Good Grape Wine Company

October 21 2007

Navigating Wine Online For Dummies

For denizens of the online universe in which wine is a primary passion, the world of Wine 2.0--blogs, online message boards, online wine commerce, tasting note sites and other community-oriented sites are old-hat.  But, it struck me this past week that our world is still largely a niche and forbidding to most of the wine world—wineries, distributors, and, yes, most consumers.

It seems almost odd to think about, given that many of us spend a considerable amount of our time writing, tasting, communicating, sharing, and bonding over our mutual love of the vine online.  Everybody does this, right?

Ah, to the contrary. 

This stark reality came to me on Friday when I worked some business into an otherwise pleasure-oriented trip to New York City.

While sitting in the conference room of a small, boutique, multi-store chain of stores based on the East Coast, I was struck by how many “Dummies” books were on their bookshelf—Wine For Dummies, Red Wine For Dummies, White Wine For Dummies, French Wine For Dummies and others … this was coupled with a conversation about what my employer does as a technology provider to wineries and the wine industry.

Usually these conversations aren’t mouth agape revelations, but rather more of a, “hmm … I didn’t know there were guys like you out there.” This is usually followed up with a blank stare if I were to mention anything related to blogs or general wine geekiness that manifests itself with online wine geekiness.

This recent situation is by no means an isolated incident.  Roughly 75% of the meetings I’ve had with a distributor or retailer have included a Dummies book somewhere on premise and the incumbent “hmm …” explanation of technology in the wine world. 

Plus, I look and notice and see the Dummies books.  My wife works for the publishing house and, even if she didn’t, the ubiquitous yellow and black book branding is hard not to notice anyway.

This is surprising to me on a couple of levels because the presumption would be that these Dummies books would be too base level for professionals.

I would presume that wine professionals wouldn’t use a general consumer guide as a baseline for knowledge.  Fact is, I see many more Dummies books than I do Oxford Companion to Wine by Jancis Robinson. 

I would also presume that most people are in tune with the online wine world.

However, the majority of people that I interact with are still largely out of tune with the wine revolution that is occurring online.  Wineries have e-commerce enabled on their web site?  People actually blog about wine?  There are online communities centered around wine where people spend time talking and kibitzing?

You would think this is a secret society based on its lack of larger awareness in the general wine industry. 

This has me thinking that a Dummies book to the “world of wine online” might be an idea whose time has come. It’s not a stretch; actually, having a book published around a topic is almost a badge of honor for a constituency that is underserved, or where there is an appetite for information for a larger audience.

There are Anger Management For Dummies and Golden Retrievers For Dummies books.  Surely, there’s room for a book to explain the growing influence of internet-based wine communities and sites.

With wine in the U.S. on a course towards mainstream acknowledgement as a cultural touchstone, it actually makes sense and might be beneficial for everybody engaged in the world of wine online.

If I were to write this book, I would break it up into the following sections:

I. Understanding Wine Online (background and historical preface context community boards and email listservs to present day including commerce sites like Wine.com)

II. Wine Communities and Discussion Groups (eBob, Jancis Robinson, Wine Lovers Page, et al)

III. What is Wine 2.0 (blogs, tasting note sites, consumer sales business models, social networking)

IV. Understanding and Engaging in the wine blogosphere (a short history, types of blogs, setting yourself up with a feed reader to read blogs, recommendations, et al

V. Wine & Social Networking

VI. Wineries that sell online

VII. Online wine resources

Because I have some first-hand publishing experience, I know that most book publishing decisions are based on anticipated sell-in upon publication to Barnes & Noble and Borders as well as anticipated first year sales.  I have little doubt that this book could find a receptive audience if a consumer was interested in exploring their wine passion, but didn’t know where to start online.

My question for you is: what would add to the book that would help round out the information for your friends, neighbors and colleagues that had an interest in developing their understanding of wine, and were inclined to get online to do so? 

Please leave a comment on how you would enhance the above outline.  The publishing company for the Dummies books has an anti-nepotism rule, and I’m not in it for me. I’d be in it for all of us and I’m pretty sure a good number of bloggers could write this book.

See this link for a fun Dummies book cover generator.

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