Posted at 19:51h in Wine 101, Wine industry by 0 Comments
One of the topics of this blog will be the young wine drinker, the late Gen X and the Millenial (1975-legal drinking age).
I just received an e-mail from Gary Vaynerchuk, the brash, pedestrian, young host of Wine Library TV, a video podcast about wine, and Director of Operations at his father’s megaliquor store, Wine Library, in New Jersey about an article about Wine 2.0 in CNN.
Wine 2.0 – the use of the Internet to sell wine – is something that we in the Silicon Wadi ought to be paying attention to. Israel, a high tech leader, should be using the Internet to sell wine – including better websites (many haven’t been updated in years), blogs (this is the only Israeli wine blog that is written in Israel, but I am certainly not an employee of any winery), and the translation of Hebrew sites to English.
Vaynerchuk has done a tremendous job reaching out to young, potential wine drinkers. Through the democratization of wine – of which the Internet is an important part of – and wine education, the Millenials and Gen X are learning to appreciate wine.
It doesn’t surprise me, as someone from a family of wine retailers, that this is coming from an immigrant (OK, he came to the US at the age of 3) and a retailer – not a critic or Wine Spectator or Decanter.
As CNN says:
That kind of attitude appeals to people who are mystified by the arcane lexicon of traditional wine journals or turned off by what they perceive as elitist barriers. Across the Internet, budding wine geeks are discovering a burgeoning number of Web sites, blogs, bulletin boards and other outlets that preach the gospel of the grape in terms they can understand.
And
The mission of wine sites like “Wine Library TV,” say several of the people behind these new outlets, is to demystify wine (and in some cases, sell it, too). Using the language, attitude and new media that appeal to a young, tech-savvy generation, they advocate trusting one’s own palate rather than obeying powerful wine critics. Some of the sites also provide opportunities for average wine drinkers to share their opinions.
Through the democratization of wine, people are also learning to appreciate Israeli wine. Gary has to be commended for including new Israeli wines, such as Castel, on his video cast.
As Gary says “You, with a little bit of me, we’re changing the wine world, aren’t we?”
Yes we are.
