With your help and support, we can magnify the positive story about wine.
By Karen MacNeil
Wine people are special people. We cherish coming together to share the beverage we love with food, laughter, friends and even strangers. No one has captured that magic better than Karen MacNeil, who, with her colleagues Kimberly Noelle Charles and Gino Colangelo, have created promotional frameworks for anyone to use. Karen, author of The Wine Bible and so much else, has donated her time to these efforts, which benefit us all if we become involved. Please do. —Jim Trezise, President, WineAmerica
It’s no secret that the wine industry is facing enormous difficulties, from alarmist claims by the World Health Organization to biased reporting to a growing anti-alcohol threat.
But I believe that, despite these difficulties, moderate wine consumption has a positive story to tell.
Telling that story is the mission behind Come Together — A Community for Wine Inc., a company founded last year by Kimberly Noëlle Charles, Gino Colangelo and me.
Share & Pair Campaign
Come Together has launched two impactful grassroots campaigns: Come Over October (now an annual event) and our new Spring campaign: Share & Pair Sundays.
The messages behind both campaigns are:
- Wine is a communal beverage that brings people together — a role it has had for thousands of years;
- Moderate wine consumption plays an authentic beneficial role in society, mitigating social isolation;
- Wine is a natural agricultural product, born of a respect for Nature and the environment;
- Wine protects rural communities, promoting jobs and tourism;
- Wine is food’s natural partner at the table; and
- Wine and food are among the most basic foundations for living well.
Share & Pair Sundays (www.shareandpairsundays.com) encourages consumers to get together on Sundays to enjoy wine, food and friends. Share & Pair Sundays begins March 23 (the first Sunday of Spring) and continues through May 25. Ten Sundays in all. But, of course, “Sunday” is also a state of mind, so Sharing and Pairing can happen any day of the week!
At a time when social isolation is at an all-time high, we believe that the simple act of sharing wine and food brings us together.
Get involved
The Share & Pair Sundays campaign is being activated by all sectors of the wine and hospitality industries, from trade groups to wineries large and small, to importers, wholesalers, retailers, individual restaurants, national chains, gourmet shops and grocery stores.
The Share & Pair team has created graphic assets from posters to POS materials that can be found on the campaign’s website and are free to use. Among the creative promotions currently being planned are in-store promotions of wine and food pairings, special wine dinner promotions in restaurants and hotels, food-and-wine tastings by wineries, as well as recipes and food pairing ideas in DTC wine shipments.
The Share & Pair Sundays messages are amplified by robust wine and food media and social media (@shareandpairsundays), along with donated advertising.
To date, major supporters include Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, Freixenet Mionetto, J. Lohr, Jackson Family Wines, Total Wine & More, Gary’s Wine and Marketplace, The Wine Group, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Crimson Wine Group, Peju Winery, Ponzi Vineyards, Far Niente, the Wine Enthusiast, VinePair, The Vintner Project, Wine Business Monthly, WineAmerica, Constellation Brands, the Napa Valley Vintners and many more.
Along with Kimberly and Gino, I encourage companies that would like to be involved to reach out to us at info@cometogetherforwine.com. With your help and support, we can magnify the positive story about wine.
Karen MacNeil
Karen MacNeil is the author of The Wine Bible and the CEO and creator of the digital newsletter WineSpeed. She is a speaker, consultant and content strategist, and has won numerous awards nationally and internationally.
