The Alternative Tasting

Basically, we just did a fun wine tasting where we encouraged people to describe our wines with images that Louise Hurren had picked out for our tasting booklet.  Forcing people to think about a wine with images instead of words gets them to think outside the box instead of falling back on the oft repeated tasting note vocab like rich, balanced, and a laundry list of fruit.

Furthermore, it empowers novice drinkers to review wines without worrying that they’re using the wrong word.  The experts can make us feel inadequate about language sometimes, but they pretty much have no dominion in the land of photo reviews.

Why was this tasting on the Pavillion 2.0 space?

This tasting was held at the Internet space of Vinisud and there’s a good reason for that!  The reason for the prominence of the tasting note is largely grounded in the limitations of print media.  Limited space means we talk in pure descriptors without any conjugation.  But the Internet doesn’t pose the same challenge.  We can have infinite words and infinite photos in full color.  And heck we can even use moving pictures, music, and other media that were previously impossible to include in printed wine journalism.  The Internet provides us with a path to escape the tyranny of the tasting note!

So I did a little presentation on this topic to get everybody thinking outside the box before we got to drinking outside the box:

All the slides are available on slideshare with relevant links to related articles in the penultimate slide.

Results

I’d say everybody had a blast.  Including a lot of wine journalists (showing once again that even they can be fed up with tasting note format).  I originally wanted to do a tasting with music and video and all sorts of crazy stuff.  Thankfully, our group’s organizer Louise had the good sense to rein it in and focus on photos.

We had less than an hour to run the event so it was good to keep it simple and focused.  We got insanely good feedback about the event and it has already spawned several requests for similarly styled “alternative tastings”.  We also got several good ideas from our tasters who offered up ways to evolve the program and make it even more interesting.  Doing physical touchy feely tastings, doing musical tastings, tasting in darkness, drawings instead of photos, and so on.

In terms of tasting notes, I think we all received a wide range of notes.  I got everything from Lego man to Dutch masters.  I got several of the He/She picture that makes me wonder if I shouldn’t change my look.  Some of the outsiders noted that certain age groups tended to pick certain pictures (the more daring ones) more frequently than other demographics.  I’m sure we’ll compile more on this at our next meeting.

Everybody had fun tasting and I think this sort of event gets people to think and talk about wine in a new and stimulating way without feeling overly stuffy or pretentious.  A success!

Here’s the video:

You can find either of us floating around ViniSud if you’re in Montpellier this week.  Although if you’re looking for Nina (let’s face it: nobody is looking for me) then keep in mind she’s no longer blonde.

On the off chance that you do look for me instead, I’ll be glad to share more information about Carcassonne, the Cabardes or the O’Connells.

Twitter at Vinisud

Two years ago, there were a handful of people tweeting at Vinisud.  I actually got multiple journalists to visit the O’Vineyards stand just because we answered their tweets and invited them to come by.  That’s a pretty big score for less than 140 characters.

This year, in the days leading up to the event, there is a massive flow of tweets about Vinisud, including the tweets of winemakers, interprofessions, syndicates, and the official @vinisud twitter account.  Six people have tweeted about the wine fair in the time it has taken me to write the first three paragraphs of the post you’re reading.  That’s a big change in just two years!

More Twitter Users at Vinisud

In fact, this shouldn’t be surprising at all.  In January 2010, there were an estimated 127.4K twitter users in France based on a study conducted by Sysomos.  By October of 2010, that number had almost doubled.  And in January 2012, we’re seeing about 5.2 million twitter accounts in France.

• January 2010 – 127,400
• October 2010 – 225,000
• January 2012 – 5,200,000

That’s incredible growth.  It also explains why there’s so much more chatter this year.  There are  40 times as many people to do the chattering.  Plus when you think about it, the first 127,000 to adopt are generally in the tech & communications field.  There are 700,000 informaticiens in France.  So the odds are the winemakers don’t really join the conversation until those guys all do it. ;D

How useful is twitter at Vinisud?

And we come to the question, what use is tweeting for winemakers or anybody else at Vinisud?  It’s not Fukushima.  It’s not Arabian Spring.  It’s a wine fair.  Who cares what you’re drinking right now?

