Ross Halleck is a combination high-tech branding and marketing consultant and Russian River Valley pinot noir producer. So it makes sense that he would venture head-first into social media, participating in his first Pinot Noir Twitter Community Tasting this past summer.
Halleck was persuaded to participate online and host a simultaneous tasting at Aubergine Restaurant in Sebastopol by Ed Thralls, an Atlanta-based wine blogger and tweeter who is also a member of Halleck Vineyard's wine club.
"I jumped in with both feet," Halleck said. "I thought, I'm a savvy marketing guy and this seems like something I could use if nothing more than to differentiate myself. Here's a hook. Everybody's interested in this Twitter thing. There's no downside."
So while he sat around a table with wine club members and other interested folks who had come to the restaurant on that night, Halleck watched as a huge screen scrolled live tweets all about pinot noir, a two-hour blur of commentary involving 2,073 tweets by 323 people.
"There was a robust online community jabbering away at the speed of light," he recalled. "Then there was the live community who was sharing wine, food and company. Wine has this magical ability to elevate a conversation, bring people together, enhance intimacy and create community."
The virtual, high-tech Twitter culture has joined forces with the sensual, physical wine-tasting culture. It was only a matter of time.
Lisa Mattson, communications director for Jordan Winery in Healdsburg, agrees that for consumers and wineries, a Twitter tasting that involves going to a restaurant, retail store or tasting room can be a lot of fun and an effective way to spread the word about wine.
"The most successful way to do a Twitter tasting is for there to be a brick-and-mortar component as well as online," she said. "It can be interesting to meet people for the first time that you've maybe seen on Facebook or Twitter. But as a winery you have to be willing to put in a lot of promotional effort."
For the topic of wine in general, Twitter is an effective way of starting a conversation and getting aficionados together. Just last month, an entire day was devoted to the subject of cabernet sauvignon (#cabernet), a chance for wineries and wine lovers to express enthusiasm, ask questions or otherwise engage in the subject 140-or-less characters at a time.
In support, wineries, restaurants and other establishments hosted special tastings too, some 75 real-life meet-ups around cabernet, getting people together to enjoy the varietal, including at St. Supery Winery in Rutherford, where Rick Bakas, the day's organizer, is director of social media.
Cabernet Day ultimately resulted in 7,200 tweets by 1,750 people (according to www.wthashtag.com), not to mention more than 3,000 Facebook wall posts about cabernet sauvignon, making it the biggest wine tweet-up to date.
"Social gatherings used to be limited only to people in a single physical location like a bar or conference," Bakas said. "Now social gatherings extend past the walls of one location to the online social sites where conversation around a single subject can be scaled up. Tweet-ups blur the lines between in-person and online participation."
Why wine continues to be such a lively topic on a medium like Twitter is clear to Mia Malm, the name behind Napa-based Malm Communications, a boutique public relations and social media firm. Malm was previously director of public relations for Icon Estates, the fine-wine division of Constellation Wines.
"Wine is inherently social," she noted. "People who like wine like to talk about wine. they like to talk about it with other people who like wine. Now you can, with thousands of people. Then you get together with them and drink wine, which is even more fun."
Malm consults for small wineries looking to figure out their own social-media plans; she emphasizes that no one size (or plan) fits all. But essentially she thinks that the value of having a presence on Facebook or Twitter, or participating directly in a wine Tweet-up, is the ability to reach people who are on the cutting edge, who are innovative thinkers.
"There are a lot of wine people on Twitter because wine's a passion, people with a passion for something need an outlet," she said. "People who are passionate enough about wine to sign up for (an event), to get wine, to tweet about it. It means they're really invested in the subject. That's somebody I want to be in front of."
Tweets may be good, they may be bad, they may be ugly, but Malm contends they still represent authentic feedback as well as a chance for interaction and brand awareness, all at a relatively low cost.
"If you have a bottle of cabernet and an Internet connection, you could be a part of Cabernet Day," she said.
The next big event is Global Champagne Day (#champagne), scheduled for Oct. 28. Check champagne-day.eventbrite.com for details.
Virginie Boone is a freelance wine writer based in Sonoma County. She can be reached at
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