There’s less than a month to go until #Chardonnay day on 26 May, 2011 – now in its second year and momentum is growing daily. Following the global success of #Cabernet Day, #hunterwine, #yarrawine, #barossawine and other initiatives like The Rose Revolution (#roserev) there’s much more awareness on how participating in such global tastings can have an impact on your brand and connect you to like minded consumers and influencers. Well worth getting involved – register here   

According to ABS Vineyard Estimates 2010, over 45% of total white grape varietals harvested in Australia in 2010 were Chardonnay, so this is a perfect opportunity to engage the wine loving community. There’s endless quotes and commentary on the quality and stylistic changes that have taken place by Chardonnay producers on a global scale (no longer about big oaked Chardonnays), and days like this give us a chance to encourage trial and get some great products back into consumers buying repertoire. It’s no longer the days of “Anything But Chardonnay” so let’s utilise this global opportunity to get some trial and tell the stories about the amazing Chardonnay wines being produced.

What exactly is Chardonnay Day?

This is a global day to talk about Chardonnay via social media platforms. There’s no concurrent tasting, conversations will take place in the time zone of country participating. Anyone can get involved. Simply post up comments on twitter, facebook, youtube, gowalla, foursquare or other social media platforms.

Use the #chardonnay in your posts/ tweets and follow the conversations taking place on the day.

Here’s a few tips to get involved:

  • Engage with consumers – sell trial packs of your chardonnay in advance – whether this is a special Chardonnay trial pack on your website, special offers on your Chardonnay through cellar door, features in your eNewsletters or deals to the trade it’s an opportunity to get trial of your products and get consumers tasting.
  • Make it easy to join in the conversation – many consumers are intimidated to talk about the wines, particularly on twitter. Help them get involved in the conversations – print out a sheet of your tasting notes to put in with packs sold and create a letter to include on what is chardonnay day and how they can get involved.
  • Create content in advance – Don’t leave it to the last minute to start planning. Those who have had success with similar days in the past have thought about their participation in advance and created relevant content. Videos, blog posts, having tasting notes accessible will allow you to tell your messages.
  • Organise a meet up – Creating an opportunity for people to get involved and meet up is a great way of sharing the wines. This can be as simple as a tasting in your cellar door on the day, approaching local venues about hosting a tasting or just getting together with friends. Whilst not mandatory it makes it easy to follow along with the conversations by having a big screen and watching the flow of conversations on a program like www.twitterfall.com or tweetdeck.com makes it easy to see the conversations taking place all over the world. If you’re holding a meet up, register on  so that others can come along.
  • Collaborate with others – In many cases there’s a regional/ stylistic story to be told as well as a brand message. Talk to your regional wine association about how you can create some regional content and work together to get the message out. A great way to create some videos in advance. If your own cellar door is not participating, why not see if you can get some other producers from your region together and sample your wines up against other international examples?

Retailers/ Restaurants/ Sommeliers- This is also a great opportunity for you to generate some incremental sales and generate some further understanding of different styles of chardonnay being produced. Why not consider:

  • Tastings on the day – in store tastings on chardonnays. Talk to consumers about the different styles and regions and get your producers involved.
  • Chardonnay by the glass specials for the week of Chardonnay Day or specific food matches with Chardonnay on the menu
  • Mixed cases of regional Chardonnays sold in advance in tasting packs so people can get involved
  • Wine Dinners – Great opportunity to have a tasting menu with different regional chardonnays.

If you need more information, send me a tweet to @mastermindTB or email me on Trish@mastermindconsulting.com.au – happy to help you spread the word and get more involved. If you want to get your logo on the Eventbrite site, then simply email it to rbakas@mac.com

Details about the #Sydney #Chardonnay event are coming together and will be published over the week, but let me know if you’re keen to submit samples for tasting.

Let’s make this a global success and remember why we love this grape varietal in the process.