Daddy Winebucks

I’ve long held the belief (maybe it’s not even that groundbreaking a concept), that anyone with an opinion can comment on a subject and be just as much an authority as the next guy/gal.  That’s not the meaningful part.  That person must then find a way to connect with others who hold the same beliefs and thus an “expert” is born.  And yet, real world experience has confounded me as I try to decipher what it means to have influence over others, or is personal experience really the only thing that matters?

We were recently lucky to find ourselves mentioned in the blog of Steve Heimoff, the West Coast Editor of Wine Enthusiast magazine, under the heading, “Six Winemakers to Watch.”  Steve had really nice things to say about Ryan Waugh, our winemaker and one of our brands, Six Degrees.

To be mentioned anywhere in that context is huge for a small winery like us, even in a blog, which by its nature probably does not reach as many people as the magazine itself does.  Still, Steve is an expert in his field, reviews literally hundreds of wines a month (my guesstimate)  and unlike this blog, actually has people not only reading it, but commenting on his entries.

Well, the write up was posted on August 17th and based on my rudimentary grasp of Goggle Analytics, we received thirty-nine web visits since then and zero signups to our mailing list.  I was not able to decipher if any of these were a direct result of Steve’s piece (most of our sign-ups come after someone has tried the wine at one of the restaurants the wine is sold at) but even so, not one person, after reading that Ryan, among thousands of winemakers, is one of six to watch, signed up on the Six Degrees mailing list.

This is obviously no reflection on Steve.  He’s been doing this a long time and is very fair in his critiques and thus well respected.  My question is what statement it makes, if any, about us as consumers?  Put another way, any review will only get you and I so far.

The Washington Post – hardly Star Magazine -  had this to say about What Happens in Vega$ (dollar sign courtesy of the brilliant marketing geniuses at 20th Century Fox):

“Hits the Jackpot”

And yet, one look at the movie poster, with Ashton Kutcher looking all smiley and Cameron Diaz looking all I just had sex, could not get me into the theatre.  Could I be missing the funniest Vega$ movie since Honeymoon in (which really was great)?  Maybe.  But I’ll never know because, well, I just won’t.

Did some of the 39 visitors in the last ten days come from Steve’s blog, look around and see a bad Ashton Kutcher film?  Again, maybe.  More likely, until some of these folks actually try the wine for themselves, do they really want to voluntarily ask for another piece of mail to show up in their mail/in box?

I’ve said this to many people before.  We’ve had some wonderfully high scores on our wines and some that I wish were higher.  Neither has affected sales.  The great scores did not cause the phone to ring off the hook, nor the reverse cause them to stop ringing.

I suppose this just proves that nothing and no one can replace ones own experience.  Do I wish more people were wowed by Steve’s generous inclusion in his piece.  Yes!  But I can’t dwell on such things.  I’m headed to Blockbuster to rent, What Happens in Vega$ – just in case.