couch + cork brings the wine online

couch + cork is one of the most interesting and innovative businesses in the Bennington, VT, area. What is interesting about them is that they had two beginnings. In May 2019, they launched the original with just in-home tastings and only planned on this being a side gig. When the pandemic hit, they moved to virtual, and it took off for obvious reasons. Many people craving social interaction embraced the virtual world to fill the gap left by a lack of human interaction. couch + cork offers everything from in-home, virtual, corporate virtual wine tastings, private chef services, bar catering, and small wine-focused event planning.

While the appetite for virtual tastings for local customers may have waned, owner Nancy Koziol has more than made up for that by offering her virtual tastings to clients both further afield and overseas.

A former French colleague began sending clients that were either at an inconvenient time due to timezone differences or clients she did not have the capacity to take on. couch + cork’s French colleague has since gone back to doing only in-person tastings, and couch + cork took this opportunity to buy this colleague’s company, corporatevirtualwinetastings.com. The diverse clientele they inherited includes Amazon, Doordash, Fenwick + West, Bayer, and Square.

They work with local inns, like Rockwell’s Retreat (and they are very much open to working with more!), and vacation rental properties. The tastings can be highly personalized, and if the customers are interested in custom pairing for their wine tasting, that can be arranged using one of couch + cork’s own private chefs. One thing that gives some potential customers pause is the ease of such events. Vermont has notoriously strict liquor laws, but be rest assured, couch + cork has all the proper licenses and insurance for any type of private tasting.

So much of the business for couch + cork is by word-of-mouth, but that’s a good thing, as people usually walk away with a new appreciation for wine. Many of their clients have been intimidated by wine tastings, which have been perpetrated by an industry that can be intimidating and narrow in how they target clientele. An example of some personalized experiences are requests for milestone anniversary tastings where wine from where the couple’s honeymoon is featured or for Genevieve Plunkett’s collection of short stories, Prepare Her. Genevieve sent me the lines from a few excerpts she would read. I read the stories, and they paired a wine with each. couch + cork prides itself on sourcing inspiration from many places. A huge inspiration to the ethos of couch + cork is Wine Folly.

What sets Wine Folly apart is how digestible the content is. Madeline Puckette, the writer of Wine Folly, seems like someone you could talk to at a bar. When couch + cork began, it was because the founder felt, “out of her depth” while pursuing wine education. She wanted wine to be approachable. Before this, owner Nancy Koziol was a middle school educator. She learned that her approach had to be highly personalized and took these learnings into cork + couch. This is why she says they are so personalized and sassy. According to owner Nancy Koziol.

“Wine is a VERY traditional industry, and it’s not super welcoming to women. Hospitality is a beast for women, and just look at all the stuff that’s come to light about sexual harassment in the Court of Master Sommeliers. By being underrepresented in wine, as women, we’re not just carving out a space, but it’s important when people taste with us that they see people that don’t necessarily look like wine people.”

Her customers agree. In a recent piece by the Bennington Banner, Tory Rich writes.

“I’m an unrefined, gas-stationpizza-eating, football-watching Neanderthal. Wine (and alcohol in general) isn’t really my thing…I was incorrect. Little did I know, I land squarely in Koziol’s target demographic — anyone with an open mind that likes to learn and is up for a fun night. This was a room full of normal people that just like wine.”

The experts at couch + cork are well aware that many folks simply don’t know what they want in a wine tasting, which is why they created 10 Things Everybody Should Know About Wine (Even You!), which was born of the pandemic. This course is perfect for mixed groups as it offers foundational knowledge while gauging the class’s interest in various wine topics. When asked about particular areas of interest, couch + cork offered that often a lot of their choices are around what we’ve been drinking/learning/geeking out about. They like to focus on winemakers we know/have met and winemakers from marginalized groups. Naidu Wines, Theopolis Wines, Greek wines. couch + cork was part of the effort to make sure Black-made wines were available at shops in Vermont.

The greatest compliment they receive is when people feel relieved. Usually, within a few minutes of tasting with us, they’ll say, “Okay, this is NOT what I thought it was going to be.” There’s a lot of anxiety around wine and doing it “right,” but at the end of the day, for us, it’s about enjoyment. So, for novices, experts, and people who think they may like wine but aren’t sure yet, treat yourself to a couch + cork tasting, and prepare to unlock a new passion in your life.