PinotBlogger: Can I Help Build your Winery?
Recently, there has been a great deal of attention on winery marketing campaigns that engage their customers. Fantesca Winery unveiled their Wine Corkies and Twisted Oak is allowing their fans to Write this #%&! Both wineries are encouraging participation in the winemaking process and are taking strides to break through the winery-consumer barrier.
However, there is a winery that has effectively broken down this barrier by taking an approach that has never been seen before. Many of you know him as the PinotBlogger, some of you know him as Josh, and everyone will soon know him as the front man and palate behind Capozzi Winery.
The concept of the PinotBlogger blog is to document the birth of the Capozzi Winery in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley. On the surface, this seems like a novel approach to generate some pre-launch buzz. But the PinotBlogger has taken this approach into the stratosphere, as a bonafide star of the wine blogging community.
Some may argue that this isn’t the case. But I offer evidence to the contrary. In a January post, titled Help us Design our Tasting Room, the PinotBlogger asked for help from his friends, followers and fans to design the Capozzi Winery tasting room;
> “We are starting the process of designing our tasting room and I’d love to get some feedback from you…If your idea is used we will commemorate it and be sure to give you credit. Perhaps a plaque if appropriate, or maybe we’ll build a shrine to your genius for all to see.”
What?!? I can help design a winery tasting room! Talk about being a part of the process. With 32 comments, it’s easy to see how well this was received by the wine blogging community. Some of the responses were 750 words +.
The interest and passion generated from this post is not only a sign that the PinotBlogger has nailed the mission of his blog, but also the he is on the verge of creating something no other winery has been able to do; a winery based community.
Regardless of whether the PinotBlogger decides to build a full fledged social network around the construction of Capozzi winery, he has built a community around his blog. It would be beneficial for everyone to be able to become more active in the process. Because the more people are involved, the more loyal they will be once Capozzi begins producing wine.
What winery wouldn’t want a group of highly passionate evangelists as customers? It’s an interesting approach and I’m excited to see the other interesting ways the PinotBlogger will get us all involved.
Comments & Reviews
March 14, 2007 | Farley
I agree that Josh has really innovative idea here. Personally, I can't wait for it to open and can only wish I had started blogging sooner. Then I could have gotten in on the Pinotblogger t-shirt/wine deal.
March 14, 2007 | Ryan Fujiu
Farley, I'm sure you can still get a shirt. You should email Josh, he's a really nice guy; josh@pinotblogger.com
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