Virtual wine, beer, and liquor tastings might turn out to be the hallmark activity of the COVID-19 lockdown. Sales figures and consumer surveys indicate that some people are drinking more while hiding out at home; memes and other internet portrayals of the current moment take it for granted that casual drinking is way up. And while we’re all desperate to socialize with people outside our household, virtual tastings let us feel like we’re doing something other than sitting on the couch alone. Though virtual tastings existed before the pandemic, they’ve taken off in popularity since stay-at-home orders went into effect around the country, and many in the industry say they plan to make these events a permanent part of their business.
While wineries and other businesses initially set up virtual tastings as an adaptation to the current, temporary conditions of the pandemic, they may have accidentally hit on a way to boost viability and expand tastings beyond the traditional audience.
To try one out, my husband and I signed into Zoom at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night, after putting our daughter to bed and rushing to clean up the dinner dishes, to join a tasting with The Whiskey Library, a D.C.-based business that hosts educational whiskey events. We were able to taste a set of four scotch whiskies by Glenfiddich, led by a brand ambassador, while learning about the distillery, its history, and how the scotch is made. We compared tasting notes with other participants: caramel, smoke, peat, apple, and vanilla. I was immediately struck by how different it felt from the tastings I’d attended pre-pandemic. It was intimate and cozy. My husband and I chatted candidly about which of the offerings we liked best and had fun people-watching and seeing the reactions of the other folks on Zoom. I got up to get a glass of water without feeling self-conscious. My husband kept poking me under the table to make me laugh on camera.
Brian Thompson, co-founder of The Whiskey Library, says his company was founded after years of doing small private tastings for friends, and the virtual tastings started much the same way. “We started to host Zoom meetings with just our friends to enjoy whiskey we had or could easily share through contactless pickups from our homes,” Thompson said. “We then thought we could expand this to ticketed events where the proceeds could be donated to local charities supporting the hospitality industry workers, bartenders, servers, and cooks that have been impacted by the pandemic.” Before the stay-at-home orders, The Whiskey Library’s events were exclusively in-person: tastings at bars and distilleries around the D.C. area and private events for groups. “The pandemic put an immediate and abrupt halt to all of those events — shutting down all lines of business we offered,” Thompson said.
What’s happened to The Whiskey Library is just one example of what has happened all over the alcohol industry. “COVID-19 has upended the wine industry,” said Michael Kaiser, vice president of government affairs at Wine America, a national association for American wineries. Wineries, breweries, and distilleries, like many other businesses that previously relied on in-person customer interactions and live events such as tastings and parties, have been hit hard by efforts to minimize the damage of the coronavirus, such as lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders. Though liquor stores were allowed to remain open as essential businesses and alcohol retailers saw a big jump in sales at the start of the pandemic, with some jurisdictions changing up local laws to allow delivery of alcoholic beverages, most in the industry seem to agree: The boost in sales that came along with the lockdowns was great but nowhere near enough to meet normal sales revenue, a lot of which comes from tastings and large in-person events. “The biggest problem,” said Kaiser, “is that so many wineries actually just sell direct out of their tasting rooms and were not set up for shipping.” Breweries and distilleries face similar challenges. Though Virginia and Kentucky changed laws to allow distilleries to ship their products within the state, most aren’t able to sell unless they’re doing it in person. Three Washington, D.C., breweries have already permanently closed.
Now that many venues are opening again, they face operational restrictions, such as capacity limits. Texas, for example, has allowed wineries to reopen at only a quarter of normal capacity. Conor McCormack, executive director of winemaking at District Winery, says his winery has been open for a week or so with outdoor seating but has still received no word on when it’ll be able to resume bigger events such as those that make up a large part of its income. “The traditional tasting room experience may return at some point in the future,” said Kaiser, “but not in the short term.” At some wineries that have already reopened in California, plastic shields separate the guests from the person pouring, changing the nature of what is normally a fairly chatty and educational experience. And whether or not wineries, distilleries, and breweries are open for business, consumers may still shy away from visiting in person for a long time. District Winery, like many other wineries and vineyards, acted quickly to roll out virtual tastings and other events at the beginning of the lockdown. McCormack says that virtual tastings were never in his plans before the pandemic, but now that District Winery has incorporated them, they’ve been well-received: “We’ve had repeat customers coming back every weekend, looking forward to it,” he said. Other venues, such as D.C.’s Serenata and Maryland’s Big Cork Vineyards, have also seen their virtual tastings become immensely popular.