Well, two years ago, it was exceptionally useful.  As I mentioned above, we got tasted by the Wine Enthusiast and several blogs solely because of a tweet.  We were on the Cité de Carcassonne’s communal stand and all the other producers were shocked at how busy we were.  We were also rather shocked!  In 2008, before social media (and before we had developed much of a reputation at all), we had virtually nobody come by the stand.

So Twitter was useful for drawing attention back then.  It was pretty easy.  Look who is talking about vinisud.  Tweet them an invitation to taste your wines.  The end.

But now that there are more of us, it’s harder to stand out from the crowd.  Is this the point of diminishing returns?

The point of increasing returns?

Interestingly, more users also means more listeners!   Sure it takes more time to stand out of the crowd.  But the crowd is bigger so you get more return for your work too.

So all we have to do is figure out how to stand out from the crowd.  So let’s take a look at the crowd.

Promotion of a group – A lot of the tweets are coming from organized groups like AOC syndicates, winemaker collectives, and PR agencies.

This strategy commonly involves tweeting out the stand of the collective group or the stands of individuals who belong to the group.

For example, the AOC Saint Chinian account seems to have been created very recently and specifically for the purpose of tweeting about their presence at Vinisud and similar events.  There are only a few tweets and they’re generally self-promotional invitations.  They only have a handful of followers, so logically they are not tweeting to those few who already follow them.

They are probably hoping to get the attention of folks who don’t already follow them on Twitter.  And to the extent that they’re mentioned here, I guess that works.

This strategy is relatively common.  You can find it again in the AOC Limoux, Groupe UVAL, and others.  Limoux is notable for being more about social interaction most of the time (but they do this “list every winemaker routine” at conferences like Vinisud and Millesime Bio).

While I think a minority of people use this strategy, it tends to be highly visible because it fills the entire vinisud stream with short bursts of messages from the same people.  As seen in the screenshot to the left.

Some groups like the Outsiders (which I belong to) separate these messages by several hours so that they don’t look quite as spammy.

Conversational Use – I think a lot of people are having simple conversations on Twitter.  Like a form of broadcast text messages.  It can be pretty hard to follow the stream of conversation, especially when multiple people get involved.  But it does allow lots of people to get involved in the same discussion, and that is nice.  Much of the conversation at this point is just “@soandso Are you coming to vinisud?”  But there are more intricate dialogues too.

During the event, I anticipate this form of use will increase as Twitter just becomes an effective way to communicate with large groups (largely thanks to Twitter’s tiny data burden).  This is often the kind of use you hear about in the news whether it’s in the context of vapid “I’m eating a muffin” posts or natural disaster and political upheaval articles.  People use the tool for first hand communication/conversation.

Curatorial Use – Curators use Twitter to present things that they find elsewhere on the Internet.  Obviously I am a big fan of this school (as should be apparent since we’re getting to the end of a lengthy listing of different uses of Twitter at wine conferences).  For an idea of what this looks like, you can look at Andy Abramson, a blogger who is visiting the region in the time leading up to the conference.

I should note that there is a fine line (or no line?) between curatorial use and the group use mentioned above.  In fact, groups are trying to curate their group members.  But it just feels different.  I can’t really put my finger on it.  Maybe some other day.

—

If you want to stand out from this crowd, you’re going to need to do something eye-catching and different.  Be the best curator, the most entertaining conversationalist, the coolest group, or invent a new use!

For lists of winemakers at Vinisud that I know very well, try 7 wines that tell a story or 8 Outsiders at Vinisud.

There has been a big response to the Vinisud guide so far but I can imagine that people would like a list that isn’t curated by me.  After all, I tend to pick my buddies and so you’ll see the same names crop up over time.

Well this list is actually just an email I got from a PR person who specializes in wine.  One day, they’re going to figure out that they can publish this stuff on their own blogs, and I’ll be out of an audience.  But since there’s been good feedback for all the vinisud guides, here’s a list curated by somebody other than me (although I couldn’t resist adding my own annotation in blue text):

VINISUD list from VINCONNEXION

Mes clients et moi serions heureux de vous recevoir sur leur stand à votre convenance :

Hall 7
Domaine de L’Hortus – stand 7 A 28 - Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup
great property in Pic Saint Loup. One of the big references

Domaine de Haut-Gléon – stand 7 A 69  - Corbières
Sortie du 1er millésime bio et présentation d’une nouvelle gamme aux noms évocateurs, notamment L’Elementerre en rouge et l’Essenciel en rosé.

