Wines, the economy and how you’re helping
Jan 27th, 2009 | By Michael | Category: General, Portugal, Spain, Wine Industry TalkAfter a long chat today with Vitor Mendez of Vinixa, a Portuguese wine export company, I left the office today wondering how the PR Grisley Co. can cope with
the financial crisis rocking the entire globe. I really started to dwell on this after reading an article from The Wine Spectator about how wine trends will start to change during these hard times, and how here in the US consumers will start to look towards domestic wines. This is obviously concerning for us as we only work with European wines, but with the continued popularity of wines from countries like Spain and Portugal, I assumed we would be able to weather the storm a little easier than some. However, as my friend Vitor mentioned earlier in the day, many producers are still not realizing the urgency that is sometimes needed in this business. He expressed his frustrations but kept a positive attitude because he loves his job and is willing and eager to show these producers what can be accomplished with a minimal amount of change.
Similarly, the fine folks at Catavino attended and conducted seminars at the 1st Wine Pleasures International Wine Tourism Conference & Workshop in Sitges, Spain to discuss and show the many producers several ways to help their wineries. With seminars on everything from blogging, social media outlets, wine tastings and tourism, as well as collaborations between wineries and their clients, restaurants, etc., the event was definitely an experience for all attendees. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the event, but several people who I have talked to that did attend left the conference with eyes wide open and with a very different mindset than when they entered. I hope that there will be many more of these conferences to come as the conference had a large impact on the way many European producers view how blogging among other things can be utilized to better their businesses.
Michael,
In fact, as you well said, we have a very hard work here in Portugal, to open the eyes of our wineries. They haven´t still understood that the ancient way of doing businesses is tottaly dislocated!! I really want to say here, and i´ll repeat it everywhere, that Catavino, our friends Gabriella and Ryan, made me see the business world with different eyes. The tools provided by Web 2.0 are something exceptional, and we must get our hands on it quickly, and take advantage of it. My strugle here is effectively to pass that idea, and at the same time find new wineries, with good wines, but that also have a strategic vision of the wine world, and that way maybe my task we´ll be a little more easier. But my friend, as i allways tell you, i am not giving up, and at Vinixa we only have to thank you for all your patience and your trust in our work. I believe in both our companies and ourselves to change the state of things! And Michael, great article, by the way!!!
Abraço
Vitor,
Thanks for reading, I’m glad you enjoyed the post and agree. I think we have both learned some valuable information in the past 5 months dealing with some of these issues. You make a very good point though, be patient and that we will make mistakes together, but more importantly we will learn from them together!!
Cheers,
Michael