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This year I was asked to be a part of the Russian River Valley Winegrowers Millennial Council.  Along with several other wine industry people who work at wineries in the Russian River Valley, we are a committee of young adults who have the task of helping transition the Russian River Valley into the next generation of wine — Wine buyers, winemakers, winery owners, etc.

Our first task was to throw a party….

Not just any party, but an event that showcases what makes the Russian River Valley stand out among most other wine regions – The focus on single vineyard wines.  Thus Single Night was born.  I will go into more detail later, but Single Night will be a night where other young wine lovers can go and be educated on where there favorite wine comes from.  In addition, there will be some amazing food, music and other special promotions that I cannot discuss at this moment.  My favorite part about this whole event (other than the fact that I get the honor to help out with promotions) is that there will be 8 different “Adventure Lots”  -  Auction lots that are much different than any of the boring ones I have heard about or been to in the past.  These Adventure Lots are made for groups of people, thus would have to be bidded on by a group of friends.

I am not sure about you, but I KNOW my group of friends would love to go wine tasting and get to go on a specialized hot air balloon ride with one of my favorite winemakers….

More details to come!!  For now, find us on Twitter and Facebook:  @NextGenWine or Facebook.com/NextGenerationWine!

I was just listed on Carol Phillips’ blog Millennial Marketing as one of her “Ten Women Writers Under 30.”  Carol is an adjunct professor of Marketing at The University of Notre Dame, president of a consulting firm in Chicago and a woman I connected with through Twitter.  Since she is a teacher she probably deals with Millennial more than I do (the average age of my friends on Facebook is 35 and I am guessing it is actually a bit older on Twitter because my everyday friends are not tweeting) and is a great resource for the latest stats on trends about my Generation.

During my first Project Y-ine ‘trip’  I discovered that people in their twenties are largely influenced by their friends and that world of mouth is the number one reason for them to purchase anything, not just beer and wine.  You can read more on my study on Palate Press, an online wine magazine under “Why Y-ine? The Post-Journey Report.“  Women in general talk to each other more about deals they get, etc. so it is easy to see that word of mouth travels even further in our lives.   In Carol’s post she discussed a new study on Millennial Women conducted by Radar Research for PopSugar Media which showcases just how important us young women should be to brands.

Gen Y women are also influential brand advocates. When they discover a brand they love, 61% said they “share it with as many friends as possible” and are likely to share it across a spectrum of platforms, including email, social networks, online reviews, blog comments, SMS/MMS, phone and face-to-face.

Women in general already have much of the buying power & influence in every industry (Every marketer has head the line “80% of all consumer purchasing decisions are made by women”). Take that and combine it with a generation that makes just as much, if not more than our male counterparts and we are truly powerhouse consumers.

I am sure you all have heard…. But I am in Tampa, FL about to partake on the largest and most exciting journey of my life …  Project Y-ine is a social media expose that myself and Ashley, the Beer Wench have created.

We are traveling around the United States, conducing interviews with members of Generation Y that are over the legal drinking age (aka people 21-33).  The project is an attempt to get into their heads and find out what goes on up there when they go to purchase wine or beer at the store. To truly do a study, unlike any other, that focuses on the next generation of wine/beer drinkers.

This first leg of the project takes us from Tampa, through NOLA, Houston & Austin, TX, Southern New Mexico, Phoenix, LA and back up to Northern California — aka The South!

But, you can read all about that here: http://www.projectyine.com.

See you all in a city near you!

Yes, I am a Millennial.  I may get made fun of by my fellow wine blogging friends for being young, but I am the epitome of a Millennial Wine Drinker (this also includes not taking the time to edit my posting to realize that I meant to say epitome instead of epiphany).  Okay, well maybe since I did grow up in Sonoma County my palette is a bit more solicited than an average middle American youth’s palette.  Then again, maybe not.  I judge wine on the experience that I have within the setting that I am drinking the wine (hence why this wine blog is about my experience rather than the tasting notes of the wine) and I will even admit to purchasing wine because of an animal on the label, a clever slogan or even a bright colors (Fat Bastard Chardonnay fits all three of these criteria)

Back when I was working on the Clos du Bois campaign in 2007 (see some of my work here) I did extensive research on Millennial’s and their wine consumption habits, coming to the consultation that if you do not have at least a portion of your Marketing Plan that talks to the younger generation then you are missing out on the big picture.

While we may not all be purchasing ultra-premium wines and joining in on high end wine club memberships, we are wanting to learn about wine and are a very passionate and social group.

We have left the toga parties in our past (some of us) and are going to and throwing dinner parties where bringing a bottle of wine and a knowledge of what to pair it with is in full regard.  We have grown up with advertising, so flashy gimmicks that I mentioned above are not the way to win us over.   We are eager to learn more, but of course we want our teachings to be fun and informative.

I don’t want to say that wineries must cater to us, but there are some things that you could do to embrace a younger generation (as well as others you may be trading down during this recession).  Lisa de Bruin had started with some good ideas of how wineries could work with wine bloggers and I think that same thinking could be applied to the Millennial generation:

Maybe a lower end wine club with deals for those entering in to their first wine club membership?

****Or maybe just a deal for one wine blogging Millennial who has not found the right Wine Club to be a part of*****

Picture taken by Em Mota.

Or a social media strategy that gets your consumers active in contests and promotions of your wine?  *Cheers to Twisted Oak Winery and El Jefe for showing us that wine can be a lot of fun

I believe that the brands that acknowledge Millennials will have a great long term strategy.

The Zinquisition said it best in the blog post about the Press Democrat’s atricle on how us Millennial’s seemed to ruin the Barrel Tasting for some older visitors, in Madcap Millennials Long Live the Queen

“Think how far your marketing dollars go when the crowd gathers at your winery and HAS A GOOD TIME and then spreads the word via their own circle of friends electronically!”

An article in last month’s Time magazine is all about the Millennials (aka. Gen Y; aka Net Generation; aka “Me-Gen”; aka the biggest generation with the most spending power sine the Boomers).

The actual magazine has many more statistics that cannot be found online,  like how 92% of older Millenials (18-31) think that because they work hard, they deserve to splurge on luxury items for themselves, such as shoes, purses, jeans, sunglasses or haircare products.

Retailers need to take note: If you want to get into a boomer’s pocketbook, you’ve got to win her daughter over first.  Nothing is off-limits anymore. Young adults influence 88% of household apparel purchases. It is not all about the demographic target anymore, brands need to start looking at the psychographic demographic as well.

Read the article online and find out more about how my generation is changing the way you all do things….