Hall 10 
Terres de Mer – stand 10 A 33 - Les Maîtres Vignerons de la presqu’île de Saint Tropez et Le Moulin de la Roque à Bandol “Les Maitres Vignerons de la presqu’ile de Saint Tropez” is an awesome name for an indie band

Chez Les Maîtres Vignerons de la presqu’île de Saint-Tropez :  Grain de Glace 2011 & rosé de l’hiver.

Domaine Saint André de Figuière – VIGNOBLES & SIGNATURES – stand 10 B 20 – Côtes de Provence

Hall 11 
Château Les Amoureuses – ASSOCIATION 2 000 VINS D’ARDÈCHE – stand 11 A 24

Vignerons Ardéchois – UVICA – ASSOCIATION 2 000 VINS D’ARDÈCHE – stand 11 A 76

Ortas Cave de Rasteau – stand 11 B 16

Nouvelle gamme Ortas de Crus du Sud pour le circuit traditionnel : Châteauneuf du Pape, Gigondas, Tavel, Vacqueyras, et un IGP “Petit As”. I’ve never heard of IGP “Petit As”, but it instantly became my favorite denomination name after “La Clape” (for mostly the same reasons).

Domaine Alain Jaume & Fils – VIGNOBLES & SIGNATURES – stand 11 B 17
Châteauneuf du Pape, Lirac, Vacqueyras (nouveau membre du Club en 2012)

Domaine Brusset – stand 11 C 16
Cairanne, Gigondas…

Cave de Tain l’Hermitage – stand 11 C 76
Un engagement fort pour un développement durable (rapport disponible auprès de Murielle Chardin-Frouin)
Développement de l’oenotourisme, avec notamment le parcours “Sur les pas de Gambert” this walking trail has signposts with qr codes and stuff. cool idea.

Les Vignerons de Rasteau et de Tain l’Hermitage VRT – stand 11 C 76
Lancement en GMS d’une gamme Ortas dans les 3 couleurs : un Côtes du Rhône Villages, un Rasteau sec, un VDN. Des vins issus du sourcing de la Cave de Rasteau.

Mas Amiel – stand 11 D 16 Legendary vin doux producers in Maury.

Domaine Pierre Gaillard – VIGNOBLES & SIGNATURES – stand 11 D 87
Côte Rôtie, Faugères, Banuyls (nouveau membre du Club en 2012) My mom is doing an off event with them on Tuesday

Hall 12 
InterVins sud-est – stand 12 A 68
Dégustation en avant-première du TOP 50. Ces 50 vins sélectionnés parmi 14 IGP (jury du 30 janvier à Orange) sont la vitrine des vins IGP du sud-est ; ils sont issus d’une véritable mosaïque de terroirs viticoles. Des vins dans les 3 couleurs, vins de cépages et d’assemblage.

Château de la Selve – Association 2 000 vins d’Ardèche – stand 12 A 36

Château de Gaudou – stand 12 E 29 -Cahors

DEUX RENDEZ-VOUS PARTICULIERS :

“Un dimanche à la campagne” : dimanche 19 février de 13 à 19 h avec le Club Vignobles & Signatures
Le Domaine de l’Hortus (Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup, à Valflaunès), membre du Club Vignobles & Signatures, organise “un dimanche à la campagne”. La famille Orliac, propriétaire de ce domaine, fera visiter le vignoble ; les 17 propriétés formant le Club Vignobles & Signatures feront déguster leurs meilleurs millésimes et les nouveaux vins 2011 (invitation et plan d’accès joints).

Dégustation permanente à Vinisud du TOP 50 des IGP du sud-est : hall 12 stand A 68 InterVins sud-est
Dégustation en avant-première du TOP 50. Ces 50 vins sélectionnés parmi 14 IGP (jury du 30 janvier à Orange) sont la vitrine des vins IGP du sud-est ; ils sont issus d’une véritable mosaïque de terroirs viticoles. Des vins dans les 3 couleurs, vins de cépages et d’assemblage.

Like all the great music and art festivals, Vinisud draws a lot of talent to the area where it’s held (Montpellier).  So every day, after the fair ends, the party is just beginning for other people.

The French refer to afterhours parties and tastings as “OFF’ events.  This is a run down of all the OFF events I’ve heard about so far.  Feel free to add your own in the comments section or email me if I’m missing some.

If you find this list helpful, consider tweeting about it or sending a link to your friends by email.

