza shop with an eye on national expansion, attributed 15% of their day’s sales to purchases made by their Twitter followers at @NakedPizza. Sales were tracked by asking customers how they came to call Naked Pizza for their pizza that day. To further enhance the campaign, Naked Pizza co-founder Jeff Leach took out a billboard near the restaurant advertising their Twitter handle… simple and brilliant!
If that hasn’t convinced you to put Twitter on your radar, check out cnet’s “When Twitter met food trucks.” Now you just need to brainstorm and implement a strategy that is true to your brand and gets that register ringing today.
I strongly agree with Gary on the changing PR landscape. I embrace my role as an adviser to my clients, not a canned pitch writer. I highly recommend that you interface with journalists and bloggers in the places where they prefer to meet and get to know you, nowadays that is via social media more times than not. As a business owner, it’s in your best interest to humanize your communications with media, bloggers and industry influencers. Provide resources, jump in and help your contacts from time to time. Get to know them way before you need them to help you tell your story. Become the face behind your brand.
More than likely, if you’re reading this post, you have an interest in gaining a detailed understanding of social media platforms and those that are most relevant to the health and happiness of your winery’s business. A group of the industry’s top thought leaders at VinTank, Derek Bromley and Tom Wark have compiled the first whitepaper specifically for the wine industry entitled, “The State of Wine Industry Social Media.”
The paper contains some tech-speak that may look a bit scary at first, but hang in there and read through to the end. These guys are in-the-know, have strong relationships in the wine industry with bloggers, traditional media and developers and seek to help you, the winery principal, to navigate and gain an understanding of the social media landscape. Facebook, Twitter, Wine Blogs, Wine Social Networks, Gary V and Wine Library TV are detailed specifically pertaining to their relevance to wineries and wine retailers.
Paul Mabray and team are eager to receive questions or input on the report and can be reached at: ADDRESS: 1250 Main Street Suite #270 Napa, CA 94559 • PHONE: 800.605.8265 • WEB: vintank.com • EMAIL: info@vintank.com
TWITTER: twitter.com/vintank • FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/14R1mf
A special thank you to the VinTank team for mentions of myself, my client Andrew Kamphuis at Vin65 and senior strategist and wine blogger friend, Michael Wangbickler, on their thank you page.
Christopher Tracy and Allison Dubin lead our final tasting during TasteCamp East
There are a few key takeaways that left an impression on me after TasteCamp East on Long Island this past weekend. One of them is that I couldn’t help but notice that of all of the stops we made, there was one winery that managed to easily pry open the wallets of several participating bloggers (including me). The winery I refer to is Channing Daughters.
I discussed this briefly with some of the other bloggers and the difference is two-fold: the wines are approachable in price, and the enthusiasm of partner/winemaker Christopher Tracy is contagious and makes you want to buy wine from him…lots of wine from him.
I didn’t expect to purchase much wine on this trip because I had flown in and stayed a few extra nights in Manhattan which meant lugging a large suitcase all over the city via hired car, Long Island Railroad, and taxi (you get the picture) but even that didn’t stop me after our visit with Christopher, partner/general manager Allison Dubin and their winery dog Remy. I think that this is worth noting for those wineries who are looking to stand out. Quality/Price ratio and a charming, funny, HUMAN winemaker who can enthusiastically lead a tasting in a comfortable and engaging setting. That’s what sold me. I’ll seek out the wines of Channing Daughters and they will move to my list of favorite wineries to purchase from and pay attention to.
How does 15% of a day’s sales measure in your book? Naked Pizza, a New Orleans pizza shop with an eye on national expansion, attributed 15% of their day’s sales to purchases made by their Twitter followers at @NakedPizza. Sales were tracked by asking customers how they came to call Naked Pizza for their pizza that day. To further enhance the campaign, Naked Pizza co-founder Jeff Leach took out a billboard near the restaurant advertising their Twitter handle… simple and brilliant!
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