OUR VERY OWN UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

I haven’t had much to say the past few days, which is a rarity for me. For as introverted as I can be at times, I usually let my passions run amok whenever and wherever wine is concerned. Lately though, I’ve experienced a bit of burnout. Not a complete and utter burnout, but just a slight case. The recent tax increase legislation got us all fired up around here, and we were trying very much in vain, to change people’s minds. In the world of politics, the smaller groups usually win out and all things fair are vanquished to the four winds.

So not to keep riding a dead horse, I have been shifting my focus on ways to counteract the damage our Kentucky lawmakers are doing to this region’s fiscal stability and growth, by embracing the Internet in the best ways possible (without trying to sell online, because the dinosaur lawmakers have deemed that illegal).

We’ve begun utilizing email as optimally as possible, and we are slowly retooling the Web site so that we can get as much and as concise of information as possible to our customers, and beyond. And this past weekend, I’ve opted to use Twitter to help draw attention to our store, by simply posting one wine per day, a wine that for one reason or another is a great buy in these crappy economic times. Thus far, we’ve promoted Franciscan Chardonnay from Napa Valley, Rawson’s Retreat Chardonnay from Australia, and today’s wine, the Frei Brothers Zinfandel 2007. In the future, we’ll use Twitter to feature extra-special deals, only available on Twitter. Just another interesting way to drive traffic into our stores, perhaps, but in my mind, another way to encourage people to explore all of the various new social mediums, such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, and others. It’s all part of the whole Wine 2.0 phenomenon, which incorporates the wine bloggers and online wine magazines, and virtually anything non-traditional.

While our Twitter promos are in the experimental phase, other wine stores across the country are exploring the possibility as well. You could call it part of our undiscovered country.