Events that require a reservation or paid entry are marked as such.  Note that virtually all of these events are meant for wine buffs.  Especially the ones that are invitation only.  You should probably only attend if you’re in the trade or press, or if you can demonstrate a pretty professional enthusiasm for wine.  The dinner events are probably more open to amateur visitors.  Don’t get mad at me! You know I don’t make the rules.

Sunday OFF Events

Le Vin de Mes Amis – 14h-19h – Domaine de Verchant 34170 Castelnau le Lez
RSVP to charlotte.senat@gmail.com
Cost 10€
Vin de Mes Amis blog
PDF of invitation vdm 2012 pdf
A huge list of very good wines.  A lot of the usual suspects from Changer l’Aude en Vin, but tons more to boot.  See page 2 of the Vin de Mes Amis PDF for details.  I heard that this might be at Trinque Fougasse O’Nord but the invitation says Domaine de Verchant. Look into it if you’re interested!

Haut les Vins! – 10h-20h – Chateau de Flaugergues (in Montpellier)
official website
list of participants
A large group of winemakers from all around France, and a couple from Portugal, Spain and even Serbia.  This gang will be doing their tasting at a Domaine that is actually located within Montpellier’s city limits.  My buddy Benoit will be pouring his zero dosage Champagne and lots of other good winemakers are in attendance.  It’s open all Sunday so if you get to Montpellier early, this is a great way to ease into ViniSud.  But don’t party too hard as you have three days of salon ahead of you!

ViniFilles – 18h30 – Jam 100 rue Ferdinand de Lesseps 34000Montpellier
invitation required
contact presse@vinifilles.fr
This group of Languedoc Roussillon winemaking women are having a rock show and tasting at the Jam.  There’s a buffet and ample wine.  The bands playing are Les Gazelles de Bruxelles and La Mal Coiffée.  But there is a guestlist so you have to contact them if you want to get in.

Chateauneuf du Pape, Tavel & Rasteau – 19h - Chateau de la Banquiere Vauguieres le Haut 34130 Maugio
dinner & music
invitation only
contact: soiree.crus@hotmail.fr
The AOCs Chateauneuf du Pape, Tavel & Rasteau are organizing a nice dinner with music and winemakers from the three appellations presenting their wines around a buffet dinner.

Monday OFF Events

G-Night, Occupy Grenache – 19h-2h – location not yet announced (underground ;D)
PDF of invitation G-Night Invite Vinisud 2012
Facebook event page
A night devoted to Grenache.  Run by the same people who organized the Grenache Symposium at La Verriere.  Should be fun.  The location is still a surprise so I expect they’ve got something fun in store to reveal it closer to the date.

Le Vin de Mes Amis – 10h-19h – Domaine de Verchant 34170 Castelnau le Lez
RSVP to charlotte.senat@gmail.com
Cost 10€
Vin de Mes Amis blog
PDF of invitation vdm 2012 pdf
Les amis this time around are Jean Yves Bordier with butter and cheeses from Saint-Malo, Irene et Julienne Daniaux with glass art, and Antony Cointre a roving chef.  And a huge list of very good wines.  A lot of the usual suspects from Changer l’Aude en Vin, but tons more to boot.  See page 2 of the Vin de Mes Amis PDF for details.

Haut les Vins! - 10h-18h – Chateau de Flaugergues, Montpellier
official website
list of participants
If you’re not in town on Sunday, they’re doing it all over on Monday.

Contains Sulfites…Mais Pas Trop! – 18h – Le Ban des Gourmands, Place Carnot, Montpellier
Official blog
RSVP required on the official blog
This hilariously named group of reasoned winemakers are doing an event on Monday night at a restaurant. It might be a sit down dinner… the invitation just bills it as an Intergalactic journey.  Reservations should be made before the 10th so hurry up!

Mas de l’Ecriture – 18h-20h30 – Chez Boris (brasserie)
invitation only, for wine trade and press
contact: louisehurren@wanadoo.fr
A 12 year vertical of Mas de l’Ecriture. Pretty stunning opportunity, but very limited space in the venue.

