Event is occurring July 11-14, with the forums (the public forum for wine offers, the Monopole Crü forum for non-wine and some unique wine offers) launched around 7:30 am Pacific Time on Friday, staying open through end of day (late) Monday the 14th, so you all have plenty of time to shop! All forums/offers will be present/available at the time of launch, and throughout the weekend, after which time I will close them
As has been discussed a couple times over the course of the year, I’m most certainly open to hosting a mini-BerserkerDay similar to our Quarantine Relief event of 2020, just to help boost morale for winemakers and wine lovers with a bit of additional commerce, consumers helping the struggling winemakers/winery owners, hopefully getting some great deals at the same time - the typical BerserkerDay event but smaller, more community-driven.
As always, the concern is timing. Now through end of August is weather-prohibitive, so we can either schedule for September/October, or hold it in the summer with the clear indication that nothing ships until the weather is safe.
While I sometimes pause at asking opinions, as quite often if you ask for opinions from 100 Berserkers you get 300 opinions, this requires discussion and collective planning to make a decision. CLEARLY our winemaking/winery friends need help, and also clearly many consumers (in most industries) are feeling a bit of a pinch from economic uncertainties, so I invite both groups’ input.
God knows I don’t need anymore wine but am willing to help out some of my favorite producers (or ones I previously skipped out on)
No preference on timing and I personally have no issues in waiting for shipments (most of the regular BD shipments are 2-3 months later for me anyway). However, I would say that there are a lot of “vintage of the decade” releases coming up so it might be better to have this in July.
As you know, I’m in favor, and I’d be willing to organize.
I would propose two mini events.
Domestic Mini-BD: Thursday, July 3rd - Friday July 4th
Retailer Mini-BD: Friday, Oct 3rd - Sat Oct 4th
Call the Domestic one Berserker Independence Day or some such.
Domestic wineries could hold orders for fall shipping and offer customers the option of including any fall releases in shipments for no extra ship charge. Certain wineries could probably also offer hospitality perks if they were so inclined. I do think that getting the wine sold prior to harvest would dramatically lessen the workload on the wineries as they can outsource shipping but usually like to be fully engaged with customers during the offer period.
Retailers will be positioning themselves for OND and should have a better inventory and will be able to quickly turn around shipments and savvy ones can set themselves up for building customer relationships for the holidays. This also creates an opportunity for the Europhiles to have fun shopping.
What about an August/September time frame calling it a Berserker Harvest Days? This way it is right in line for shipping times all throughout the USA and can give them ample time to come up with some inventory blowout deals as the prepare for bottling and barreling.
Thanks as always for thinking of everyone’s well being and looking to work as a community to help people succeed. I really appreciate being a part of WB for many reasons, but that is a big one.
I would second Larry’s thoughts, that September is always tough. Even if fruit isn’t imminent, there’s a mountain of cleaning to do. Plus, many of our Berserker supporters don’t seem to mind having a few weeks to clear some cellar space before the wines begin to arrive.
Bastille Day is a Monday, but we could do a mini-BD on the 11-12th, and then storm the Bastille on Monday
So July looks relatively good, with the obvious (and clearly stated) caveat that shipping may likely not happen until late September or October, yeah?
I like the July 4/5 idea but because the holiday falls on a weekend the traffic will be very low, as it will be low for both reasons - holiday AND weekend. We can do near the holiday, and still call it a Berserker Independence Day if that’s worth it, but not sure we need any clever naming on situations such as this, where the reason for the event is name enough
I’d only do 1 other BD if at all. It’s definitely going to water down the OG BD. I like having 1 per year, but also I liked the old forums more, so what do I know. Maybe give it a shot.
