I received an email from an owner/winemaker today, one who sat with @Greg_McClellan and @Jorge_Henriquez at the Massanois portfolio tasting yesterday, stating he still didn’t understand what Wine Berserkers was. He looked at the site and said ‘there was nowhere that quickly explained what I was looking at’, and this was an interesting comment, one that threw me for a loop, as I presume anyone who finds it knows it is a massive discussion forum of all things wine and wine-adjacent, yet here’s at least one person who was confused AFTER talking with two seasoned veterans and then looking himself.
I asked @Shawnda_H as well, since she’s been working with Lodi wineries lately (this winemaker is in Lodi, New York!) and she came up with her ‘layperson’ explanation, which I found quite interesting:
"For a winery it’s a tool to gather market intel on their wine. The WB community of wine-centric folk talk about wine 24/7 therefore it’s a resource to discover what’s being said about their wines. Wine competitions may give them “a score”, but WBers give useful information and detail they can actually use and guide their marketing and perhaps even their winemaking. A database (like CellarTracker) is data, but a community (like WB) turns data into knowledge, power.
But overall, to me, WB is a big University where the professors, the students and the parents (lurkers) are all learning. There are clubs (for things like politics), recruiters (wineries), and life-long learners (wine geeks). And for some reason you’ve done a good job of having professors and counselors there, too, who are happy to shepherd and guide newbies on their journey. And I’ll end with it has its share of troublemaker students. But its a place where even the problem-children, neurodiverse and ADHD kids are welcome and contribute to the overall experience. LOL"
Not sure that’s a ‘quick explanation’, necessarily, but it ties into a number of metaphor-like descriptions that are interesting to someone (like me) who is so firmly entrenched in WB that I can’t accurately explain WHAT it is…
Might be a fun exercise to get some further thoughts on this - what’s the best Wine Berserkers ‘elevator speech’?
WineBerserkers is a forum for people who want to connect with wine on a deeper level. Berserkers have built an online ecosystem that encompasses wine, wine travel, epicurean exploits, farming practices, and a host of other things. Berserkers especially crave a direct connection to the producer, and are willing to support that connection.
Elevator Speech:
Want to reach thousands of wine lovers that crave a direct connection with the producer? Join the WineBerserkers online community.
I think this is actually pretty darn good as a summary of WB. Recognizable to those who have spent some time here, for sure. Maybe a bit too metaphor-ish and WTF-ish for a complete newbie. So much of the usefulness and the vibe and the enjoyment of WB is picked up by the experience.Good question.
@Jim_Stewart , it’s like you know me. LOL Truly, though, one could write a thousand true sentences but not convey what WB is, at least not to all the different types of its community members. A couple of examples: It’s an online community where wine enthusiasts share and learn from one another. It’s a place where free-speech and differing opinions create camaraderie like only wine can do.
I do like metaphor because it’s a language that, like art, communicates when there is no direct or linear translation to something. Listen, I’m admittedly not a forum person and only a baby-geek. But this is how I see WB. Also admittedly, an elevator explanation could be far more succinct.
I mean, Todd can’t respond to “What is WB” with “IYKYK” and a wink. Although maybe he does?
The university analogy seems pretty accurate to me.
My wife likes to call it Winder(a la Tinder) because I used WB to setup a dinner with fellow Berserkers in Sydney, AU back in 2019 when we were there on vacation.
A forum where a bunch of wine nerds discuss wine topics and share their knowledge and opinions. As a winery, it is an interesting place to get some market feedback from the small percentage of the market that are nerdy enough to post on a online forum (in other words, WB doesn’t represent the entire market, but likely represents the most dedicated portion of the market).
You know when you first join here it is intimidating and can sometimes still be as my tasting notes are no where near as eloquent as others who pull singular characteristics out of wine. WB has added more depth to my collection finding board favorites and many other wines that get discussed here. It is a great sounding board to discuss where are wines are at, our storage or better yet buying problems and there is a definite community of people willing to help others.
WineChatter had probably been a better name for what is is…
Why was it called Beserkers?
Wine Bersersker sounds more like a group of dads that only has the opportunity to see each other once a year and therefore gets embarrassingly drunk on some sort of weekend trip (but now have the money to drink proper stuff).
