Word on the Street

I continue to be fascinated with what consumers have to say about wine.
Last night I had a chance to hang out with some friends, both new and old.
We were eating, drinking, laughing and talking politics.
These are all wine lovers, mostly in their thirties or forties.

This what I heard:
I love wine but it still feels like an elitist club.
I do not feel confident about my wine knowledge.
How long should I keep this bottle before drinking it?
I am really interested in finding out more about organic wines.
(tellingly, out of the ten wine bottles open in the kitchen, two of these were made from organic grapes)


Everyone in this group buys wine regularly, both on and off line.
(Sounds like Wine Spies lost a few customers last night, after one of the guests shared that the SoCal Wine Spies operative had a heated exchange with her recently, concerning his belief that gay Americans do not deserve the same marriage rights as heterosexual Americans).



What I am hearing over the past year is consistent.
1.Wine lovers feel a knowledge vacuum. How are we addressing this as an industry?
Are we using the online medium to its fullest extent to interact with wine lovers?
2.Consumers interest in chemical free grapes will not go away, indeed it is growing.

You snooze, you lose.