The European Wine Bloggers’ Conference is full of really cool panels and seminars. SO many that you have to make some tough choices about which to see. I opted toward seeing panels that were not being filmed figuring I’d be able to enjoy the more mainstream ones from the comfort of my computer chair. And I got a wonderful surprise!
The online wine commerce seminar had three people talking about some of the different ways to monetize wine on the web. Evelyn Resnick, author of Wine Brands and wearer of the technicolor dreamcoat, Andre from Adegga, and Rowan from Naked Wines.
The nice surprise is that O’Vineyards was mentioned multiple times by multiple panelists! So this post is going to be a little narcissistic and personal, but you can watch the video and form your own nerdy academic impressions this time. Instead, I’m focusing this post on my emotional rollercoaster and the birth of a humorous comic book rivalry between me and another winemaker!
Yes, you heard right, this exciting post will reveal the secret origins of The Winemaker.
Evelyn talked about how few wineries try to communicate directly with their clients with the Internet. But she did include a slide about some winemakers who are doing it right and O’Vineyards was on the top of the list. What a nice surprise. 🙂 Very good to see Evelyn recognize my family’s work as she’s a point man (point person?) for wine branding.
And then Andre got up and talked about different solutions he’s found to monetize his wine-based social network, Adegga. I was enjoying hearing about some of the cool projects underway in Portugal. Adegga is doing event promotion and finding ways to feature wines on the site in a way that is a lot more engaging than a banner ad. And just as I was coming down from the high of being mentioned by Evelyn, Andre starts talking about AVIN codes.
Now I think AVIN codes are awesome. They’re like an ISBN number for wines. The dorky librarian in me thinks this is great and even indispensable for the cataloging of wine. One day, we will not understand how wines went so long without having numeric codes. And Andre mentions some wineries that have AVIN codes on their labels, and BOOM, O’Vineyards get mentioned there too. Look at that! You cannot talk about wine commerce online without mentioning O’Vineyards. Pretty flattering!
Now I see Rowan get up and I think to myself… oh boy… my importer.. I’m gonna get a hat trick. I’m going to get three references in a row on the same panel. I feel it in my bones. Rowan’s progressing through his slides, explaining his amazing business model. Naked Wines is devoted to real innovation. They constantly try out new ideas, they embrace their clients’ opinions, and they aren’t afraid to stumble now and then on their sprint down the road to greatness. And they have cultivated a clientelle that understands the way the company works. It’s all very cool to be a part of it. And then Rowan gets to it. A slide where he explains how Naked puts wine lovers (photo of pretty wine drinkers pops up) in touch with wine makers (DRUMROLL AS I AWAIT MY GLORIOUS PORTRAIT TO APPEAR)… JOCK HARVEY?! YOU’LL RUE THE DAY YOU CROSSED ME, JOCK HARVEY!!
haha, okay so Jock is a Naked Wines star. And he deserves it. I tasted three of his wines while touring the UK and he makes some really interesting wine with a sort of exuberance and joie de vivre that is typically new world. But I’m getting distracted…this post is about our newly born rivalry! The best kind of rivalry, one where the other person doesn’t even know I exist! Bwahahaha
In the coming weeks, events would unfold to fan the flames of this one-sided rivalry. But I don’t want to spoil it all at once. Part 2 in the saga will come soon enough.
I am finally back in the comfort of my own winery after a long and wonderful trip to Paris and Vienna. The European Wine Bloggers’ Conference was an absolute blast. The word for the week was overwhelming. Lots of wine, lots of learning, lots of laughing, lots of beauty. Everything was just wonderful.
I guess we should break this up into multiple posts because the trip was sooo varied and momentous.
Alright, an ongoing series on the EWBC 2010 in Vienna and the surrounding Austrian wine country. As the series goes on, I’ll update this post to be a sort of index or table of contents for the EWBC posts, photos and links.
Keynotes and Tastings that virtually everybody did:
Other pertinent, less insane articles about the EWBC:
Mr. Payton goes to Washington.. err .. Parliament in Vien. This is a really ingenious piece where Ken Payton visits the Austrian parliament without an appointment (or any idea of who he even wants to talk to) and asks if anybody can help him learn about Austrian wine law. I wish I had ideas like this.
Adegga’s list of wines tasted during the conference proper – Although this list is very very long, it is not exhaustive. We must have cumulatively tasted over 1,000 wines in the five days.
Domaine O’Vineyards, located in the North Arrondissement of Carcassonne, is just minutes from the Carcassonne train station, the Medieval City, and the Carcassonne Airport.
GPS coordinates: 43.259622, 2.340387
O’Vineyards
Wine, Dine, Relax at our Boutique Vineyard
Unique thing to do in Carcassonne
Wine Cellar. Winery Visits. Wine Tasting.
Wine & Food Pairing
North Arrondissement of Carcassonne
885 Avenue de la Montagne Noire
11620 Villemoustaussou, France
Tel: +33(0) 630 189 910
Best by GPS.
Follow the signs to Mazamet/ Villemoustaussou using the D118. At the end of the last straight part of D118, you will come to a roundabout with the Dyneff gas station.
Take the exit towards Pennautier. Continue 500m to a small roundabout and go straight over.
Look out for the second road on your right, Avenue des Cévennes which curves up hill (about 1km) to Avenue de la Montagne Noire on the left.
At the last juction, bear left. the road sign “Ave de la Montagne Noire” (confusing as it seems to show a right turn)
After another 500m you will see our red brick color building in the middle of the vines.