Rant: Promoting Wine at Tasting Events

"And what was that 10-minute lecture on Vouvrays?"
--Jack to Miles in Sideways

Over the weekend, I attended the Boston Wine Expo, a large-scale tasting event, with hundreds of wines available. There were so many available options, and the wines were also competing with numerous spirit and cocktail options. And no consumer could hope to taste more than a small percentage of the available wines. How does a distributor, winery, representative, etc. persuade customers to try their wines? 

At such a large tasting event, most consumers aren't looking for a ten minute lecture on Vouvray or any other wine. They primarily want to taste the wines, quickly moving onto another table of wines, although they aren't opposed to learning a little about those wines. So, you have to hook them on your wines quickly, to give them a brief highlight reel, to provide them the most compelling reasons to taste your wines. 

You might only have 30 seconds, or even less, to promote your wine. What would you say in those 30 seconds? What are the top three most important elements of your wine? 

This is similar situation to small wine tasting events held at a wine store, where your customers aren't there for a lengthy education either. They want to rely on your expertise and appreciate receiving just the top highlights of whatever wines you're offering. The wine shop is often just one stop on their list of errands. The taste of the wine will be the most important element of selling the wine, but you still need to first convince the consumers to taste it. 

I conduct wine tastings twice a week at Victoria Hill Wine, Spirits and Gourmet, in Melrose, and customers don't stop at the tasting for a 10-minute lecture on any wine topic. As I mentioned above, I might only have about 30 seconds or less to talk about a wine, so what would you say in my situation? What are the most important details to provide those customers? 

There are times I may take more time to explain certain wine topics, but that's decided on a case by case basis, and whether the consumer asks specific questions. It's important to be willing and able to speak more about the wines, but that need is less common. 

Few customers want to hear ten minutes about Vouvray. Be quick, precise and persuasive.