The pandemic pushed the B.C. wine industry into a new virtual reality — whether wineries were ready for it, or not.
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The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the B.C. wine industry into a new virtual reality — whether wineries were ready for it, or not.
“There was no choice,” Corrie Kriehbiel, the head winemaker at Mission Hill Family Estate in West Kelowna, says. “We’re a small industry and winemaking is super capital intensive. We have some of the highest costs in the world at producing wine, so we had to make sure we were able to show our customers what we are able to produce. And to share our story.”
Kriehbiel says the winery focused on digital storytelling through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to connect its customers with the property while many were — and still are — unable to visit.
“Realistically, we wanted to make sure that our guests and customers were key in developing these new experiences,” Kriehbiel says of the social media content. “We wanted to make sure that they stayed connected and really had a direct dialogue with us.”
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Another platform the winery built out amid the pandemic was its virtual experiences. The opportunity to seed Mission Hill wine with small groups of people across the country has proven to strengthen the winery’s customer base in a way the team never imagined, Kriehbiel says.
“Through some of our virtual tastings and through our visitor experiences that we’ve had, through our wine club — truthfully, I think we’ve had a better touch across Canada,” Kriehbiel says. “Especially with some of our corporate clients.
“I think we’ve had a larger reach than we had before.”
Kriehbiel says people enjoy the personalized approach and the ability to ask questions directly to Mission Hill’s winemaker and chef during the intimate online events.
Convenience, of course, has been another big draw.
“They get their package of wine at home … they open it up, they have cheese that’s paired with it, they sit and enjoy the tutored tasting. There’s a visual presentation at the same time that’s an hour to an hour and a half. They can sit back and enjoy and not have to worry about driving home after. Or babysitting requirements, or anything along those lines,” Kriehbiel says. “They can just sit back and enjoy.
“People can be as comfortable as they want.”
Kriehbiel points to a recent tasting that saw the Mission Hill team send out 150 packages containing wine and recommendations for cheese and meat plate pairings as a prime example of the exponential potential reach virtual events can have.
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Each package was put in front of approximately two to four people, Kriehbiel says.
“The reach was probably at least double,” Kriehbiel says of the impact these types of virtual experiences can have for a winery. “There’s just so much engagement with consumers.”
For the team at Township 7 Vineyards & Winery, which operates locations in both Langley and Naramata Bench, the pandemic-prompted push toward a stronger online presence was surprisingly well timed.
“We did a complete shift to the online opportunities when our tasting rooms were shut down,” Mike Raffan, the general manager, says. “In hindsight, it sounds like a simple process, but at the time, it was like oh my god, what are we going to do? We had to lay all of our staff off. We kept management.”
Because Township 7 doesn’t sell very often to restaurants or liquor stores, Raffan explains, the closure of the tasting rooms meant sales plummeted dramatically.
“We were really at risk, at that point,” Raffan says.
The silver lining to the situation, Raffan says, was that the Township 7 team had already set about updating its ecommerce offering. In the works for about a year, the pandemic provided the final prod needed to get everything finished and available to wine customers.
“And, you know, it has turned into a new sales channel that has exceeded our expectations,” Raffan says. “As the saying goes, ‘It helps to be good at something, but it’s better to be lucky at something.’
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“We were positioned to make the switch.”
During the past 12-plus months, the Township 7 team has worked to streamline its direct-to-consumer sales — “we’re not as good as Amazon,” Raffan jokes — including the online store and delivery process.
“It’s worked out quite well for us,” Raffan says. “We reached out to all of our local consumers on our email lists and social media and said, ‘We’re here and we’re local.’ We hired our staff that was laid off to hand-deliver, which was received exceptionally well.”
With the popularity of the local wine delivery, Raffan says they were able to hire back additional tasting room staff to manage the packaging and delivery on a regular basis.
The winery’s team also worked out to the B.C. Hospitality Foundation to contribute $10 from each delivery, raising more than $5,000 to help restaurant and hospitality workers in need.
“We were fortunate, and we wanted to share,” Raffan says.
As virtual tastings continue to prove a popular option with wineries and wine drinkers alike, some B.C. operations are getting creative with the online idea.
Little Engine Wines in Penticton recently launched the Piccolo Virtual Tasting Collection, which features 200-mL mini bottles of three Little Engine Gold Series Wines: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot.
“Most virtual tastings are done with full bottles, but what if you don’t enjoy the wine? The beauty of these piccolo bottles is they are hand-bottled samples enough for 2-4 people,” Steven French, the winery’s proprietor, says.
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The wines are accompanied by a digital link to a five-minute virtual tasting video featuring Little Engine’s winemaker Scott Robinson. The online videos can be watched whenever or wherever someone wants to do a tasting, French points out.
“You can do multiple tastings with others via a zoom call, or just as an evening tasting,” French says.
When the pandemic “ripped” the rug out from underneath the wine industry, it prompted the team at Time Winery & Kitchen in Penticton to look inward at its plans for growth — and how they could be carried out amid such uncertain times.
“In the wine industry, we count on winery tourism to be such a pivotal driver for us,” Kimberly Hundertmark, the hospitality manager at Time, says. “And, when you suddenly have that taken away from you, at a time when you’re looking to drive shoulder-season tourism as an asset for the entire province but particularly in the Okanagan, it took pivoting.”
Hundertmark says the winery’s team focused on education and planning during the slowdown in order to plan for when the world would finally open back up again.
“Our focus has been not necessarily reinventing ourselves, but rebranding ourselves and repositioning ourselves has been really what has kept us going through the year,” Hundertmark says. “Because all the planning and development of new programming does take a lot of research.
“And, in normal times, we wouldn’t have had that much free time to be able to access some of these really great insights and conferences nationally that we have been able to take part in.”
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Being “more methodical and strategic,” the Time team decided to delay the “extensive” renovation of the property that had been planned, instead turning the focus to programming for its wine customers, along with its wine club.
This year, Hundertmark says the winery has launched its wine club with a “whole new structure” that includes virtual opportunities, incentives, experiences, discounts and more.
Hundertmark adds the interest in subscription programs has also skyrocketed in recent months.
“It wasn’t something we were actively pursuing before,” Hundertmark says of the model. “But we are going to be running at that really hard.”
The winery has added an estate sommelier to its property and will offer seated tastings by reservations.
“We’re more about quality over quantity,” Hundertmark says. “It’s not necessarily tour buses and big lineups. It’s going to be reserved, exclusive experiences that are educational, informative and fun.”
Another big evolution in the mid- and post-pandemic wine experience comes in the tasting rooms.
“Prior to COVID, we might have more than 3,000 people coming to Mission Hill in a day,” Kriehbiel says. “We had to switch that really quickly to become reservation only. And being less than 500 a day.”
This changes sees a maximum of six guests per experience, Kriehbiel says.
“It’s such a different feel,” Kriehbiel says. “If you’ve been to tasting rooms in the past where you’re throwing your glass forward trying to get a sample of the wine — it’s nothing like that. You’re seated with your own host to walk you through the wines. It’s such a relaxed experience.”
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Going forward, Kriehbiel is confident that most of the changes made during the pandemic will stick at the popular winery.
“One hundred per cent, we will continue in the direction that we’ve been going. We will continue on a reservation-only system,” Kriehbiel says. “The response has been so good, guests are so happy with the personalized experience that they have, that we are going to continue with that route.”
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Source: vancouversun.com