Tuesday OFF Events

Mardi Gras des Gaillardises - 11h-20h – Aeroport Hotel Maugio/Montpellier
blog post about the event
facebook page
25 winemakers will present their wines at the Aeroport Hotel which is easy to get to by using the regular airport shuttles from the Parc des Expositions.  There are some really top notch producers from all over France.  And of particular interest to my blog readers, there are a couple of Internet superstars including my mom from O’Vineyards, Iris Rutz-Rudel from Domaine Lisson, Isabelle Perraud from Cotes de la Moliere, Amy Lillard from La Gramiere, and Lilian Bauchet from Les Bachelards.   So if you’ve been reading our blogs and wondering if the wine is as good as the words, here is your chance.  Full list of vignerons available in the link above; you’ll see there are some heavy hitters.

Mas de l’Ecriture - 18h-20h30 – Chez Boris (bistrot)
invitation only, for wine trade and press
contact: louisehurren@wanadoo.fr
A 12 year vertical of Mas de l’Ecriture.  Note the venue changes from the similarly named Chez Boris Brasserie to Chez Boris Bistrot.  But still limited space.

So OFF that they’re ON

There are a few events that are structured like OFFs or have the spirit of an OFF, but they’re actually going to take place within the walls of ViniSud.

The Outsiders will be teaching you new ways to communicate about wines.

on Monday afternoon at 16h @ the Pavilion 2.0
and
on Tuesday morning at 10h @ the Pavilion 2.0

The 2012 edition of Vinisud includes a space devoted to the web called Pavilion 2.0

I’ll be spending a lot of time there.  Additionally, I’ll be doing a presentation with some of my buddies from the Outsiders

on Monday afternoon at 16h
and
on Tuesday morning at 10h.

Each presentation will consist of a 10 minute talk about new opportunities in wine communication afforded by the Internet, followed by a tasting workshop where we’ll encourage people to talk about our wine with images instead of words.

Facebook event page

Invitation to the event

It should be a lot of fun.  It’s a focused, high-energy event.  Each producer is bringing just one wine to be tasted so it’s a small sampler platter of the Outsiders that will hopefully inspire you to visit the stand of your favorite producers.  And we might revolutionize the way you think about wine writing while we’re at it.

This year, I’ve written a couple posts that might help out the odd journalist or tradesperson who doesn’t have their whole trip planned out.

• A guide to Vinisud OFF events
• 7 wines from the south of France that know how to tell a story
• 8 Languedoc winemakers from the great beyond
• 7 women winemakers at ViniSud from the Vinifilles
• Finding O’Vineyards at ViniSud
• The Pavillon 2.0 – A space devoted to the web
• How to find a specific producer
• Another list of winemakers at ViniSud

Vinisud is a massive wine trade fair in Montpellier.  It’s easy to get lost in the sea of mediterranean winemakers, so I’ve compiled a list of southern French wines that I think are genuinely interesting.

If you ever feel overwhelmed, just take a deep breath, pick somebody from this list and visit them.  I’m sure they’ll treat you well.  I picked people who are pretty spread out across all the halls so wherever you have your wine-induced panic attack, you’ll be near one of these producers.

If you find this list helpful, consider tweeting about it or sending a link to your friends by email.

1. Chateau de Nages  - Michel & Tina Gassier – Hall 11
2. Chateau de Gaure – Pierre Fabre – Hall 7
3. Clos du Gravillas – John & Nicole Bojanowski – Hall 9
4. Chene Bleu Rosé – Nicole Sierra Rolet – Hall 11
5. l’Oustal Blanc Naick blanc – Claude & Isabel Fonquerle – Hall 6 (tuesday afternoon only)
6. Domaine des Homs – Jean Marc & Anne de Crozals – Hall 10
7. O’Vineyards – That’s me. – Hall 1

 Chateau de Nages Vielles Vignes 2011
Tina & Michel Gassier – Costieres de Nimes
Hall 11 Aisle A Stand 99

This wine is one of the strongest arguments I’ve ever tasted for exploration of organic and biodynamic practices at my own vineyard.  That’s a pretty hefty statement, so let me explain myself.  I am  not convinced that organic wine is inherently better from a moral or ecological perspective.  I am therefore only interested in it to the extent that it can make my wine taste better.  Gassier makes my style of wine, big, dense, rich, etc. while preserving a certain level of freshness and acidity that keeps the wine from becoming overbearing.  He also has a relatively huge property.  Something like 6 times as big as O’Vineyards.  So if he can do it, I can.  And he swears that his wines have benefited from it.  So I’m intrigued.  More at the Gassier blog or Nages website.

