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Online Tastings Are Here To Stay “Travelling thousands of miles between wineries in different countries without leaving my chair.” Every time I tell my friends I’ll attend a virtual wine tasting, they start laughing compassionately. Until they realize the real thing arrives in my postbox— nothing virtual, small or bigger bottles of wine to taste. For example, during an online conference with the winemakers themselves or to probe from out of my lazy chair without any screen in front. Of course, also, I do more like the real thing. I prefer live tastings over online tastings, chit-chatting with winemakers and colleagues, sniffing the whole tasting atmosphere, or, even better, exploring a vineyard or a cellar on site. But what was the alternative when we were locked down? Since Covid19 restricted our physical ranges, winemakers and producers adapted their marketing methods quickly to reach out to their existing or new customers. Virtual tastings popped up like mushrooms from the ground. The basic idea is simple. A wine producer sends the requested wine or the wine they want to promote to the receiver. That can be private customers, buyers and traders (for retail), or wine journalists like me. Nothing strange because this also happened before Covid19. But when the ugly virus was sailing in, digital wine performances evolved and became more sophisticated, as no other
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GLOBAL RETAIL BRANDS / MAY 2022
Author In The House
means were available. Meanwhile, people got more confident and got used to online tastings, despite missing the social aspects of physical ones. Even the possibility of attending a wine tasting via social media, like Instagram, appeared. “Online tastings are here to stay”, confirms Marc Almert, World’s Best Sommelier in 2019 and wine host from Baur au Lac Vins in Switzerland, a trader that offers more than 3000 articles from more than 300 wine producers from 14 countries. “They provide consumers and winemakers more possibilities to meet: offline, online, and hybrid.
Individual winemakers believe the hybrid wine tasting concept will last, like Nick and Annette Köwerich, who produce wines in the German central Mosel area (https://www. weingutkoewerich.de/). ‘Yes, we have been offering Zoom tastings since the beginning of Covid,’ Nick says. Either individually with retailers and restaurateurs, train staff, present the new vintage or entertain our private customers. Also, we invite authors to our wine Zoom meetings, who then read from their books while the participants taste wines. We have also been offering wines in 0.25 and 0.375 cl for many years now. Bottles are always sold out quickly at Zoom meetings during Corona time. We are a small winery that can react individually to extraordinary times. We love it!’
