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As the wine world stumbles through difficult times (in early 2026), Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible and co-founder of Come Over October, believes part of the disconnect stems from time. The fastness of the modern, social media fueled world and the slowness of wine. Her solution is to focus the narrative of wine with well-being and wine’s long-standing role as a beverage that brings people together.
Detailed Show Notes:
Karen’s background: author of The Wine Bible, writer, speaker, teacher
Worried that a change in culture, to a faster one with social media (took off in 2012 when Facebook hit 1B active users and >50% of the population had smart phones), has left wine, a slower product, behind
- White wine’s appeal may be partly that it implies fastness
- Wine is slower to create (can take 3-5 years) and to consume (high acid, tannins for reds)
Larger selection of beverages may also be competing for wine’s share, including functional beverages that are marketed as “mindful”
Wrote an article, “Is wine really in the alcohol business?” on how wine is more than alcohol, but threaded in the culture of food, history, religion, and art
Believes wine should promote the notion of wellbeing vs health, which includes better relationships from sharing wine with people
Started Come Over October w/ Gino Colangelo and Kimberly Charles, PR professionals
- 2025: reached 2.9B media impressions, had 1,400 retail store promotions, raised $250k
- Sister campaign is Share and Pair Sundays - to go beyond October, involve food, and help engage more restaurants
- All campaigns need a time, a reason, and a behavior
- Seneca Lake Wine Trail doing Share and Pair Sundays
- Texas Wine Country doing “Come Over October Y’all”
- Most impactful event was an interview with Pink and sports figures, showing wine connects people across industries
The wine industry will need to invest to get more people involved, the “Got Milk” campaign spent $23M in the first year
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