Six reasons Georges Frêche loves Love That Languedoc.

1. “You don’t need seniority to be good. You just need to be smart”I get a lot of crap because I’m only 24, I’ve only been a winemaker 5 years, and the website isn’t even 4 months old. Yet I want to come in and change everything like some inexperiencd upstart.  Well, Georges knows that you don’t need seniority!  Heck, there are NO fourteenth generation web designers.  Also, I think a large part of our success on Love That Languedoc can be contributed to our cooperation with individuals and groups that DO bring some wisdom and seniority to the table.
2. “Take what works and throw out what doesn’t work.”I know, right!  This sort of try everything and keep what works is founded in an empiricism that I can really get into.  I didn’t know how Love That Languedoc would play out (and I still don’t! It could go a lot of different directions!)  But I knew that I couldn’t wade through the administrative back channels, building a project through conventional means.  I just launched. And it worked.  So… he’s gotta keep me now, right?
3. “It’s our fault if we’re in a crisis.  We are the masters of our fate.”Georges comes down on winemakers a little hard on this point.  But let’s say that I agree that collectively, we are responsible for the crisis.  It’s not you or me or that guy… but all of us.  And I also agree that we are masters of our fate.  The entire wine industry (not just Languedoc-Roussillon or France) leaves its fate in the hands of journalists and critics.  A few exceptions exist.  Most of the exceptions are massive corporations that have found ways to leverage their size into selling power.  Very few winemaking regions have a public image that they control.  Or our idea of control is to send press releases all the time.  But today, it’s our responsibility to cultivate an audience and give our message to them directly!  (e.g. Love That Languedoc)
4. “Manifestations turn the majority of people against our message by annoying them.”This just reminds me of my wine-alerts project.  We have to get our winemakers to take our infamous street-blocking manifestations to the web.  In the real world, only the French see our manifs and it just annoys most of them.  We alienate.   On the web, we can manifest with a positive message with our clients overseas.  That is so much better than alienating/annoying your neighbors and tourists.
5. “Today, we need to be on the GLOBAL market.”If you want to talk global, you have to talk web.  It’s just stupid simple.  If you have the budget to put billboards and print ads and Maisons du Languedoc everywhere, that’s great.  You should totally continue doing that.  However you should ALSO do the web thing which costs like pennies by comparison.  And if you have no budget but you have fifteen minutes per week, it’s time to start going online.  There are people around the world who will listen to you.  And that’s Love That Languedoc.  I want to bring wine from the region to monitors around the world. And it’s working. So… you gotta love me, right?
6. “Politics bedamned, we need smart people.”I bet you thought I was going to say I’m super smart.  But that is not my point.  Freche says he needs smart PEOPLE, not just one smart person.  Love That Languedoc is succeeding because it brings together tons of smart people.  There are smart people in this region and they have opened their doors to this new project because they see the potential power of communicating our message to the world!  If I have convinced you that Georges Freche loves Love That Languedoc, or if I’ve convinced YOU to Love That Languedoc, please please please visit the website and talk about it to all the smart people you know.  Link that thing up.

I refuse to leave our fate in the hands of the global press who are, at best, mildly curious about our region.  And, at worst, totally oblivious to it.  Aside from a few rare examples, the world’s largest wine producer is also the world’s most ignored beauty.

Well this is the part of the movie where the downtrodden Languedoc takes off her horn-rimmed glasses and lets her hair down and the popular kid (or Henry Higgins, depending on what age you are) suddenly realizes that the coolest girl he knows was there under his nose all along.

Love That Languedoc is my personal project to show the world what it’s missing and now it’s developing a new branch.  I want to teach our winemakers how to communicate (without relying on journalists or  critics or ME) to a world that is ready to hear them.

I guess I’m thankful that the region needs me.  But the day I’m unnecessary will be a great day indeed.  We have an amazing advantage in sheer number of winemakers.  And our wines are distributed globally as both prestigious cult winesand large volume convenience store wines.  So people are already talking about us and our wines.

The next step is responding to that conversation.  We need to start training our winemakers to check email and set up a google alert for every estate in the Languedoc-Roussillon.  If only 1% of our winemakers spoke up every time somebody mentions their wines online, we would flood the Internet with our voices.  We could show our consumers that we appreciate their drinking habits.

And once winemakers start communicating successfully with the consumer, it’s much more likely that they will be willing to adopt more advanced online tools like a blog or a twitter.  And they’ll be much more likely to “get it” because it’s part of an authentic foray into communication and not some contrived business effort with no ROI.

And on that day, I’ll just be a happy little winemaker who runs a video blog for the fun of it.  And who will laugh about the old days when he would accidentally write a manifesto while trying to explain why he blogs.

There.  So I guess the conclusion is nice because it points out why this manifesto is silly.  I only blog because it’s fun.  I’m happy that it’s increasing my exposure and wine sales and I’m definitely finding ways to maximize the synergy between my blog and my website.  But ultimately, the blog is for fun.  And sometimes I get these lofty goals to sign everybody up for Google Alerts or whatever.  But ultimately, even those initiatives are an attempt to make my blog redundant.  One day, when everybody does their own online promotion, I’ll be useless.  And it’ll just be for fun again.

Until then, sign up for a freaking Google Alert.

Vicky Wine and Ryan O'Connell, loving that Languedoc

I did a big Languedoc-themed shindig with Vicky Wine at a nice art gallery called l’Oeil du Huit.

We also did a Love That Languedoc episode at the Paris cave de dégustation of Crus.fr before opening up the doors to do a Domaine O’Vineyards tasting.

Here is a little snippet from the crus tasting where one of their dear patrons talks about which of the three Podium wines she liked best: