Wine's for no rookie

I don’t know why, but it is a common sense among wine professionals that wine bloggers should be responsible to educate the consumer.

The problem is those people forgot to arrange it with the bloggers.

According to what was heard recently at the European Wine Bloggers’ Conference (EWBC), in Franciacorta, italy, wine bloggers are not really in a mood to teach rookies, rather talking to other experts: “I just want to keep talking only to wine lovers in my blog, and not be forced to talk to laymen,” says the Brazilian wine teacher, Alexandra Corvo – followed by 30 seconds of applause during heated debate at the recent.

And Corvo is not alone in her position. It reflects a point of view commonly held among oenophiles but rarely expressed.

“Let bloggers spread their passion through the web and let marketers sell wine for those who don't love it as we do,” yelled somebody in the audience after Corvo’s statement.

People like Corvo, this shouting guy, and other bloggers and sommeliers, seem to reject the title of “wine opinion leaders”. By nature they are more passion driven than teaching driven.

But not everyone agrees. Others at the conference said the main challenge of wine professionals was to reach the average consumer. These consumers aren’t experts but they will consume wine and are easily persuaded by big names.

Dr. Damien Wilson, head of the MSc Wine Business program at the Burgundy School of Business, said bloggers and other industry people “should bear in mind that they have to attract people who can attract more people and so on”.

Dr. Damien Wilson attending to the workshops at EWBC -
"social media plays relevant role in the wine setor".

He said the wine industry needed this because consumption, mostly in countries that have a long tradition in wine, is decreasing year after year.

In the face of this trend, many so called opinion leaders do not want to take the responsibility of teaching people about wine.

In contrast, Wilson argued that opinion leaders played an important role in every sector of society. “They are not attracting consumers by talking to people at the top of the pyramid,” he said, referring to professionals in the sector.

It turns that lots of people are making due to bloggers efforts. In addition, lazy producers traditionally never worried about marketing, since they jumped on those people backs, expecting them to do all the work .

Well, the game is changing. Perhaps the wine industry has an arising enemy: lots of students and a lack of teachers.