The Future of Wineries and Technology: The Move to Crowd-Sourced

The Buzz 1: “Virtual vintners have a say on grape varieties, barrels and bottling. Crowd-sourcing has become the Internet’s new favorite method of financing start-ups, authors and researchers. Now two wineries have adopted the idea to get their consumers involved in making wine.” (www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/crowd-sourced-wine-virtual-vintners-have-a-say-on-grape-varieties-barrels-and-bottling/2014/08/29/aac1bd8c-2e26-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html) The Buzz 2: “Our Cabernet Sauvignon has been picked and crushed, and the yeast strain and fermentation tannins YOU selected have been added.…They did not pick the yeast that I normally use,” winemaker Tom Johnson says. Silversmith’s 797 Facebook fans voted on winemaking decisions for the 2011 vintage. “I thought no one would be interested and no one would participate. Boy was I wrong.” (winefashionista.com/2011/11/04/turning-winemaking-over-to-facebook-fans) We’ll ask Bill Newman, Alexander Wong, Neil Collins, and Jim Bernau, for their take on The Future of Wineries and Technology: The Move to Crowd-Sourced and Crowd-Crushed.