To Sample or Not To Sample: There’s No Question

For those in the business of producing or importing wine, it is a truism that good wine reviews will help sell wine. In fact, reviews and ratings of wine may be the single biggest weapon in a marketing arsenal. But before those ratings and reviews are put to use in turning heads and making sales, the wine actually must get into the hands of wine reviewers. Here’s your primer on how to accomplish this and give your wine the best chance of being reviewed.

First, recognize that across the United States there are upwards of 500 individuals and publications that review or rate wine, and have an audience for their opinions. You shouldn’t be sending your wines off to all of them. Rather, you’ll first be evaluating how much wine you can set aside for reviews, and second, which regions or states are most important to your marketing efforts.

The first issue, how much wine you can allocate for review samples, shouldn’t be too difficult a task. If you can’t set aside 3 cases of wine for this purpose then you probably can’t afford to be making wine in the first place. That said, a well-devised sampling program for a winery making 5000 cases of wine is reasonable given the potential return that comes from reviews. At the very least, plan to set aside 2 cases of each wine you make that you want to support with reviews.

Identify Your Target Publications

Next step is to determine which regions or states are most important to your marketing efforts. If your wine is not distributed in Illinois then there is no good reason to offer a sample to the wine critic at the Chicago Tribune. Make a list of those states where you are selling your wine. You’ll want to find those wine critics that serve a readership in these states.

What about critics that write for a national audience? I’m talking about The Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits Magazine, Quarterly Review of Wine, Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine, Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar, certain wine blogs, etc. You could send samples to all these folks and others, and many marketers do. Most importantly, make sure the national publication you are considering actually reviews the sort of wine you are sending for review. It’s just not likely, for example, that the “California Grapevine” newsletter will have any use for your newly imported Rioja.

Is it possible to only send your wine to reviewers you think will appreciate the style of wine you are producing or importing? Yes, but this is a very difficult calculation. I recommend only undertaking this kind of sample strategy if you can be absolutely sure you are correct about the palate preferences of the writer. It’s a very difficult project to undertake and only, in my view, slightly worth the effort.

In the end, you are looking for wine reviewers that have the largest and most appropriate audience for your wine. If you are making $65 Napa Valley Cabernet, for example, it is inappropriate to waste a bottle of wine on a newspaper wine writer that usually only reviews $15 bottles of wine. You are looking for the biggest bang for your buck. This is not an inexpensive project - you are giving away product and paying for shipping.

Also, is it appropriate to send a sample that isn’t solicited by a writer or publication? I certainly think so. Unless you’ve been told, “no unsolicited wine samples, please,” I believe there is no problem with this practice.

Do Your Homework Before Sending

There is no guarantee that if you send your wine to a reviewer that they will like the wine, let alone review it for publication. However, how you send the wine to a publication or wine reviewer will help the odds that it does get reviewed. Here’s what you need to do:

• 1. If sending to a wine publication, first check if they have a schedule for reviewing certain types of wine and if so, follow it. Also find out if they have a form to fill out and send with the sample.
• 2. Always include with the wine a “Data Sheet” that details the price of the wine, how much was produced, the alcohol content, where it is distributed, if it is available for sale on your company’s website and contact information with the name of the person that can answer questions. Any other data can be included, but these six things must be included on the Data Sheet
• 3. Some publications require two bottles of each wine submitted. Find out which publications and reviewers require this. If two bottles are required and you only want to send one, don’t even bother.
• 4. I always like to include a very short cover letter with the wine and data sheet. It’s a good chance to deliver a personal note to the reviewer, particularly if you know them personally.

What happens once you have the good reviews in hand? Use them! Send them to distributors in a single page format. Put them on your website. Send them to retailers that carry the wine. Shoot an e-mail to your customer list. This is why you seek wine reviews: They help sell wine, but only if folks know about them.

Finally, remember this: Along with the good reviews you will receive mediocre reviews from your samples program. Live with it rather than complain. No calling and asking why. The review will tell you everything you want to know and you don’t have to use these reviews in your marketing campaign.

Until next time, cheers!

Tom Wark

Tom Wark is the owner of Wark Communications, a wine industry public relations and communications firm that he founded in 1994. Wark has worked with small and medium wineries as well as international concerns to help raise their visibility among specific audiences. Wark Communications also specializes in direct-to-consumer marketing and Tom himself is the executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association that is fighting to extend the right of retailers to ship to consumers across the country.Tom also publishes FERMENTATAION: The Daily Wine Blog.

This entry was posted by admin on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Blog, Clients, Direct Sales, The Industry, Wine Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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