What possible reason would you have to go to a virtual wine fair? As @MarkOldman pointed out on Twitter, there's no spit bucket. As @JFouts mentions, the bread sticks are virtual, too. And as we all know, there's no virtual tasting plugin, either. So, why would you go to a wine fair, where there's no wine to taste?

One reason I would go is just to see what the heck they're up to there. I get emails daily from sites whose names I don't even remember joining saying "it's been 1.7 years since your last visit" or something like that. But maybe that's just me, trying every technology I see, joining every site. You can get a free badge for by going here.

I think one very interesting aspect of a virtual trade show is that it brings together thousands of wine and spirits professionals (and oenophiles) worldwide. You need not travel or pay for lodging and visiting the fair is free. Why would you not go there and chat with the likes of Randall Grahm or Craig Camp, both well-known California and Oregon wine producers (and both have done much, much more than "just" make wine). Sure you can talk to them on Twitter or Facebook, but at the Wine Fair you can make an appointment with exhibitors and chat with them via text, audio and or video without the 140 character limit. Or, just do a fly-by of a booth or two, such as Blue Poles Vineyard, in Australia, and look at their videos, grab some info on wines, exchange (virtual) business cards, see what they just finished harvesting.

The idea of the virtual wine fair is to assemble producers, importers, distributors and buyers from all over at one "venue". What you do with the connections you might make is up to you as a visitor or an exhibitor. As an exhibitor, you would also benefit from exposure, first before the fair in articles like this, with links to you. Then during the fair, by meeting a lot of visitors. Finally, all during the year, the podcasts and articles will again point people to your site and your products.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens this year, and to talking to everyone on our Wine Fair Talk Show.

Disclosure: I work for the producers of Wine Fair 2011 and I think what they're doing is of interest to the wine community.

The web is changing, often for the better, sometimes, not so much. I'm weary of the use of "because I can" technology. Not just Flash, but Ajax and the increased bandwidth we enjoy today are changing the web experience and too frequently getting in the way of it.

A few years ago, I had the priviledge of working with Paul Pontalier and the team at Château Margaux. Everyone I met at Margaux was charming, generous and intelligent and I was delighted to spend time there talking to them about their site, which was based on Flash and .NET technologies at that time. At the time we made a few small adjustments and they eventually moved to a less edgy design.  I am recalling this now because of one particular discussion I had there with Paul and Corinne and I think my point is still valid today.

The Guided Tour

When you go visit Margaux or most other properties, you are on a guided tour. The vast majority of visitors to a web site do not go there for a guided tour. In fact, isn't the whole point of today's web to personalize the experience? It's great to have a large gallery of high-definition photos and videos. Do you want to wait while they load, or would you like to find what you came for without a musical spectacle? I like to have a door that I can go in if I want to look at those. But what if I've already been there and I just want to know how the 1999 is doing? Or maybe someone from the press is writing an article and wants to know who the second winemaker is or some detail such as how to spell a name? Every sexy design feature I have ever found on any web site could just as easily have had an entry and an exit. By the way, since bookmarks don't work, they should be built in to the navigation so that you can save them on the site.

There is such a thing as too sexy

I think we're losing this battle to the overly cosmetic designs. I don't really want to see sites that bat their eyes at me, which is the equivalent of those idiotic menus that move when you try to click something. Sure, elegance and a sense of mystery is needed for the luxury wines, but is this any reason to have the practical information is less obvious places? That's like pretending elegant ladies don't ever go to the bathroom. These menus are also problematic because while they work fine on the designer's screen, many of them do not track the mouse properly resulting in having to keep racing around to keep the text or icon from hiding behind some cute facade. Designers also always have large screens and some sites when viewed on some screens lost the bottom lin of navigation! "No matter, we're not aiming at people who don't have a big screen."

At least once a year, someone in the wine business trots out: "Look at Petrus. They don't even have a site!" I don't see that as something to brag about, but then I'm certainly not the target audience of such a wine. When I read these lines I think to myself, "I must be an old curmudgeon!" until I remember that every survey of opinion I have seen on forums about web sites, not just wine but any sites has the majority of votes "better without Flash" and "prefer not to see opening autostart music and animation". I can only add that it shouldn't be so hard to make a user-friendly Flash or Ajax site but I think few people, whether designers or their customers, have followed the best advice ever given: "Put yourself in the shoes of a visitor, the kind of visitor you are building the site for."  Over the past 15 years, I've never changed my philosophy: the site you (think you) want is not necessarily the site you need.