It’s not at all surprising that people trapped at home with nothing to do flocked to virtual tastings. A 2014 study found that 78% of millennials would rather spend money on experiences than objects, and 75% of them hoped to spend even more on experiences in the following year. A 2018 market research survey found that more than half of consumers prefer to drink at home than go out.
Virtual tastings also provide an entry point for people who might not otherwise attend a tasting. There are the obvious hurdles that a virtual tasting removes: hiring a babysitter, getting to a location, and finding a safe ride home. Anecdotally, McCormack says he’s noticed more single individuals attending District Winery’s virtual tastings. He says it’s much rarer for lone individuals to attend live events, where almost everyone comes with a date, friend, or group. Thompson says he’s actually noticed the opposite at The Whiskey Library tastings and has seen more couples than usual. In either case, it seems that virtual tastings are expanding the customer base, growth that these businesses can build on once the pandemic is over.
If you live in, say, Alaska, virtual events open up a bunch of different experiences that you might not otherwise have access to. But even for those of us in the D.C. area who don’t want for a wide variety of events, virtual tastings open up opportunities previously out of reach. Adam Safir, who co-hosts with friends a podcast about whiskey called Whisky Snobs of Lower Moco, has attended virtual tastings with The Whiskey Library and others and said, “I’ve had the opportunity to talk to and ask questions of some of the rock stars of the spirits industry, from all across the globe — including master blenders, distillery managers, and award-winning authors.” He said, “It’s also been a fantastic opportunity to connect with virtual friends who I’ve gotten to know through social media whiskey groups but otherwise had never actually met.”
McCormack gave me one example of a bachelorette party with participants spread across the country that recently conducted a virtual tasting with District Winery. Each member of the party received the same tasting samples via mail ahead of the event (local participants could also get them via curbside pickup). This is obviously complicated by COVID-19, but if you’ve ever been part of a bachelorette party with all your friends from college, now scattered across the country by professional and family obligations, you’ll understand the post-pandemic appeal. In terms of attending live events, logistics can be a nightmare, and plane tickets are expensive. The Whiskey Library has also conducted events for people as far away as Europe. Thompson said, “We have partnered with other companies that have the licenses to ship to these locations, so the only limit is the time it takes for us to coordinate.”
As for whether or not I’ll continue to attend virtual events, even before the pandemic, it was hard to get me to leave my house. I’m prone to that little surge of joy when someone cancels plans. My house is a pretty nice place to be. The people I love are here. I can wear sweatpants and thick socks. There’s a garden, a cat, a comfy couch. If I want a drink or a snack, all I have to do is walk a few feet to the kitchen. But if you want to maintain relationships with the people you love, you have to do things with them — beyond streaming shows from the couch. Thompson says I’m not the only person being poked by her husband under the table. “We love seeing everyone on the screen talking, laughing, and just generally being happy during these times,” he said. At the end of our virtual tasting experience, I felt like my husband and I had an experience that brought us a little closer together. And we didn’t even have to put on real pants to do it.
Most of the time, humans are pretty set in their ways — we buy the same brands, go to the same stores, do the same things in our free time. If you’ve ever been through a major life change, you might already know that one big change can bring a host of other, smaller changes along with it. If you’ve ever registered a change of address with the post office, you’ve probably also received a packet of coupons and promotions in the mail a few days later. Advertisers want to reach us during a big change like a move because we’re more open to trying new things, often because we’re forced to. So we experiment, and then our habits reform and calcify around the new routines, products, and practices we’ve adopted, some of which will remain a part of our lives for many years to come.
The pandemic has forced us to get creative about socializing and entertainment, and some of these changes will become routine. Though I do at times miss sitting in a deafeningly packed bar for happy hour or under an umbrella on a sunny patio, a cool glass sweating in hand while eavesdropping on the conversations of strangers seated close by, I know that one day, all that will return. But I suspect that virtual dining and drinking experiences will still be with us in some form, even then — one of the little changes that come along with the big.
“Just in general, I think it’s going to be more of a common, accepted thing to do,” McCormack said. As far as District Winery’s virtual tastings go: “We will absolutely continue to do this.”
Sandra Long is a writer and editor in the Washington, D.C., area.
