Maroon Ventures Blog

Posted by Bob Benz

I found myself a captive audience on an elliptical at the Seattle Westin yesterday, and my TV choices were slim. After some sweaty channel surfing, I settled on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money on CNBC. He’s always good for a few yuks.

Yesterday’s show featured oenophile Gary Vaynerchuk. He and Cramer went back and forth about stocks that might be of interest to wine drinkers. Most of the stocks they favored are companies that have large interests in hard liquor. The spirits industry is very brand driven, but wines don’t work as well in that arena. People like to try a lot of different wines. But a Maker’s Mark drinker tends to stick to Maker’s Mark with an occasional foray over into Woodford Reserve when feeling flush.

Overall, Vaynerchuck was unimpressed with the companies’ online efforts.

“None of them have shown me any skill in social media, in Web 2.0,” he said. ” … None of these companies are saying to me it’s 2008, we’re embracing social media. Nobody is using Twitter. Nobody is leveraging Facebook properly. This is such a fundamental way to build brand in America, and I don’t see any of these monsters doing it.”

Interesting point, both for the liquor products and wine. Look at the rise of Red Bull. It was very much a word-of-mouth, social phenomenon and study in brand building. It seems a smart, calculated approach to building brand via social media could be really effective, especially for liquor distilleries and vintners. Why would a wine maker not strive to create an online community where people talk about the product, share it with friends and enjoy discounts and inside news about coming vintages. It wouldn’t be that hard to think in these terms for boutique retailers and other niche products that are heavily driven by cultlike consumers. And it’s cheap and easy. I’ve always been a little leery of some of the social media stuff because it doesn’t have an instant money button. But this is an interesting way to bundle Web 2.0 functionality with packages that can drive traffic to the retailer.

As for which wines to “invest” in from a purchase and lay away perspective, Vaynerchuck was recommending the 2004 and 2005 Bordeaux vintages. While the market has moved already on the 2005 vintage, which he calls “one of the greatest vintages of all time,” he still thinks it’s worth buying and holding cases of it. And because the 2005 vintange changed the price structure, he believes great deals can be had by buying 2004. He’s also big on Portuguese wines, though not so much from an investment perspective

I’m going to pick up a copy of his 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight and Bring Thunder to Your World. Sounds like a good read … I could use a break from the box wines I’ve been dancing with.

Other posts by Bob Benz

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