As Bob Hoskins used to say, “It’s good to talk” (non-British friends please see here). We agree. And it’s a sentiment that sits behind a few of our latest activities.
First up, there’s wine events. Now I know that the primary reason for a wine fair is to taste some wine – and believe me, we’re getting very good at that. But it’s also a chance to catch up with old friends in the wine world – and make some new ones.
So it is that this week we were at Vinos Radicales, an excellent gathering of eclectic wines organised by wine journalist Carmen Fuentes. There we caught up with Carmen from Altolandon, Joan from Edetària – the winery behind our I Tant wines – Luis from Bodegas Verum, Bryan from MacRobert & Canals, Vidal and Alicia from Vidal Soblechero, and our old friend Jens Riis, who some of you may remember featured in an interview we did a while back.
We also struck up a few new acquaintances and encountered some very interesting wines that we hope to have more to say about very soon. We’ll be repeating the endeavour at Barcelona Wine Week in just over a week, so watch this space for announcements about new wines coming to our list.
Secondly, we’re heading off on another reconnaissance trip this week with a visit to Alicante. Being an online business is all well and good, but nothing beats getting out into the real world to better understand our audience and meet people at the heart of the communities we cater to. There’s no fixed objective. We just want to talk – and more importantly, listen – to the people we think might be interested in our project and see what we can do to better reach them and offer a better service for people who want to get into Spanish wine.
We’ve put together a packed agenda and will be meeting new and existing contacts across the region. But if you have any suggestions for where we should go (wine bar tips welcome!) or who we should meet, let us know – we may still manage to squeeze a bit more into the trip.
And finally, still on the theme of talking, we’ve just introduced a new feature on our website. Regular visitors to our website (all of you, surely?) may have noticed a small green “message” icon in the bottom right-hand corner.
It’s a new tool that enables you to chat directly with us if you have a question about our website, our service, or wine in general. There are only two of us, so we won’t be online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But we’re going to do our best to make the experience as immediate as possible and not keep you waiting around for a reply.
You’re welcome to go ahead and test the feature to see how it works and whether or not you like it. Feedback is always appreciated. Initially, we envisage it as a place for people who have general questions for us. But we may also start to look at taking orders via chat for those who are less inclined to use our online check-out. Let us know if that would be of interest.
After all, for some people, nothing beats the modern convenience of browsing and ordering online. But for others, it’s still good to talk.
Cheers!