schneiderism

About a year ago I began investigating the possibilities of making my own wine. I have been a wine lover for a very, very long time and the next logical step for me was to learn how to make it myself, just the way I like it. This was when I discovered Crushpad, and got pretty excited. I came across Crushpad via one of the many wine blogs I was following at the time, and began to seriously consider how to make that happen. Crushpad offered something that seemed to be just short of owning your own vineyard and being formally trained as a winemaker. It also, at it’s core, leverages the internet and takes advantage of several web based technologies to tie you to the making, the process, and the waiting as your wine ferments.

First, though, just a bit of background. With the advent of the internet and all things social media, the wine world has gone through a massive transformation. People who are passionate about wine have an abundance of resources to explore to pursue that passion as completely, and obscurely, as they desire. They also can easily find thousands of others who share their passion and interest, and swap reviews and recommendations. Wine blogging has exploded in the last few years, as has blogging about everything else, but wine blogging has an incredibly focused audience. Two favorites that I subscribe to are Vinography and Winecast, which also offers some excellent podcasts. If you enjoy wine, check these two out. They are both massively networked to hundreds and hundreds of other wine blogs, but these two are my consistent favorites for the quality of the writing, the reviews, and the creative sentiment brought to wine. Another HUGE influence in the world of wine online is Gary Vaynerchuk’s wine library tv, Gary’s daily video blog of wine reviews and information with attitude, humor, passion and intelligence. It is also incredibly entertaining. Gary seems ubiquitous these days, and has brought an energy to wine online that is probably setting the bar very, very high. In fact, with regards to online marketing in general, Gary is very much an innovator, early adopter, and social media guru. More than most, Gary Vaynerchuk has quickly turned tools like Twitter into incredibly powerful connections to his audience. Rock on.

So, back to Crushpad, which I found via this exploding online community around wine. What I found so compelling about what the folks at Crushpad are doing is how easily they can connect you to the most important aspects of making wine… choosing the grapes and detailing the style of wine you want to create, along with keeping you apprised as your wine develops over time. They do this by forging very strong relationships with the grape growers and partnering with excellent winemakers. You can be involved at whatever level you would like, from incredibly hands-on and present at every step, or simply by checking in via web cam. You can monitor the progress of your wine via a dashboard and feel connected to the maturation process, etc. All very cool. Now, I have yet to actually DO this, but am again thinking about how to make it happen. It is just a bit cost prohibitive for me, but my idea last year, and the idea I am about to revive, is to get together a small group of similarly passionate wine lovers and have everybody “buy in” to the wine that I plan to make. Crushpad offers a number of different approaches to getting in, but my thinking is to put a group together and buy an entire barrel, which equates to roughly 25 cases, or 300 bottles of wine. I’m thinking 10 investors, which would give each investor 30 bottles of wine when completed. Taking this full circle, we would have a label designed for the bottles that tells this story, and acknowledges each individual investor, thus also personalizing the experience for them. They can monitor our progress online, and I will blog about the entire experience here. I’ve only just revived my motivation for doing this, and this could be considered the first VC round for my first experiment in making wine. I’m a Wine 2.0 startup. If this is something enjoyable, and if the wine is really good, I want to make this an annual experience and expand the number of people and the types of wine we make. My sense is that this would be really, really fun.