Belinda Heinrich from the Clare Valley reports on a joyous wine event she went to in Darwin where young people were out in force.
I listened with interest to Holly Formosa’s The Growth Edit podcast featuring Wine Victoria chair Dan Sims where he challenged the tired narrative that “young people aren’t into wine.” His comments struck a chord.
Fresh from a trip to Darwin, I unexpectedly found myself attending Merrick Watts’ Idiot’s Guide to Wine show at the Darwin Festival.
With no preconceptions, I walked into a sold-out marquee of 400 people who, for an hour and a half, laughed, learned and tasted their way through six Australian wines.
On my table alone were four 19-year-olds, two in their forties, and four in their sixties, a demographic spread we’d all love to see at any cellar door.
The room was captivated.
People learned that Grüner Veltliner isn’t a German cruise liner but a vibrant grape variety that originated from Austria.
They were introduced to regions and producers they might never have discovered otherwise, from Queensland’s Granite Belt to the Adelaide Hills.
Afterwards, at a nearby restaurant, a group of those same 19-year-olds, who happened to have randomly booked the table next to us, were asking the waiter if Grüner was on the wine list.
“Apparently it goes well with spice,” they said, repeating what they’d just learned at the show. That’s engagement in action.
And Merrick did it all again. Two sold-out shows, 800 people, paid, attentive, curious, and walking away with a new connection to wine.
This is exactly what Dan Sims was talking about.
Younger generations are engaged with wine, they just interact with it differently. They want it to be social, fun and relevant, seeking quality bottles that tell a story and come with a trusted endorsement, rather than a virtual pop-up brand and one-dimensional product.
If your strategy is to attract the younger generation to drink your wine, because let’s be clear, you can’t be everything to everyone, as much as we’d all love to, initiatives like Merrick’s show are a perfect example of getting it right.
I’m quite sure it wouldn’t fit into Wine Australia’s brand strategy, whatever that is, but it worked: 800 people tried new wines and learned more in an hour and a half than you’d ever see anywhere else, turning a curious, social and experience-driven audience into engaged participants, and ultimately, lifelong customers.
Bravo Merrick
PS: 800 people, six glasses each, you do the math on the glass washing. Ouch!
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