However, the pandemic is likely to force the cancelation of most of these events. With the need for masks and social distancing, for safety measures to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus, and the limits on the number of people for indoor gatherings, how can such wine tasting events be held?
At a usual wine tasting, you'll have a number of people all massed at a table, seeking a sample to taste. You can't sample a wine while wearing a mask. But, you can't have group of people all packed together, without masks, sampling wine. Do you place them into a line, where only one person at a time can taste wine? That would mean very long lines, and lots of waiting, and might be untenable for large tasting events.
Smaller events, such as at wine stores, might be able to place consumers into a line, allowing one or two people to taste at a time. However, they would still need to limit the amount of people who could be in their store at one time. And how many consumers would be unwilling to wait in such a line? How long would you wait in a line at a wine shop to taste a few bottles of wine?
Wine tasting events are important for a multitude of reasons. For the media, it provides an opportunity to experience many new wines, topics for possible articles and reviews. For the industry, it can provide information and experience with wines they might want to sell in their restaurants, shops, and other spots.
For consumers, tasting can lead to more purchases, especially of wines they might have otherwise not bought. The upcoming holiday season is a time when wine shops conduct a significant portion of their annual business. In-store tastings help to sell more wines and without them, sales could potentially decline. Tasting events also bring in more consumers, curious to taste something new. Without such events, some of those consumers may choose not to visit some wine shops. This probably hurts small, more boutique wine shops, more than the larger, chain wine shops.
So, what can we do? How can wine tasting events be held safely? Or is this wine tasting season doomed?
2 comments:
Rebel Rebel in Somerville has been doing virtual tastings. You order the wines in advance (if you want...you can join and hear about the wines first if you want to) and join the class to learn more about the wines. If you decide to pay for the event ticket, all the sales go to help employees impacted by COVID. When I did it recently there were 30 people on the zoom! And we were excited about the different wines we bought and tried. So not dead, just different.
Mirena and I, importer and distributor of Croatian wine, miss the tastings we held before COVID, both for-the-trade, and for consumers in wine stores. Not just because it helped sales, but also because we miss the opportunity to sample and discuss wine with nice, interesting people. Tastings for wine store buyers are slowly beginning to pick up again, followed even more painfully slowly for restaurant buyers - these are small, a couple of people, and relatively easy to manage. We are exploring how to hold tastings for consumers with wine stores, addressing exactly the issues you have mentioned - one option is one customer at a time tasting in the store (most stores allow only a few customers in the store at a time anyway); another option is setting up a tasting table outside in front of the store, also one customer at a time. Still exploring... But we have no clue what will happen with the large for-the-trade industry conventions-tastings, where historically a lot of industry business was consummated.
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