Future of Wine Tastings...

[asajoseph]

I wonder what the future of wine tasting events will look like in the post-Covid world (if you can imagine such a thing)?

One thing I've learned about myself this last year is that I have really limited interest in online social events - and as such all of the Zoom wine tastings etc. that have proliferated have really passed me by.. I'm not sure what it is, but I'd much rather be sat in a room tasting as a group, or walking around a few tables than doing effectively the same thing sat at home.

Will wine tastings return, as we used to know them? And if so, will you feel comfortable attending?

[Cactus]

Im going to Hunter later this week. Im hoping its still normalish...

[JamieBahrain]

Didn't mind the Zoom events. We had some incredible participants from Burgundy, Champagne and Napa.

I'd appreciate the mixing of the two. Bolting-on a few Zoom events every now and then to supplement normal tasting events.

[paulf]

I don't think I can imagine a post Covid world. Why? Because we have only ever managed to eradicate 2 infectious diseases ever. Only one of those was a human disease.
Ultimately vaccine efficacy and uptake will determine what the future looks like but I think we might find it quite difficult in the western world to reach heard immunity as there will be enough people that refuse to have a vaccine (and some that won't be able to have it for medical reasons)

Having said that, I could see cellar door tastings returning to close to normal, but I suspect there will be be much more caution around some of the crowded indoor tasting events at least for the near and medium tern

Now that those who run these sorts of events have learned how to do it, I think we will continue to see some level of Zoom/Online events continuing, either as stand alone events or as hybrid events where there are people online and people in the room, simply because the event can be opened up to interested parties from outside the location the event is being held in. Ultimately, the ability for people to attend an event online may be the way to make an event economically viable when there is a reduced in person capacity. It wouldn't work for everything though.

I think we have only scratched the surface on what is possible for online events too. 2020 was mostly about pivoting from events and activities that would have been in person events. I think there is scope for some really creative thinkers to come up with ways of presenting events online that could offer opportunities that couldn't be done in person. I'm going to predict that there will be an advances in technology that will greatly improve online event management and orchestration as well.

I can see some of the multi event festivals like the Food and Wine Festivals becoming a combination of in person and on-line events. Some of them had a go at presenting online during 2020, and I think it would really open up guest availability when the time and expense of bringing them to Australia is taken out of the equation, and getting back to my point about opportunities that couldn't be done in person, it might give winemakers, Sommeliers, chefs and others, ways of presenting their own vineyards, cellars, kitchens etc. from the other side of the world (or even just the other side of Australia) to an audience in Australia.

Anyway, I think this Covid business will result in a lot of long term changes - some good and some bad and it has accelerated a bunch of things that we probably would have got to eventually.

[Polymer]

Have they even really stopped in Australia? Restrictions have popped up here and there but people still seem to be meeting up.

I'm probably a bit more optimistic about things returning to normal....Whether that is because we have a vaccine that works, or a way to keep it away permanently (if the vaccine's don't do that, we don't really know)...or whether our treatment of it becomes effective enough to where we don't care if we catch it....If the plan is we should be shuttered indoors for most of the time, we have a much bigger problem than we already have.

IMO, online meetings are just a rough substitute for offlines...they scratch that itch but not really. If that is what we are left with permanently I'd probably see my wine buying go down to almost nothing as a good deal of the stimulation would be gone...

[phillisc]

I have experienced Coonawarra, BV, Adelaide Hills and MV in recent weeks. All tutored sit down tastings. My experience of this style of tasting has been very good

My only criticism has been a couple of wineries in the Coonawarra with small quaint cellar doors still stuck in the 70s that have very reduced capacity. Even more annoying when there are families with strollers, kids etc taking up space. Perhaps there needs to be greater outdoor capacity provided.
It will probably get to a stage like most things in life with a prior booking being required to visit a CD.
Cheers Craig

[Cactus]

Im pretty confident things will go back to normal after a while. COVID will become one of the collection of flus, diseases, we humans just deal with. Vaccines, herd immunity, treatments etc will help, but it is with us forever.

I want to get back to travelling the world and enjoying everything it has to offer.

