Pouring at Goooooogle (includes top secret drawing)

A winery doesn’t have to be around for very long before opportunities to pour their wines at public and private events start arriving. Participation in one will probably spur several more invitations. When we first started, I said “yes” as often as possible figuring that we had to get the word out about our wines. Now, 4 years after our first release, I’m still not sure I’ve got it figured out where it makes sense to invest our time and wine.
I recently posted a poll about this on the wine forum Wine Berserkers. (I like this forum because of the number of ITB — In The Business — participants and the welcoming atmosphere by members to folks who sometimes need to talk shop.) Anyway, the general consensus that came out of the poll is that the biggest bang for the buck, particularly for a small winery, is spending money on your existing customers or highly pre-qualified customers. Basically, one is going to sell more wine out of a wine dinner or open house for fans you already have rather than getting additional exposure. In fact, disappointingly, many of the public and private events we pour at result in little or no sales. Don’t get me wrong. They’re fun. Interacting with wine lovers is my favorite part of the biz, but even when the clientele is well-heeled and really “in to” wine, it is tough to make an impression on many buyers when folks are stopping at 25 different tables and perhaps trying 50 different wines that day.
But that doesn’t stop us from trying.

Recently we were invited to pour at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. The tasting was being organized by Wine 2.0. To quote their website: Wine 2.0™ is the innovator in social networking and events in the wine industry. With a focus on the next generation wine consumer, Wine 2.0 breaks down the barriers to learning about, experiencing, and enjoying wine.
Sounds cool, right? I’ve been trying to get a handle on the whole social networking thing for the business and what better way than working with Wine 2.0 at what many would consider “technology central” — Google. We were briefed on where and when we should arrive. We were also warned not to take photos or ask probing questions about Google’s operations. (No warning necessary here… I didn’t want to talk about Google, I wanted to talk about Match Vineyards!) Since I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, I did draw myself pouring at Google. I hope I don’t get into trouble by publishing the picture to the left.

It turned out to be a lot of fun. The Google employees were an inquisitive lot, asking many questions about wine, winemaking, and the business. A few showed their engineer side wondering what metrics we used to determine wine quality and success in winemaking. Everyone was gracious and had a good time.
A funny little thing happened while I was there. Several hundred Google employees arranged themselves in the shape of an arrow and held red construction paper over their heads while a plane flew over very high and took pictures. It seems that afternoon they were updating the entry for Google Maps of their own headquarters and wanted a huge man-made icon in the photo. I was next to the arrow (to the right) so when Google maps is ultimately updated — don’t bother to check right now, it’s still the old photo — one might be able to see me. This is especially true since I was holding up the BIG ASS bottle on the right. For giggles, I decided to open a six liter bottle of 2004 Butterdragon Hill for the tasting. I’d never actually opened one of our large formats and it proved to be a quite a conversation starter at the tasting.

By the way, what does one call a six liter bottle? I didn’t know. But one Googler asked this question into his phone, some sort of speech to text conversion took place, and a search online was carried out. The answer was a Methuselah — the equivalent of 8 regular bottles.