Chateau de Gaure Campagne Chardonnay 2010
Pierre Fabre – Limoux
Hall 7 Aisle A Stand 74

Pierre Fabre started making wines a bit south of my vineyard at almost the exact same time.  On top of making fantastic wines, he’s a great artist and every vintage gets a different painting of his.  He’s recently released a new white wine where the label is painted by his five year old son!  It’s a great wine with some real value and the painting hilariously looks like his style at first glance.  He’s got a huge smile and loves to share his wines with strangers. more at gaure website or blog

Clos du Gravillas Lo Vièlh Carignan
Nicole & John Bojanowski – St Jean de Minervois
Hall 9 Aisle B Stand 46

St Jean de Minervois is famous for its muscat, but I’m sending you to the crazies up on the hill that make a pure Carignan.  They famously defended the grape to Jancis Robinson and other journalists who sometimes looked down on the variety.  You can taste a 100% Carignan done right and decide if it’s worth all the fuss.
Chêne Bleu / Domaine de La Verrière Rosé
Nicole Sierra-Rolet - Southern Rhône
Hall 11 Stand C64

This year, you can taste a rosé made for red wine drinkers.  It’s direct press and serious business.  If you go to their stand and say “Go ahead, make my day,” they’ll pour you their Clint Eastwood styled rosé.  :)

To their merit, Chêne Bleu was one of the few wineries that sent me an email so good I just wanted to publish their words:

Chêne Bleu takes the Clint Eastwood approach to winemaking – it’s not an adventure if someone’s done the same thing already – so when we set out to make a rosé, we wanted it to be different from the norm and to stand proudly alongside our critically acclaimed reds and whites. This rosé is not for knocking back by the pool. It’s one of the few direct press rosés made; and we call it our ‘anti-rosé rosé’ because we believe that even those who aren’t usually rosé fans will love its ‘chewy’ texture, long finish and ability to stand up to lovely rich Mediterranean food and spicy Eastern dishes. Through the years it’s won accolades all over the world including designation as a ‘Vin Mythique’ in La Revue du Vin de France. Come by the stand and, if you use the password ‘Go ahead, make my day’, you can see if you agree with us, and the critics, in a taste test alongside some spicy food.

L’Oustal Blanc Naick Blanc
Isabel & Claude Fonquerle – la Liviniere
Hall 6 Aisle A Stand 13 (Tuesday afternoon only)

A brother from another mother, the high end reds at l’Oustal Blanc remind me of a more mediterranean version of my own wines.  But what’s really intriguing is their 100% Grenache Gris.  A white wine for red wine drinkers.  This is one of the whites that pushed dad and me over the edge and made us decide to harvest our white grapes and make a white wine in 2012.  Claude will only be at ViniSud Tuesday afternoon.  You can also catch this wine at an OFF event we’re doing together on Tuesday at the Aeroport Hotel.

Domaine des Homs Paul 2011
Anne & Jean Marc de Crozals – Minervois
Hall 10 Aisle A Stand 8

I met these winemakers because we both make Cabardes wines, but I think their true specialty is their organic Minervois estate.  In a blind tasting I once confused this wine with a 60 € bottle from a more notorious estate, and the Cuvée Paul is thankfully much more affordable.  It’s a minervois that manages to capture ripe fruit without getting overbearing.  And they were some of our first neighbors to have us over for a drink when we got to the region.  So cheers.

O’Vineyards Stranger, Stranger 2007
Joe, Ryan and Liz O’Connell – Cabardes
Hall 1 Aisle B Stand 21

I’d be remiss if I didn’t invite you to come visit my family’s stand.  My parents, Joe and Liz O’Connell, don’t usually get a chance to talk because I am always blabbing for them online.  But at Vinisud, you can meet the silent majority of O’Vineyards!  And they’re coming with a special treat.  Ask about the “Stranger, Stranger” and they’ll give you a taste of a 100% Merlot they only made in 2007, in commemoration of all the strangers who helped us when we first moved to the Languedoc.  This wine always cheers us up, and it was the first bottle my dad reached for when the New Orleans Saints got knocked out of the NFL playoffs this month.

If you’re in Montpellier on February 20-22, there are many ways to interact with O’Vineyards while we attend Vinisud.