[TiggerK]

Im pretty confident things will go back to normal after a while. COVID will become one of the collection of flus, diseases, we humans just deal with. Vaccines, herd immunity, treatments etc will help, but it is with us forever.

I want to get back to travelling the world and enjoying everything it has to offer.

This.

Tastings never really stopped for us here in Sydney, other than a month or so of lockdown earlier in the year where we did a few collective Zoom tastings with some divided up bottles. Just had to be cautious and we were at friends homes rather than restaurants for the most part. Certainly for public tastings though the scene was hit hard and continues to be. Yet no doubt wine sales are doing quite nicely nonetheless!

We will reach general herd immunity eventually through vaccinations, it doesn't need anything near 100% to get there, yet like Cactus says no doubt it will be with us forever in greatly reduced numbers. Bring on the jabs I say! I do also hope the jabs reach less wealthy countries as fast as they reach the rich ones, but seems unlikely. Surely Mr Bezos or Mr Ma can spare the 7 or so billion needed to get this underway! (Although I note Jack Ma seems AWOL right now...)

Stay safe all
Cheers
Tim

[asajoseph]

Have they even really stopped in Australia? Restrictions have popped up here and there but people still seem to be meeting up.

I was thinking more of tutored one-off tastings or walk-round tastings as opposed to cellar doors - the latter seem to be working out fine from my experience, the Hunter wineries I've visited all have no problem with bookings / seated tastings, though I'd imagine some of the smaller places would struggle more.

The former, however, seem to have gone entirely online in the last 9 months (unless I'm just not getting the invites!!!), and for me, even if they're sit down tutored affairs, the best ones are still the ones which have some degree of human interaction. I'm hoping we'll move back to normality in this regard this year.

[asajoseph]

Im pretty confident things will go back to normal after a while. COVID will become one of the collection of flus, diseases, we humans just deal with. Vaccines, herd immunity, treatments etc will help, but it is with us forever.

I want to get back to travelling the world and enjoying everything it has to offer.

Bring on the jabs I say! I do also hope the jabs reach less wealthy countries as fast as they reach the rich ones, but seems unlikely. Surely Mr Bezos or Mr Ma can spare the 7 or so billion needed to get this underway! (Although I note Jack Ma seems AWOL right now...)

Think it's Bill Gates who's doing this, isn't it? Though I think he's had limited success since the rumours emerged that the vaccine included a previously unreleased U2 track.

[TiggerK]

Haha, the uninvited U2 strikes again!

[JamieBahrain]

I'm positive about a post-COVID world btw.

As much as some would love to continue on the way we are it just isn't living! Great to control the masses, though an existential threat to mankind.

I've noted smaller tastings too on social media. Couple of great mates doing a Zoom whilst drinking a bottle of G Rinaldi Barolo. That looked like fun even in a normal world.

[Croquet King]

I miss the larger tasting that visit Sydney - Coonawarra or WA, the Pinot tasting at Woolahra hotel.
They will be back in some form.

Penfolds ran a 5 or 6 week tasting via zoom on Wednesday nights during the middle of last year.
You bought the tasting packs and they went through 3 wines a night.
We had wines such as St Henri, RWT, Yattarna, Bin A, a few cellar reserve wines, 389, 407, 128,28

A mate of mine bought the pack (it wasn't cheap) and I went over with his 2 sons and did the series.
After the first week, they ran really well. They had various wine makers speaking with a Q&A session.

Even if everything goes back to close to normal I'd still do a similar tasting.

[Scotty vino]

I don't think it will change much long term. By way of short term compromise we've seen how advantageous technology can be when push comes to shove. I did a couple of zoom tastings thru The National Wine Centre. It was fun and novel but ultimately not something I'd do over going to the winery and talking to the wine maker in their barrel room like i did last Sat. Some of the sit down tastings I did mid year in CV were excellent. The wineries in question had really observed the new rules and regs and catered accordingly. If you booked ahead all the sit downs I did were top notch. If you rolled in it was usually a disappointing result. Part of what I like about touring a region is the spontaneity. Can't really beat rolling into a cellar door and discovering some gems. Hope we get back to that in the end.