The Blog

We’re always keen to explore how best to use digital media to communicate our clients' wines. This was the driving force behind not only this experiment, but also the recent Drinks and Digital Media Summit (see blog post below). Our task was to make good use of Marcelo Papa, Casillero del Diablo’s winemaker, during his recent visit to the UK. So, in addition to putting him in front of key press and other opinion formers, we came up with the live web vid/twitter food and wine matching cook-off - #casillero on twitter, and for short. It worked like this - we sent two food bloggers (Signe Johansen, @scandilicious and Linda Williams, @goodshoeday) and wine blogger Louis Villard (@spiltwine) the challenge of creating dishes to perfectly match three of Marcelo’s wines. But it was a challenge with a twist - they had to recruit their twitter friends to help shape the menu. Having sent the wines out in advance to a number of twitter friends so they could participate from afar, the first live video was broadcast at 12.50 with Marcelo and Joe Wadsack tasting the wines with the bloggers. It was then fingers to the Blackberrys/iPhones/keyboards to create the dishes and source the materials. Louis even managed to source scallops from a local fishmonger via twitter. Using a hub site on Posterous - http://casillero.posterous.com - (an excellent resource, by the way) we then posted a combination of pictures, video and AudioBoo recordings to update our followers on progress as and when it happened. All these can still be found at the above link. Then, the cook-off. After six great dishes, ranging from scallops with black pudding to meatballs stuffed with stilton, @scandilicious was victorious with her pigeon breasts, parmesan mash, redcurrants and mole – a wonderful match with the Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon and a unanimous winner as voted by Marcelo, Thierry Laborde (Michelin-starred chef of @TheKitchenTL) and Carol Emmas of Harpers. So, how did this benefit our client? We wanted them to be early movers with the digital media community, including the twitterati. We also wanted to reach out to the bloggers – not only those specialising in wine, but also the more numerous and established foodies. I think both these objectives were achieved. To date, the videos have been watched over 2,600 times and the AudioBoo recording over 500 times – we think that speaks for itself. For us as an agency, the experiment gave us invaluable experience. Some things went perfectly, others not so well (wireless internet connection can be a real pain in the xxxx) but one thing is for sure – in this digital media world of instantaneousness, perfect planning, quick reactions and a calm hand are essential. Massive thanks to all our bloggers, chefs, twitterers and judges for taking part, and a big shout out to Rob McIntosh (@thirstforwine) for handling the techie side of things. Roll on the next one!