Napa Valley Wineries Who Tweet – Not Many

As a frequent traveler to wine country, a hunter of wine values and bargains, a wine blogger, and a member of Twitter, I recommend to all Napa Valley wineries, you should Tweet. Don’t just take my advice, read the cover story in this week’s Time Magazine on Twitter and read in the current issue of Business Week, Jack and Suzy Welch’s article on “Why We Tweet.” I joined Twitter in March and my only regret is that I did not start sooner. The payoff is big in many ways.

I checked to see how many Napa Valley Wineries are currently on Twitter. In the “Find People” link on Twitter, I put in the keyword “Winery” and sorted through about 200 wineries and found exactly 20 Napa Valley wineries and 2 in Carneros registered on Twitter. Amazingly, only a handful of these wineries are using Twitter frequently and one small Napa Valley winery, Casa Nuestra, is on the cutting edge. Casa Nuestra at the moment has 560 “Followers” and the winery has made over three hundred Tweets. A Follower is one who decides to follow someone on Twitter and receive any Tweets they send out. A tweet is 140 characters of information.

I am currently following several wineries and influential wine folks. Not all Tweets from the wineries and from people I am following contain pertinent information for my interests, so I scan quickly and find the useful Tweets. Here are some examples that I consider valuable Tweets from wineries.

From Casa Nuestra:
“Vineyard crew was hard at work all day getting the little clusters even sunlight – the Riesling vineyard is coming along especially well!”

“Did a barrel tasting of our 08 Reds… the Reserve Cab is amazing… already complex, sophisticated, and elegant. Can’t wait!!”

From Flora Springs:
“Happy Memorial Day weekend!! A case of Pinot Grigio is only $100 this weekend!! It’s a can’t miss deal!!”

From BV
“Perfect for Spring…2007 Beaulieu Vineyard Carneros Chardonnay gets a 90 point rating from Wine Spectator!”

Just as important on Twitter is who one chooses to follow (Following). There are many key wine industry leaders, wine writers, and wine bloggers on Twitter. They often reveal breaking news or suggest interesting ideas. It would benefit any winery to follow the influential wine people who Tweet. Who are they? Check the the blog of Dale J. Cruse for the “12 Must Follow Wine People on Twitter” In case you are interested, you can follow me as well, joewinetraveler.