UNFILTERED: Episode 002 from VinTank on Vimeo.

We caught up with Rob McMillan, Founder of SVB Wine Division, hot on the release of his 2010 – 2011 State of the Wine Industry Report. He shared with us his findings, his projections on the future and his secrets to wineries success.

Download a full version of this must read report here here.

Analysis Summary: Neutral to Positive

Instant, accurate information is the digital game and those that are easiest and quickest to be found, win. People’s habits have demanded that those who play in the digital sphere get faster and more comprehensive with their information and that brands wanting attention actively participate. That’s why we at VinTank believe services like Vinopedia to be critical for the wine industry’s success online. While Vinopedia is not the only player in the wine searching world, with veterans like Wine-Searcher and Snooth, it does offer a new comprehensive tool for wine enthusiasts to search wines, easily compare prices and locate wine retailers – all for free. With its functional, clean user interface (UI) and its complimentary offerings to visitors, we believe Vinopedia will become a positive and influential service for the wine industry.

Market Impact: Moderate

Vinopedia has the potential to attract a broad audience in the long-term with an affordable model for retailer participation and free information for all wine-searching visitors. However, its lack of visibility in Google search results, the existence of well established competition and no formidable partners to help penetration limit its current market impact. However, the market is still open. Another strong comparative search engine is needed since the two afore mentioned veterans are using similar data.

Analysis Summary: Poor to Neutral

As more and more consumers take to the internet to research their vacations, gather destination information and manage calendars, it’s not all that surprising that this is now our second application for digital winery reservation management to Pulse in less than 4 months. There is a viable market for the right company to step in and provide wineries with this service. However, as competition starts to rise, we can no longer (responsibly) analyze these services without an eye on the new standards.

CellarPass, a Submerce product, pledges to provide wineries with reservation and customer relationship management, while giving consumers (as they refer to them) the control of their vacation that they’ve always wanted. However, after an extended post launch grace period and over a month of research, we at VinTank have determined CellarPass to be full of potential but currently premature and functionally flawed.

Market Impact: Low to Moderate

We at VinTank believe that wine country tourists and wineries alike would greatly benefit from a service such as this. The idea and timing is right, but with the significant challenges CellarPass is currently facing, we predict that it will be difficult for them to rise above their competitors.

Analysis Summary: Positive

As tasting rooms boast an incredible 48 million visits a year and fall only second to Disneyland as the top tourist destination in California, it’s easy to see the impact and importance they have in the wine industry. However, until now wineries have lacked a single tool or software application designed to accommodate and capitalize on their tasting room traffic. VinoVisit provides both customers and wineries with practical reservation management solutions through their website: a winery search engine, an itinerary creator, their reservation widget and a reservation management dashboard. And while the ultimate benefits of their software is yet to come, the thoughtfulness of their development, strength of their platform and power of their strategic partnerships will ensure a successful product.

Market Impact: Moderate to High

VinoVisit is the first reservation service of its kind with a goal of “Monetizing the 48 Million Annual Visits to the Wine Country” making it more manageable for visitors to plan trips to wine country and automating the reservation process. Although an ambitious goal, particularly considering the sluggish release of key features, we believe that VinoVisit’s ability to increase winery exposure while redefining the way wineries connect with their visitors could have a strong impact on the market.

We are key supporters for the #ownit campaign at yourwineyourway.com.  This innovative and free service from Cruvee.com was created to help catalyze the success of wine online by helping wineries and wine/tech companies leverage clean data from one source.  Will you and your brand #ownit?

New Media and Wine

There are dozens of wine related applications (apps) now available for the iPhone with many more in development. All of these apps are stirring a general undercurrent of consumer confusion over what – exactly – is available and what is the relative value to a user? Which app is the best and for what wine purpose? What’s the difference between this one and that one? Should I spend money on this? How should wineries or consumers interact with them, if at all?

To satisfy our curiosity (and yours) we took it upon ourselves answer these questions.

We searched and pulled together a large pool of wine applications and spread them into categories based on their capabilities, functionality, overall performance and impact on both the market and the consumer.

Analysis Summary

Neutral to Positive

Natalie MacLean is a trusted name and celebrated writer for the wine community. The introduction of her tool is, in her own words, a simple extension of services for her fans and readers answering the question she has received time and time again, “What wine would go with x?” Her jump into a mobile platform is crucial in educating consumers and broadening the reach of different varietals. Although not a tool that directly connects consumers to sales, Natalie’s personal touch and trusted opinion would undoubtedly influence the purchasing behavior of her audience if enhanced.

Market Impact: Potentially LOW

While a great application for wine neophytes and foodies, the lack of an online conversion mechanism makes its market impact low. Specifically, the wine-pairing tool suggests varietals to hundreds of dishes but doesn’t easily offer brand names or where to find. An excellent tool to broaden purchasing choices but not significant to increasing sales. The key importance of this tool however, lies within access to information necessary for making purchasing decisions by Natalie’s loyal and trusting audience.