Over 90% of U.S. marketed wines come from California. With over 110 grape varieties and 3000 wineries in California State alone, wine is a multi-million dollar industry that, too, has been affected by technology.

Here are just ten ways tech, in some form, has altered the traditional forms of winemaking:

1) Biodynamic viticulture—a.k.a. using organic methods to best harvest the crop.

2) Micro-oxygenation— introducing oxygen into wine in controlled methods to improve the flavor.

3) Robert Mondavi who started bottling wines since 1966 promoted labeling wines varietally instead of generically which is now the standard for New World wines.

4) Boxed wine.

5) Canned wine.

6) Wines on tap.

7) Turning wine into fuel.

8) Adding bubbles.

9) Diet wine!

10) Quirky wine labels.

Today Randi spoke with four experts in the wine and social media space, Lauren & Nate Belden of Belden Barns, Michelle Reeves of David Family Wines, and her father, a social media whiz and wine aficionado, Edward Zuckerberg.

First up was LIKE or DISLIKE:

KLM is turning a jet to a pop-up airbnb home.

Nate “Love it if it’s in the air. If it’s grounded, not so much.”

Edward “Sounds like a unique experience and will promote the airline.”

The Black V Club targets men in the tech space selling only one type of black V-neck tee as “billionaire chic.”

Edward  “Where do I get it?”

Michelle “You wear what you look good in.”

Nate “Not with my coloring.”

DevBootCamp teaches coding in 6 months to become a junior developer in a fraction of the cost of college.

Nate “Love it. Especially if there’s a sliding scale for tuition.”

Michelle ” I wish these opportunities were around when I was younger.”

Edward “I’m a big believer in skill-based education.”

PACHAMAS work with your smartphone to bring your kids’ pajamas to life.

Edward “Especially helpful when kids wake up in the morning.”

Lauren “As long as it doesn’t replace mom and dad time.”

Michelle “Dislike. I love story-time with my kids. I don’t think I need my kids pajamas coming to life.”

Nate “Technology out of the bedroom.”

And onto wine!!

Randi asked how winemaking has changed in recent years:

Belden Barns: 

“Our winery is only 6 months old but technology is very relevant to our launch.”

“Social media’s role has seen labels ask for flavor profiles from their audience.”

“Technology is influencing the whole production. In California it’s tracking water usage.”

” Usually it’d be 12 people sitting on a line sorting but now an optical sorter automatically kicks the waste out.”

“It’s most important to have a website where people can buy the wine.”

“Wine is regulated and is complicated to ship so we use ShipCompliant to seamlessly understand if we can ship to a particular customer.”

Michelle from David Family Wine:

“From the consumer POV, social media allows winemakers to have a greater expression of wines they want to make. With social media and online communities people are able to find what they are looking for.”

“There are greater tech efficiencies to craft our wine, but it’s not just about the vineyards. It’s in holds and shipping. We’re able to track wine orders going out.”

Edward Zuckerberg:

“Social media is not intuitively used by most businesses. You’re getting your customers to help sell you and your brand.”

“To my great disappointment at some of these wineries I can’t post anything because there’s no signal. You need to get high bandwidth wi-fi going.”

“A boost for any winery is to give out free wi-fi and then have users automatically LIKE their page. Have visitors check in as well.”

“With David Family you have 1500 likes, but there’s no reviews or check-ins available.”

Mike from Massachusetts called asking how to capitalize and monetize using social media:

Nate: “Anytime we get some good critical acclaim or validation we blast that out. Or we take photos of our events and post them.”

“Our customers starting receiving their wine and posting pictures. All of the sudden we had 10 new members.”

Michelle: “Every time we get a new restaurant that has our wine we tell our members where to go that’s near and close to them.”

“Pinot Noir is the diva of all wine varietals. Requiring alarm systems on the vine for when the temp drops the alarm goes off.”

“It’s not about how it tastes, but how it makes you feel.”

Prabhjit from Washington DC called asking about places to further find out about wine or being able to write a review about the wine itself.

Lauren: “There are a lot of wine apps out there right now. Delectable app is most sommeliers favorite now.”

Edward: “DRYNC app searches for wine in the marketplace.”

“If you build it they will come doesn’t work for social media pages.”

“Asking questions on a post engages the community. You get a comment which is measurable.”

Michelle: “The very first thing people do in a wine store is pick up a bottle. The first bottle they pick up is usually the first one they buy.”

“Leather has a back-to-nature luxurious quality. Especially with red wine tones. At 26 I decided to be that person and make the first leather wine label.”

Lauren: “Technology played a huge role in getting us to being the wine brand we are. We used 99 Designs and put a contest out there.”

“We had a tattoo artist who hid the word WISH into the label.”

Nate: “Boxed wine is a great trend by trying to be more efficient with your packaging. Diet wine is getting away from what wine is really about.”

Learn more about our guests @BeldenBarns @DavidFamilyWine @PainlessDrz

The Product of the Week goes to the RITE FIT APP from Stride Rite.

Randi spoke with Kristen and Kieran Smith of Stride Rite to discuss:

“It allows parents to measure their children’s feet at home. It’s much more user friendly than that antiquated machine at shoe stores.”

“The other games and functionalities of the app allows kids to engage with the other interactive features like the growth chart or the virtual try-on.”

Join Randi and “Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg on SiriusXM” next week for a special Thanksgiving episode. Tune in to SiriusXM Channel 111 Wednesdays at 9am PST/12EST.

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