11 million UK regular wine drinkers go online for wine info

Published: 17 May, 2011

Almost 40% of regular wine drinkers in the UK , or 11 million people, search for wine information online - that's according to Wine Intelligence.

Statistics also show that 28% of regular UK wine drinkers, or 8 million people, have bought wine online in the past three months. Wine Intelligence's Juan Park, speaking at the "How does wine feature in the digital conversation?" seminar, said this figure is only going to grow.

Out of that just 14% of those wine drinkers have posted their reviews online.

Rowan Gormley, founder of online retailer Naked Wines said "the most interesting thing" about the wine conversation online is that "it's tipping the balance away from marketing, big budgets and distribution, in favour of talent". He said that up until now, winemakers had to be "superheros" in their quest to bring their wine to the world.

Wine blogger Belinda Stone, who also works at Patriarche Wine Agencies, urged the trade just to think of social media as just like word of mouth, "but this time you've got a huge audience". She also said the wine trade should consider it an "extension of the sales team, but without the overheads".

Ryan Opaz, founder of social media and wine consulting firm Vrazon, said wineries should consider their web pages as "simply a point of contact". Gormley agreed, saying a winery targeting consumers through its website was akin to "building a shop in the desert - there's no-one there". He said a Facebook page was much more intuitive.

Gormley said 44% of Naked's customers now interact on the website, adding that "they are three times more valuable than the other 56%".

Opaz called on the wine trade to "stop talking about yourself - look at the beer industry, it talks about the beach or football, you just drink it". Rather, he said, "if you want to sell wine, talk to people about surfing".

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