The Virtues of going Virtual
The Virtues of going Virtual with Penny from Cellar Door Wines
How do you virtually taste wine?
This is a question Penny Edwards has been asked many times over the last few months when inviting customers to join Cellar Door Wines virtual tasting events. Penny’s answer is always, “well, you literally taste the wine (which we send you) and you join us on Zoom for the presentation of the wines.” Still, it is a concept that just a year ago seemed rather ridiculous to her too!
For two decades, Penny has been hosting wine tastings for customers at venues - either in shops, restaurants or private homes. The pandemic has made wine trade folk like Cellar Door Wines have to think out of the box as to how they interact and engage with valued customers. The culture of wine drinking is a social one that involves people and togetherness - how on earth were they going to do this without breaking all the rules?
Last September, after coming to terms with the fact that Cellar Door Wines weren’t going to be able to host customers in their lovely store for tastings, they decided to go fully digital with wine tasting. They teamed up with Robin Warren- Adamson from Bolney Estate in Sussex and together hosted their first Zoom event. Logistics was their first and only obstacle. Once they had worked out how to get the wine to their customers in time for the tasting, they were on their way.
One ticket (purchased on Eventbrite) per household includes a Zoom Link to log in to the tasting at 19:30 hosted by Cellar Door Wines and the producer of the chosen wines. They deliver three full bottles of wine plus snacks - usually cheese, crisps and charcuterie or biltong (particularly if the wine is South African!) and present a talk about the history of the winery, go through the wines and answer questions from participants.
What are the benefits of online wine tastings?
Penny mentions that there are many positives to online tastings for everyone involved. She believes that the best thing about them is that a much wider audience can be reached because they are not bound by a location and getting transport to and from the venue. This makes it safer, not just from a virus catching perspective, but also means that nobody is driving to or from the venue or walking back home under the influence of alcohol. Their participants are about 60% local, the remaining 40% are from all over the UK mainland. The second bonus is that friends and family from different households and parts of the country are able to connect with each other and socialise.
Part of their Zoom evening involves separating into breakout rooms, un-muting ourselves and chatting in smaller groups. The rules of the breakout rooms include a ban on any mention of COVID, Brexit, religion or politics! Jokes and geeky wine related questions are welcome.
Penny informed us that even though she does truly miss seeing people in the flesh, she certainly doesn’t miss polishing the glassware!
To purchase tickets to one of their virtual wine tastings please click here or head to our events page to see what they have coming up!
our experience
We had the absolutely pleasure of joining in on one of Cellar Door Wines virtual wine tasting evenings with South African wine maker Bruce Jack Wines and we can honestly say that it was such a fun, informative and delicious night!
Ahead of the tasting, we had a box delivered to our home containing 2 bottles of red wine and 1 white wine accompanied by a bag of artisan Spanish crisps, delicious Biltong and a small bar of dark sea salt chocolate.
We anticipated an interactive evening where we were asked for our tasting notes, and were ready to give an introduction about ourselves, however, none of that was required. With 50 homes joining in on the Zoom call from the comfort of their sofa’s, Cellar Door Wine owner Penny introduced us to Bruce, who was later joined by his assistant wine maker at their vineyard located on a beautiful farm in the Overberg Highlands, South Africa. It was amazing to speak so personally to the inventor himself, in realtime, and have a general chat about his experience.
We really loved the relaxed, friendly and cosy vibe that Penny created. We sipped delicious wine and ate (all) the snacks whilst Bruce was entertaining us with his great knowledge and stories about his journey as a worldwide wine maker.
A very fun and informative night which we would can highly recommend to everyone!.