Final Blend: Speed Tasting

Wine marketing benefits when it steals a page from modern Cupid’s playbook

I confess I have never taken a sommelier course, nor have I worked in a restaurant. I have, however, attended several thousand winemaker’s dinners and wine tastings, which, I think, does make me a type of expert on the subject.

I’m not going to drone on about the behind-the-scene mechanics — suffice to say there is much that is taken for granted by the attendants at these gatherings. While most of us need never to worry about such things as table arrangements and the dish soap used on glasses, as consumers paying good money to go to a winemaker’s dinner, there are three things we need to ask ourselves, or, better yet, ask the organizers before handing over our hard-earned money: will the actual winemaker be at the dinner? Will I have a chance to speak with him or her directly at my table? And will I be able to see all of the bottles of all the wines poured at the dinner?

While these may seem the most basic of questions, it is shocking how often organizers, and winemakers themselves, neglect these simple elements that make the event so worthwhile for the consumers.

These dinners often come at the end of a long day that began, for the winemaker at least, in another time zone. While I am sure it is a lot easier to chat with your distributor and the media than work the room, tell that to the consumer who paid $125 to be hosted by you. If the point is to build the brand and sell the wine, then the winemaker should be on the move all night, visiting each table in the room and making that all-important connection with the customers.

That’s how wine is sold. The day following an event, names on menus, wine lists and store shelves mean nothing to consumers unless they can link them to a powerful memory of the event, the winemaker, the bottle and the label. That is why it is almost as important for attendees to get face time with the bottle as it is for them to get face time with the winemaker.

On that note, please heed this message to wineries: if we do not see the bottles, we will never remember which wines we drank. Message to sommeliers and servers trained in Table Clearing 101: do not whisk away the empty bottle before everyone at the table has had a chance to make a connection with the wine, the speaker and the bottle itself.

Indifferent or distracted winemakers and missing bottles have become all too common at tastings and events. In my view, as a result, most of what passes for wine marketing is getting so old and tired, it requires a serious overhaul to have any real effect on the average consumer. But hope, and a new way of doing things, is out there.

I was part of a groundbreaking new speed tasting event at the 21st annual Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival held this past April. The concept behind speed tasting is the same as the one behind speed dating.

Anyone familiar with speed dating will recognize the basic format, and for those who have never tried it, the set-up is pretty simple — it is a formalized matchmaking process, designed to encourage participants to meet a large number of new people in a short amount of time. Throw in elements of a formal wine tasting and there you have it.

The Speed Tasting event at Playhouse brought together 14 principals, 14 great wines and 84 tasters, each of whom experienced a short, intense meeting with each of the presenters, who were pouring out passion both from their souls and their bottles.

Each winery principal sat a table where they poured their marquee wine for six tasters who were given six minutes to taste the wine, ask questions and hear the story of the wine, the principal and the winery.

Ninety minutes later, everyone left the room with 14 fantastic stories, a taste of 14 great wines and a sense that they had experienced something few people ever do — namely, the chance to engage in one-on-one contact with some of the wine world’s biggest names.

At $75 a ticket, it was the bargain of the year. Just ask anyone who tasted the Beaucastel 2007 Hommage, which retails for $350, with winery co-owner Thomas Perrin. They will never forget it. In fact, each attendee left the room with more than 14 stories — simply add to that number the personal story of their time spent with some of the most interesting and passionate people in the industry.

The wines, the day, the bottles all become unforgettable, which, after all is said and done, is the real point of wine marketing, anyway.