Sam Jones, Register
Brian Allard and Gabe Ide set up the virtual systems in front of the test kitchen for an upcoming tasting that evening. The Bouchaine Vineyards virtual tasting set up is capable of switching between the kitchen, the vineyards, the patio and other meeting spaces with a click of a button.
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WINERY Online tastings will likely persist after pandemic
28 | DISTINCTIVE PROPERTIES
SAM JONES sjones@napanews.com
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ack in 2017, Brian Allard pitched an outlandish idea to his colleagues at Bouchaine Vineyards. He admired how beautiful their property was, and wanted to find a way to reach their out-of-town customers without requiring travel. So after chewing on the idea for a bit, Bouchaine implemented its first — and Allard says the U.S.’s first — virtual tasting program in 2019. Chefs partnered with the winery for cooking classes, and the patio was filled with spread-out sommeliers conducting tastings. “That first year I told my whole MBA class what I was going to do, I told other wineries what I was going to do ... and absolutely no one paid attention to me,” he said. “No one cared.” “Then, COVID hits.” A flood of other wineries adopted virtual formats as the pandemic forced Napans home and online, and now with vaccinations on the rise, many have ceased or drastically cut down on these efforts. However, for some wineries like Bouchaine, virtual tastings have now become a viable sales channel for their business, and they say they won’t be abandoning the medium anytime soon. For Chelsea Hoff and her company Fearless Wines, staff was able to begin virtual tastings very early after stay-at-home orders were put in place back in 2020. “Fortunately because of our size, we were able to create a unique virtual tasting experience practically overnight,” she said. “We have grown tremendously since our first virtual tastings early on. We’re unquestionably more efficient with scheduling tastings and handling December 2021
