Today is a perfect day to get swept away by a glass of our delicious Barefoot Moscato!! #MoscatoMonday pic.twitter.com/3WNlzB7YxB
— Barefoot Wine (@BarefootWineCA) July 28, 2014
Here are the top 10 wineries Monday on Vin Tank's "Winery Social Index":
1. Four Cousins (South Africa)
2. Barefoot Cellars
3. Wine Sisterhood
4. Biltmore (North Carolina)
5. Castello di Amorosa (
6. Chateau Ste. Michelle
7. South Coast Winery (Temecula)
8. Iron Horse Vineyards
9. Mezzacorona
10. Tarara Winery (Virginia)
The top 10 apparently is calculated using Facebook likes and Twitter followers.
I'm constantly reading boring blog posts about the wine industry and social media. This list is a pretty good demonstration of the value of it.
My readers, for the most part, are wine savvy. How many of these brands would you spend your own money on?
Chateau Ste. Michelle makes great value wines. I might buy an Iron Horse bubbly. The rest of them?
The ratio is the same through the rest of the top 50. There are about 8 of the next 40 that I would spend my own money on, even though many are not expensive wines. I think I'll make fewer enemies today by not revealing which 8. Go look for yourself and come up with your own number.
So apparently wineries' social media may have value for wine sales -- but not so much for wine lovers.
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Castello di Amorosa, WTF? I was unaware that this monstrosity even existed. Am I a bad guy because the first thing that went through my mind was this regarding Napa Valley.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo-YVqV0v4Q
And one further question, do they have silverware there because there was no silverware in Medieval times.
I guess if you count the Chianti Classico consortio, that makes all of 1 with whom I would spend a penny. Of course, those individual Chianti Classico producers with whom I would spend it would probably not make the top 150 on this list.
ReplyDelete#MoscatoMonday, ha! How to make a Monday even worse? Barefoot Moscato.
ReplyDeleteIf you have not tried the Castello wines, you should before commenting. Say what you will about the structure (ego) of the brand. In reviewing the wines over the last year or so, I find them to be better than average. Vintank recognizes changes in the social value of content. Large positive shifts are driven by compelling, engaging FB and Twatter activity. Some accounts have gotten very good at keeping that ball in the air. VT just keeps us all informed who the movers are. I think of them as DJIA for wine.
ReplyDeleteI have tried Castello wines, and I found them unimpressive, and as insanely impressive as that castle is, I have never gone back because the wine just wasn't worth the fee to visit. However, this was about 4 years ago, I'm hoping the wine has improved since then. In general though there is another reason I haven't gone back, and that is that I don't bother going to Napa anymore. I much prefer Sonoma, and I like the Anderson Valley in Mendocino when I can make it that far. Sonoma has everything I need, and in a much more palatable package.
ReplyDeleteLet's see... many of those brands have large production, large marketing budgets, excellent distribution and favorable results in terms of wine competitions medals and ratings for some of their wines, many of which are value-priced.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why anyone would be surprised that a) these brands are popular, and b) they enjoy popularity on social media.
Not saying they are the wines I would buy myself, but not because they are inherently bad, just because I don't personally enjoy some of them. But I see no barriers to fathoming their popularity.
Hey Joe, I'm glad you read this! I'm sure I'll be citing it in the comments on your blog soon enough.
ReplyDeleteCite away!
ReplyDeleteI guess what I am saying is, I don't think there's any problem with "okay" wine being popular (vs. "great" wine not being as popular or as socially-savvy). I'd rather see great wine brands have a better go at social media, of course, but I'm not expecting them to have the same marketing muscle as these guys.
I agree with Joe, this is good marketing. Put your name out there in front of ordinary consumers a lot and it will stick. The next time they go wine shopping and see a brand they will think "hey, that's been on twitter a lot maybe I should try it"
ReplyDelete