Online wine industry sees growth in popularity
Thursday, 25 August 2011
There is a civilised quality to the act of drinking wine, the millennia old indulgence that needs neither mixer nor knowledge to appreciate. Three colours, two temperatures, thousands of options and, by accessing the virtual world, lovers of the grape can buy wine online from the comfort of their own home.
It would be unfair to give all the credit to technology for the growing interest in wine. To do so would be to claim that connoisseur Oz Clarke is the only man on the planet who understands the art of viticulture, which is not the case. Wine drinking is not restricted to restaurants or over the dinner table either; enjoying a bottle of chilled Chenin Blanc while watching the world go by is a guilty pleasure for many.
The Internet is one cog in the wheels of wine, a starting point for those who want to use the accumulated knowledge of experts to continue on their own path of wine discovery. Even just belonging to a wine club online can open the doors to experiences that are impossible to achieve by merely walking along the shelves in your local supermarket.
Wine is a worldwide industry, a global adventure. Ten years ago, Thomas Freidman referenced the shrinking nature of the world by claiming that "Globalisation is all about the communications revolution. It's about the Internet. It's about how you can sit in your bedroom, buy shares in Amazon.com and send emails to Eskimos all at the same time, wearing your pajamas". He was correct of course, but he failed to mention that it would actually be about consumers finally being able to choose what they wanted when they wanted, from vendors who weren't limited by hours of operation.
For lovers of wine, this has become a passport to discovery. No longer limited to products that are stocked by the physical retailer or even the traditional European vintages; the vast range of wines available from vineyards across the world is available to sample, experiment with and, ultimately, purchase.
Shiraz wine from Australia, Pinot Noir from Oregon, Cabernet Sauvignon from Stellenbosch in South Africa, Ice-wine from the vineyards of Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada; all online and just a click away from being boxed and delivered to your door.
The other advantage of buying wine online is feedback. Not just from the vineyards and the vendors, but from other people who have already bought the wine and posted their opinions on the site. Many wine sites use social media to highlight what the different types of wine consumers are purchasing and what they thought of the products. This may sound as though the desire to enjoy and appreciate wine has become reduced to a technological process but this is not the case.
Technology has allowed the growers of unique wines to engage their audience by providing expert opinion and recommendations that will intrigue the novice wine drinker and expand their horizons beyond a mass-produced or industrial wine. It gives the consumer the option to continue to drink wines that may have been chosen once before but whose name has been forgotten.
Smartphone applications now exist that will scan in the label of a bottle and direct the wine drinker directly to the website of the vineyard or at the very least to a vendor from which the wine can be purchased. Rather than limiting the wines available, the possibility of buying wine online for a reasonable price is in the hands of a consumer who is no longer limited to the physical act of interaction with sellers.
All the more reason not to change out of your comfy pyjamas.
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