Local wineries and a website dedicated to promoting Michigan wines are partnering for a new kind of wine tasting; a virtual one, aided by Twitter.
This week is the latest "Tweet and Taste" event, featuring Black Star Farms' wine from the Leelanau Peninsula, and, hopefully, wine drinkers from all over the place.
It works like this: The winery chooses wines they want to highlight at the event, and Michigan By The Bottle, the aforementioned website, helps promote the event through social media and blogging. Participants buy the wines (often at a discount) and either taste at home or at a gathering at a designated time. They then use Twitter to give their impressions, chat with other participants and bloggers, and ask the winemaker questions, tagging everything with #ttmi to keep track.
Cortney Casey co-founded the
Michigan By The Bottle site with husband Shannon in 2009, and they've hosted several Tweet and Tastes so far.
"We've been constantly trying to come up with new and innovative ideas for helping spread the word that Michigan wines are second to none. We've found that a lot of people are unaware of these gems right in their own backyards," says Casey. "Shannon had done a lot of reading about programs and events that were popular elsewhere in the country and saw that Twitter-based tastings seemed to be catching on."
In March of 2010,
Black Star Farms was the first to sign on for such an event, and others have followed since. There have even been regional events, with several wineries participating at once.
Casey says, besides the obvious virtue of allowing people in many locations to experience Michigan wines in a more social setting, the events also serve as their own publicity tools.
"Not only can people mingle as if in a chat room, but their Twitter followers, in turn, take note of what they're tweeting about, and become curious about Tweet and Taste. It's almost as if they're "overhearing" a conversation, and it prompts them to inquire about what's going on and how they can get involved," she says. "It exposes additional people to the quality of Michigan wine, and perhaps alerts them to products they'd be interested in trying next time they're near the wineries or spot the Michigan wine on supermarket shelves.
The next Tweet and Taste is with Black Star Farms, and takes place on Twitter at 7:30 p.m. this Wednesday, June 15. You can follow
Michigan By The Bottle or
Black Star Farms on Twitter for updates.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Cortney Casey, Michigan By The Bottle
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