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All go to Twitter, or future of wine presented at the WineFuture
www.drinktime.ru, 23 November 2009; Drinks Plus, March 2010

Pancho Campo broke down.

A tough guy, a professional promoter who worked with show biz and sports stars for nearly two decades, was crying on the stage. His was a closing speech, but soon after he started, Campo got emotional, to the point when his performance was fit more for an election campaign, with words of gratitude to everyone and I love you, honey! addressed to his wife. To Campo’s credit, a momentary weakness was genuine. And he could afford it.

Yes, he did it. Pancho Campo and his team from The Wine Academy of Spain achieved what no one else had achieved before. They gathered in one place so many heavyweights of the wine industry that the two-day WineFuture conference automatically entered the list of this year’s top events.

Without question, the main attraction was Robert Parker. I don’t know what Campo said to Parker, but the influential American critic agreed to speak at a large scale event in Europe for the first time. Plus he hosted a record setting tasting for VIP guests. The original plan was to have 250 people, but that number rose to 530 and would probably have been more if the organisers hadn’t stopped selling VIP tickets after they had sold double the original allocation.

The conference was called WineFuture. Judging by the topic of the Parker tasting, we can expect a rise of Spanish Garnacha, French Grenache and other wines of this variety. The American critic explained his choice of the historic Spanish grape as a thank you gesture towards the inviting side, but needless to say his support of certain wines is a good hint to wine lovers about current fashion and also to wine merchants about where to make money.

Does the Parker taste exist? Yes, it was obvious at the tasting, though the wines were not the same. I will write about it separately, but for now let me point out my most memorable wines — Vieille Julienne 2007 (Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France), Espectacle 2006 (Montsant, Spain) and three Australian — Killikanoon Duke 2006, Clarendon Hills Old Vines Romas 2006 and Torbreck Les Amis 2005. All are made from Garnacha.

Back to the future. In what direction will the world of wine move in the next few years? One doesn’t need to be a clairvoyant to predict a further invasion of new technologies. They will further influence our perception of and communication about wine.

At the conference Gary Vaynerchuk preached that the rise of Facebook, Twitter & Co will lead to wine’s democratisation. Who is Gary Vaynerchuk? If you haven’t heard about him yet, you are at least a couple of years behind the world’s hottest wine trend. This American guy of Belorussian origin started a new revolution in the US.

With the help of the internet Vaynerchuk changed the attitudes of the average American to wine. And he did it with a minimal investment. He broadcasts wine tasting videos on his site Wine Library TV and actively interacts with the audience via Facebook and Twitter. His videos are watched daily by about a hundred thousand people, and he has over 850,000 Twitter followers. For comparison, the wine dame Jancis Robinson managed to attract around 5,500 followers on Twitter, while the most popular Twitter account of actor Ashton Kutcher has almost 4 million. Vaynerchuk is not just a wine populariser in America, he is a successful millionaire businessman and celebrity. Yet when he was speaking at Winefuture, he was dressed in jeans.

Web 2.0, social networks, interactive platforms — all these forms of new technologies are in fact a return to direct conversation, but with a great advantage that they allow us to address not one, or twenty, but a hundred, a thousand or even a few thousand people at once. Language is the only barrier.

A wine consumer with access to the internet is a potential provider or user of wine information, and the new phenomenon of consumer power has already altered the dynamic between wine press and consumers. “The internet has levelled the playfield”, says Vaynerchuk.

The present authoritative system represented by a handful of critics who dictate what to drink and how to evaluate wines is not as strong as it was a decade ago. Who knows what it will evolve into in the next 5 years or so?

Yet, a sudden swing towards consumers has its dangers. Fine wine, like fine art, is a complex subject. It can be properly presented only with the right knowledge and experience. The phenomenon of ‘everyone’s a critic’ is good to bring wine culture to an everyday consumer, but is useless for an adequate evaluation of wines in the top echelon. Internet transparency will hopefully distinguish between the genuine and the superfluous. The ethical side wasn’t discussed at the conference, but I am convinced that it will be even more urgent with further introduction of new technology.

The final session at WineFuture was supposed to be the apogee of the event. It was called “Challenges and opportunities for the wine industry” and was a Q&A session between the audience and the most emblematic representatives of the wine world, including Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson, Paul Pontallier, Mel Dick and others. Well, the audience was mostly concerned with the present. These were some of the issues.

Spirits companies are acquiring wineries. But they don’t get the same turnover from wine as they do from spirits.

How Chateau Margaux is dealing with the crisis. Does it really have to deal with it?

How wines with high alcohol content can be compatible with current legislation. Russia has a simple approach — even if wines have naturally high alcohol, they are taxed as if fortified.

France declared a war against all alcoholic beverages, including wine. Shame on us, said Paul Pontallier.

How to increase wine consumption. To create big brands, according to a buyer of a large British supermarket chain.

About wine speculations. Robert Parker had a real go here, saying that the word “speculation” should be banned in a sentence with the word “wine”.

About confrontation between writers in traditional printed media and a new wave of wine bloggers.

About outrageous mark-ups for wine in restaurants.

The future was covered in two questions only. What can America expect? Its future is great, it was said. BRIC countries were hardly mentioned, though. In the morning session Russian speaker Dmitry Pinsky made the audience nervous by breaking the news on a possible state monopoly on retail sales of alcoholic beverages.

The second question: “I am from a family winery. Should I recommend my child to work in the wine industry?” Most answers were optimistic, while Parker said that if a child is obsessed with money he better become a lawyer.

It is true that wine will never be the golden calf. But wine is superb in supporting our communication with other people as well as in facilitating discussions about wine. This makes it unique and gives it enormous strength. Surely, this gives wine a future.