Wine Industry Faces Digital Darwinism with Futurist Paul Mabray

Introduction How is the wine industry embracing the digital world? What role do influencers play in wine marketing? What can you do to increase engagement and build deeper connections with customers? Why has the wine industry been so resistant to adapt to the digital age? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, we’re chatting with Paul Mabray, a wine unicorn and digital futurist who has created and led companies that have transformed the wine industry through the strategic and visionary use of technology. You can find the wines we discussed here. Enjoy!   Highlights How is the wine […]

read more …

Read More

A Vine Celebration: The 120th Anniversary of Nino Negri Wines

In October, I traveled to Italy with great excitement to participate in Nino Negri’s 120th Anniversary celebration.  As I drove through the historic wine region of Valtellina, I was captivated by its breathtaking beauty and eager to participate in this year’s wine harvest. Valtellina is a serene valley at the foot of the Lombardy Alps, on the Italian-Swiss border. The “vine”, the heart of this difficult mountainous terrain, has found perfect growing conditions here. The vineyards are protected by two high mountain chains, the Retiche Alps and the Orobie Pre-Alps. Exposure to the sun at high altitude, as well as a significant […]

read more …

Read More

Top 100 Wine Sites > New Rankings: Who Made the List?

My Twitter feed lit up last night with good wishes from various parts of the planet … I clicked through to the link in one tweet and discovered that this site had just been ranked #2 in the Top 100 Wine Sites in the world. On the list: Jancis Robinson, editor of the Oxford Companion to Wine; Dr. Jamie Goode, author of The Science of Wine; James Suckling, former editor of The Wine Spectator magazine; Steve Heimoff, former editor of The Wine Enthusiast magazine, Alice Feiring, columnist for the New York Times; and Tim Atkin, columnist for the UK’s Observer […]

read more …

Read More

Top 100 Wine Blogs: New Ranking from Feedspot

Feedspot, which replaced Google’s RSS live feed for blog updates last year, has just published a new report on the Top 100 Wine Blogs. A friend nudged me about it on Twitter, as it’s not something you can enter. According to the editors of Feedspot: In the world of wine, these are the best of the best wine blogs who run their craft and work hardest to improve the entire wine industry. They are the most influential to both the trade and consumers. Their voices influence thousands of other wine personalities and tens of thousands of wine professionals. These wine blogs […]

read more …

Read More

Twitter Loves Wine: New Analytics Reveal the Power of Social Media Sharing

Twitter has launched a new analytics program that provides amazing insights, like the number of impressions your tweets get per day/week/month. This is more relevant than ever since Twitter and Google signed an agreement August 21, 2015, to turn on the “fire hose”: Twitter has opened its data feed to Google as a major source of social ranking data and authority. So we’ll start to see not just tweets in Google results, but also web site posts that have been shared widely on Twitter. I recently joined the analytics program, and the stats are very helpful in knowing the people […]

read more …

Read More

Pairing Wine and Social Media: Engagement in a Glass of its Own

On CBC radio drive-home shows across Canada yesterday, we discuss how social media is changing the way we discover new wines and share them with others. Click on the arrow above to listen to the clip. You can also watch this Google + video hangout that I did with the Californian-based wine consultant Paul Mabray several years ago on Digital Darwinism for the Wine Industry. The concepts have aged well and still hold true now. Do you find social media useful for discovering new wines? If so, which one in particular: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Google +, LinkedIn or […]

read more …

Read More

Top 10 Most Influential Wine Bloggers on Twitter

A Twitter storm erupted today, so I clicked through to to see what the fuss was about … how we love top 10 lists, no matter how encouraging or provocative. Cision, a global firm that tracks and reports on the top social media sites and conducts media research on key influencers, published its list of the Top 10 Most Influential Wine Bloggers on Twitter today: “This list includes the most influential wine bloggers on Twitter, ranked by number of Twitter followers. Using Cision’s media database, we compiled the list based on Cision’s proprietary research. All numbers were pulled on January […]

read more …

Read More

Twitter’s Profound Impact on Wine Purchases

Twitter has a powerful influence on the way make buying decisions, according to a new study published this week. The research firm DB5, which conducts studies regularly about Facebook, Google and other social media companies, found that: – 55% of people discuss gift ideas on Twitter, including wine, books and electronics – 66% of respondents said they learned about new brands on Twitter – 64% said they have bought a product because of something they saw on Twitter – 50% of survey responders said they check Twitter while in a retail store The Infographic below is a compelling visual representation […]

read more …

Read More