Good Grape Wine Company

June 4 2006

The Viagra of the Wine Industry

I’m still tickled to be a part of the Stormhoek launch.  The picture is of the vino that made its way to my doorstep--Shiraz, Pinotage, Sav.Blanc and Pinot Grigio.  It was all I could do not to crack the Shiraz this weekend.

An article on the ongoing Stormhoek launch in the states has this to say:

‘Our web site shares the minutiae of ourbusiness. What we call wine porn; building an engaged onlinecommunity,’ claims UK-based Nick Dymoke-Marr. It may sound like an oddstatement from the MD of importer/distributor Orbital and co-owner of a winery that barely has a local presence. It’s all to do with blogging,and flies on the premise that cyber-communities share opinions on avariety of subjects, from clothes to the latest tekkie toys. ‘Webelieve the two social lubricants of wine and blogging will continue togrow, with Stormhoek at its core. Ongoing, unfiltered conversationsabout the wine and our business are shaking things up and having a realimpact on the way our little company develops,’ he continues. On thewider wine community too.

The article’s author refers to Stormhoek as the Viagra of the industry--tying together the fact that blogging to create momentum and community might work, but might also be the thing that wineries or small business might be afraid to do for fear of the unknown.

I hope not, but I’m afraid they are right.  This isn’t change for small wineries, this is an outright complete shift in thinking--this is going from the Utne Reader to Fox News ... nonetheless, I’m glad people are taking risks and doing things that appeal to urbane, progressive sensibilities. 

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