Life Among the (Tangential and Tangled) Vines
I’m not among the vines at all, as I am currently attending the DTC Wine Symposium in Monterey, California. If you’re here, say hello! This week’s roundup will be somewhat shortened, as I’ve replaced my normal podcast listening and article reading with a barrage of presentations. I’m a first timer and don’t know how this symposium usually goes, but this year it’s heavy on AI, social media, and platform integration to help wineries engage current and potential customers. I’ll hit on some of the conference topics in future posts, but my short take for now is that while the energy toward change is positive, the wine world seems to be equating “do new things to help younger consumers enjoy wine” with “use all the AI.”
You might remember that I’m critical of AI in general, due to plagiarism/theft of artistic content, diminishment of human creative efforts and the compensation thereof, inaccuracy of information, and massive environmental impact. In this crowd, I seem to be the only one, but we’re not interacting much, and certainly not about the core assumptions behind the presentations.
Do I sound frustrated? I am frustrated. AI might make our work easier, but it doesn’t change the culture, perceptions, or costs around wine, all of which seem to be to be bigger factors for new consumers than whether they saw our awesome AI-generated ad on Instagram. And as younger drinkers push for more environmental responsibility from wineries, the water and energy use, carbon output, and waste production of AI isn’t going to look great, no matter how many sheep are in our vineyards.
It’s not a wasted trip, however. I am accomplishing my goals of learning more about what other wine professionals are thinking and how they’re moving into the future, and actually meeting them. And I saw a bunch of jellyfish while drinking wine and attempting to network in the dark.
The Grape News
As I mentioned, I’ve been interacting with far less wine media than usual this week, and I don’t recommend things to you that I haven’t read/heard/watched and found interesting myself. But I have been spending time driving - which means podcasts! Here are a few I enjoyed during my travels:
50 Years That Changed Wine on the UK Wine Show: a drive into how diseases and pests shaped the world of wine in the 19th century in ways that continue to define it now.
Iran & Wine on the Somm TV Podcast: Darioush Khaledi of Darioush Vineyards on the history and potential of wine in Iran. Related, go watch Cup of Salvation, the Somm TV documentary about making wine in Armenia and from long-neglected Iranian grapes.
Why is Wine PR Struggling So Much on the VinePair Podcast: it seems to come down to not paying attention to audience, and compensating so poorly that they can’t attract experienced talent and lose talented individuals once they gain experience.
Vineyard Maintenance
Does anyone bottle time, energy, and focus? No? That’s unfortunate. I’m still struggling through this autoimmune nonsense, but trying to hang in here with posting regularly and getting you a regular dose of wine geekery. Thank you for sticking around with me and supporting in whatever way you can, through likes, shares, comments, and subscriptions.
The Best Thing I Drank This Week
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