O’Vineyards official stand

Cité de Carcassonne – Hall 1, Allée B, Stand 21

We have a space in the Cité de Carcassonne space in Hall 1, Allée B, Stand 21. When you come into the conference through the main entrance, go straight forward and Hall 1 is the first building you’ll pass through. We’re one of the first stands you’ll see and we encourage you to start or end your day with my parents who will be at the stand. If you want to taste the wines with me (Ryan) then you should email me or tweet me ahead of time so that I can make sure I’m at the stand to meet you. But my parents are really awesome and you’ll enjoy meeting them too!

Mardi Gras OFF event

Aeroport Hotel  (google maps link)
34130 Maugio, Montpellier
Tuesday Feb 21
from 11:00 to 20:00.
Hors d’oeuvres offered.
contact anytime for more info: 33(0)6 30 18 99 10

We’re also participating in an intriguing off event in a private conference room in the aeroport hotel.  This is really really close to the airport so it’s very convenient for those of you coming from far away.  And there are regular shuttles from Vinisud to the airport, so it’s easy to get to from Vinisud.  It’s a laidback group that offers a more relaxed atmosphere than Vinisud (which can be very business oriented and sort of rushed with all the appointments you have to make).  Come by for some excellent wines from all over France and a bite to eat.  The uniting principle of this group is that most of the members have worked closely with Pierre Gaillard at some point in their careers, although a few of us (like O’Vineyards) are more friends of friends.  Anyway, it goes until 8PM so you can come by after the salon and meet some great winemakers who understand the value of a soft sell.  This is a room full of unique and interesting wines that will charm you without an onslaught of export figures and volume commitments.

The Web Pavillion

Pavilion 2.0

This year, Vinisud has an area devoted to the web.  Presumably, it will have wifi access.  And there will be several presentations devoted to the Internet’s effect on the wine business and the mediterranean.  They’ve invited several bloggers and online wine communicators so it should be a fun area.  It’s also relatively anglophone so brace yourself for that.

I will be here for a large portion of the fair since they picked me to represent France this year.  I also have a couple of my short talks scheduled in this space over the length of the fair.

Outsiders: A left field tasting

Monday February 20th, 16h
and Tuesday February 21st, 10h

We’re doing this presentation twice.  The first ten minutes (when I talk) will likely be similar.  I want to introduce the notion that the Internet allows us to communicate about wine in a variety of ways that conventional print media does not permit.  And then we’ll encourage you to taste several wines made by the outsiders and try to pair them with photos, sound, video and so on instead of boring old tasting notes.

Wine communication on a tiny budget

Date to be determined

A joint presentation with Charles Perez from Mas Becha, me, and maybe some others.  Still ironing this out.  We’ll basically show examples of massively successful communication efforts realized on miniscule budgets.  A must see for bootstrappers everywhere.

What is a trade fair?

A trade fair is a large exhibition of wine producers intended for a professional audience (as opposed to a salon or foire which is generally open to the public).  Trade Fairs can feature some public speakers, but they tend to center around the wine exhibition (as opposed to conferences which tend to be more about speakers).  You don’t really sell bottles at a trade show.  The hope is more to make deals for larger quantities.

note: this photo is of Millesime Bio which is actually one of the most reasonably priced and scaled trade fairs.  Instead of hiring a stand, you get a table.  And everybody has the exact same table and table cloth.  No massive two story buildings for the bigger wineries.  Just the same plain white table.  An interesting twist.

Throughout the year, there are many trade fairs such as the LIWF (London), VinExpo/ViniSud (alternating years in Bordeaux/Montpellier), and ProWein (Düsseldorf).  These are massive wine fairs full of stands (hundreds or even thousands of them) intended largely for professional audiences consisting of retailers, importers, negociants, journalists, etc.

You pay a pretty penny for your stand (thousands of euros for a small stand at an event that lasts a few days) and you hope to rack up as many business meetings and journalist sightings as possible.

How much does a trade fair cost?

The short of it is that trade fairs cost a lot.  There is the basic cost of getting a stand.  Then there are all sorts of ancillary costs like travel, lodging, and stand furniture.  In the best case scenario, a fair like ViniSud might cost just over 1,000 Euros for the small stands.  In the more extravagant scenarios, shows like VineExpo and the LIWF can cost thousands just to get in the door.  And then you still have to furnish the stand and make it look different than the hundreds of other stands within line sight of yours.  And if you want electricity, lighting, ice to chill your whites, or really anything other than a carpeted stand, you’ll probably have to pay for it.

