Virtual Content, Real Wine: Take Two

After two-plus years of virtual tastings, it's time to raise the bar on these experiences. Some are already stepping up.

- ALISON NAPJUS

In late May 2020, I was penning a column reflecting on virtual wine tasting in the midst of COVID-19. It had been two very long months of lockdown, and at that point the reality had set in that things weren’t going to change anytime soon. My column was a call to action for wineries, retailers, and other suppliers to do more to engage consumers in the proliferation of virtual tastings that were being promoted at the time.

Fast-forward to today. In-person tastings and events have resumed, but as I surmised in my 2020 column, this hasn’t meant the end of virtual tastings. There are still a lot of benefits to virtual tastings: health and safety, comfort and accessibility, and both the time and financial savings versus travel for in-person events.

But because so much of the past two-plus years has been virtual, more than ever before it’s time to raise the bar on these experiences. I believe the days of a sole voice talking for an hour on Zoom should be behind us. I know I’m not the only one to notice that as the pandemic dragged on, “Zoom etiquette” became worse and worse, with people on their phones or engaging in other activities that clearly indicated a lack of attention to the presenter.