SOCIAL media are being used by wine companies to whip up interest in new wines and to connect with a new generation of wine lovers.
One importer has created a new wine brand, Piggy Bank, specifically targeting internet users to help them give to chosen charities. Another online wine retailer, Naked Wines, has taken the brave step of inviting its online members to help create and blend a new prosecco.
Guy Anderson, creator of Piggy Bank, runs his own wine importing business selling brands to supermarkets. He reckons that social media offer a much more effective way to communicate and connect with wine drinkers, than age-old wine industry marketing routes.
“By using Facebook and Twitter, we devised a scheme by which we could invite people to spread the word about our new Piggy Bank brand and also help them raise money for charities that the wine drinkers themselves choose,” says Anderson.
Anderson worked with three winemakers worldwide – including Scotsman Norrel Robertson MW who makes wine in Spain, Giorgio Flessati in Chile and Thierry Boudinaud in France. Together they created six Piggy Bank varietals, including Chilean sauvignon, French grenache and Spanish verdejo.
Within one month of selling the Piggy Bank range, www.piggybankwine.com, in Waitrose stores and Tesco online, Anderson’s idea has resulted in 20,000-plus votes cast by members of the public and £10,000 raised for charity. The way it works is that for each Piggy Bank wine sold, 50p is donated to charity – and when the piggy bank is full up it is distributed proportionally between chosen causes according to the consumer votes. So diabetes charity www.jdrf.org.uk got £5,076, spinal cord injury support group www.backuptrust.org.uk got £4,490 and conservationists www.tusk.org got £434.
This month anyone who buys a bottle of Piggy Bank wine in Waitrose, Tesco or Ocado can choose between three more charities: Ataxia UK, Wildlife Aid or Waitrose Foundation. I like the idea that smaller charities that might sometimes get less attention are focused on.
Online wine retailer Naked Wines has gone a step further than Guy Anderson Wines in terms of the wines they stock. It often involve customers in buying decisions – flying some of them out to wine regions to help choose wines. “They are the guys handing over their hard-earned cash so they should get what they like,” says CEO Rowan Gormley.
Gormley’s latest experiment was to create a “crowd-blended” prosecco using his online panel of consumers. He asked Italian winemaker Paolo Sacchetto to send a case of shortlisted tank samples to Naked Wines’ most active online wine lovers – dubbed Angels – and set up a label competition on Facebook for the new wine, which was won by Andrew Till.
The idea has worked – the new Naked Wines prosecco picked up awards at the major wine competitions this year – Decanter Wine Awards and International Wine Challenge – and it is also outselling all the other fizz on www.nakedwines.com
So if you want to help good causes or get involved in blending your own wines, get online.
• White
PIGGY BANK VERDEJO
(£7.99, Waitrose stores, Waitrose online; Tesco online)
Fresh greengage fruits, crisp, dry, deliciously zesty Spanish dry white from Castilla y León region. My favourite Piggy Bank wine.
• Rosé
PIGGY BANK SYRAH GRENACHE ROSÉ
((£7.99, Waitrose stores, Waitrose online; Tesco online)
Upfront ripe red fruits, fresh and vibrant – but a little too tutti frutti and sweet on the palate.
• Red
PIGGY BANK GRENACHE
(£7.99, Waitrose stores, Waitrose online; Tesco online)
A warm, herby, rounded, smooth Vin de Pays red which would appeal to anyone who loves Côtes du Rhône.
Sparkling
SACCHETTO PARADISO PROSECCO NV
(£8.99, for online www.
nakedwines.com members or £11.99 for non-members)
A light, refreshing, easy-quaffing prosecco, although a touch too sweet on the palate for my liking – I prefer a drier prosecco: a good buy at £8.99, too pricey at £11.99 – and I liked the Angel-designed label.