October 2010 Archives

As Director of all things IT here at Dry Creek Vineyard, part of my job is to keep the winery up to date technologically speaking.  I attended a Wine Industry Technology Symposium a few months ago and came away with some fascinating information and a new avenue for utilizing technology here at the winery.

 

Some of the facts presented included:

  • 59% of the population has a mobile device
  • 75% are over the age of 24
  • Largest group of users is age 35-54
  • 35% watch videos
  • SEARCH is the #1 activity on phones (mobile search point of sale)
  • Majority of visits “in store setting” using phone to shop (get information, pricing)
  • By 2020, 50 BILLION devices will be wirelessly connected to the Internet
  • By 2015 there will be 119 Billion in sales from the Mobile Web
  • There are over 200 wine applications for the iPhone

As a business, the implications are obvious and can't be ignored.  While I can handle the creation of a mobile website, the mobile device application creation is much more complex.  We started the process of meeting with companies to talk about building an application for Dry Creek Vineyard.

As a family owned and operated winery, we quickly realized that there are other goals to be considered in developing our wine application that were important to us:

  • Engage loyal customers
  • Engage our customers at the point of need
  • Be where our customer is
  • Customer relationship management
  • Provide something of value to our customers

Having figured all that out, we were feeling pretty good about our progress, until we started trying to define what "something of value to our customers" would be!  Obviously, having information quickly and readily available to our customers via their mobile device was a plus, but what could we provide our customers in an app that would make it worthy of download and continued use?

We all agreed that we needed to come up with an idea for our application that would make it valuable and useful.  We talked about food pairings for our wines.  Or, maybe the application would include recipes for our wines so our customer could buy wine and dinner accoutrements on the fly from the convenience of their phone.  The more we talked, the less sure we were about what we could do to make our app worthy of creation.

Then, I had a brainstorm.  I thought, why not ask Wilma's audience?  Surely, they would have some cool ideas about what they might find useful in a wine app.  So, readers of all things Wilma, now is your chance to "sound off." 

Lynda Abbott, Director of IT Services

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In my five years at Dry Creek Vineyard, I always worked behind a desk.  My first job was as the receptionist. Over time, I took on more responsibility and now have the important task of looking after our valued wine club members. I also work at most of our events, greeting guests with a friendly hello and sharing our incredible wines. Recently, I was asked if I would like to work one day a week in the tasting room. My first thought was "Can I do this?"

A month has gone by and I have to admit I am having a lot of fun.  My time in the tasting room has given me a chance to talk about our Click photo to enlarge!wines and to tell our story. Most importantly, it has given me an opportunity to meet our club members face to face. If I'm not doing a private tour and tasting, I'm pouring our wines and enjoying conversation with the many people who visit us. It has been fun meeting new and long time club members.  I now realize how important personal connections truly are. 

This has been a great change.  I have learned a lot from the tasting room staff and I enjoy seeing the many faces from all over the country come through those doors.

If you find yourself in the winery on a Friday, you will almost certainly see my smiling face.

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This is by far my favorite time of year in wine country.  Vineyards and wineries are abuzz with activity (seemingly around the clock) as a new vintage comes to fruition.  The other morning at sunrise, myself and Nova Perrill, our Assistant Winemaker, took a ride out to Lewis Vineyard about 3 miles north of Dry Creek Vineyard.  Lewis Vineyard is a 75 year-old Old Vine vineyard nestled in the Eastern hillside of the Dry Creek Valley.  As I filmed and walked the vineyard, I was struck - not only by the natural beauty and surroundings - but also by how hard the vineyard crew worked.  Literally running through the vineyard picking grapes, these incredible harvest workers have my full respect and admiration.  I think I'd be able to keep that pace for 10 minutes before falling flat on my face!

Please enjoy this video montage we put together and join us in a toast to Harvest 2010.  Another new vintage is here!

Cheers!

 
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About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from October 2010 listed from newest to oldest.

September 2010 is the previous archive.

November 2010 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

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