I don’t want to be purely theoretical, so let’s grab some real numbers from the official trade fair websites.

LIWF - costs-booking

– Shell package at £346/per sq.m.
– Space only at £291/per sq.m

I’m not sure what the minimum space is at LIWF, and they’re not answering my emails (probably busy organizing the event which is just around the corner).  But, from memory, the smallest stands still seemed to be at least 6 square meters.  You might think thrifty winemakers always choose to self-furnish, but it’s not that simple.  We can’t generally bring furniture on the RyanAir flight to Stansted.  It often comes out cheaper to rent the conference’s furnishings.  So you come out to 2400 Euros for a tiny stand.  That doesn’t include the cost of shipping wine over, travel, lodging, etc.

VinExpo - costs-registration

270 Euros / square meter with a minimum 16 square metre space (4320 Euro minimum). And that’s for the cheap spaces that are only exposed on one side.  There is separate pricing for the stands that are exposed on two, three and four sides.  And that is just the stand price.  There are additional registration fees just to open an dossier or to gain the right to be an indirect exhibitor (600 to 740 Euros).

To give you an idea of what exhibitors spend, VinExpo now has a clef en main offer where you really get a furnished stand where all the work has been done for you.. it’s 16 square meters and costs 9,920 euro.  It includes “moquette, cloisons mitoyennes, 1 fronton avec logo de l’exposant, 1 bar comptoir avec évier et branchement eau, 1 vitrine, 1 réserve avec étagères de rangement, 1 patère, du mobilier (1 table ronde, 3 chaises, 2 tabourets hauts, 1 frigo, 1 poubelle), de la décoration florale, électricité (2 prises 24H/24H éclairage), le nettoyage journalier, l’assurance.”

ProWein - costs-registration

126 E / square meter

ProWein is one of the most reasonably priced trade fairs which probably explains why it’s gaining so much popularity as an International event.  Every year, they get more and more International visitors, apparently.  I actually haven’t been so I can’t talk much about it.  But even a less expensive fair is still going to end up costing the thriftiest exhibitor 1000+ Euros.

How do trade fairs affect cost of wine?

Well, it really depends on what kind of winemaker you are.

Some of my favorite producers like Domaine Revelh have barely 2 hectares of vines.  They’re producing just a few thousand bottles of wine each year.  Participation in a single trade show can easily raise the price of a bottle of their wine by 20-50 cents!

On the other hand, producers who put out 3 million bottles each year can amortize the cost of all the major wine fairs over 3 million bottles.  In that case, the expense of a much larger stand at each of these fairs, and employees to occupy said stand only add fractions of a cent to each bottle.

It’s hard to generalize, but for your average boutique wine (where production tends to be less than 100,000 bottles per year) attending several trade fairs can mean a significant increase in cost on the wine (several cents per bottle).

I should note that there are a lot of strategies to mitigate trade fair costs.

What makes trade fairs worth it?

As a winery, you’re hoping to generate long term sales.  Even if you only make a couple one pallet sales, there’s a chance those merchants reorder your wine again in a few months and again after that.  Alternatively, you can meet up with everybody who already buys your wine and taste the new vintage with them.  Or you can get some press attention while all the journalists are in town (and again, hopefully this leads to sales).

As a wine drinker though… you have to feel a bit cheated.  The cost of the trade fair gets incorporated into the overhead of running a winery and it gets tacked on to the final bottle price.  It’s a cost that doen’t improve the quality of the wine.

Additionally, you won’t even benefit from the experience of the the trade show since it isn’t even intended for consumers.  Whereas participation in events like Le Grand Tasting can at least be enjoyed by the general wine-drinking public, participation in trade shows is never meant to trickle down to consumers.  The only potential benefit to the consumer is that a trade show can create a better supply chain making the product available in your market.  But generally speaking, trade shows represent a cost that does not improve the end user’s experience of the wine.  So is it worth it?  Hmmm..

My UK importer, Naked Wines, strongly discourages its winemakers from expensive trade shows like this.  Their philosophy is that all the money we spend should go into making the wine better.  However they are pretty keen on some of my low-cost shenanigans which I talk about elsewhere.

What do you think?  Are trade fairs a necessary means of finding supply chains?  Or are they a bit of bloat that inflates wine prices unnecessarily?