What comes next?

That is, fittingly, the focus of our last content post of the year, as we turn the corner from inventorying this past year’s progress to executing on our learnings for the year ahead.

But I should warn you. There’s a catch and a little bit of a caveat to what I’m about to say.

Here goes.

There needs to be some wiggle room for what comes next.

Yes, we have plans and ideas that are solidly grounded in experience, conversations, and requests for what’s actually useful when it comes to data and wine.

But, as we learned with extreme clarity this year, what we think is going to happen is not necessarily what happens. What Enolytics was supposed to be when we started is not what Enolytics is now.

That’s a good thing. Doing something different involves a fair amount of failing fast, iterating, and coming back smarter and with more relevancy.

It’s the same situation with this “what comes next” list. Although we think now that these three things are at the top of the list, we’re also allowing for a good dose of wiggle room.

How to Help Small Wineries

Time for some creativity here. It’s true that many smaller wineries don’t have the budget for research that involves data buys even though they too can certainly benefit from the insights; and it’s also true that we won’t try to undercut the value of our partners’ data. It’s time to find the sweet spot in between these two truths.

Research

Enolytics provides analysis and research. It’s what we do. But it’s nice to also be on the flip side, as subjects of research by others in the industry, whether that’s MWs in England, WSET students in South Africa, self-identified “data nerds” in Madison, Wisconsin, or everyone in between. We’ve realized two things as a result. First, we’re learning what has piqued their interest in terms of practical applications of our work and, second, we’re recommitting to the value that our analyst team and data partners can add to the progress and future of our industry.

European Possibilities

Partly it’s the concentration of major wine-producing regions and countries within limited space, and partly it’s their global perspective on selling wine. What it means is that wine businesses in Europe are under pressure to differentiate, and distinguish themselves from competitors who are “close” geographically and otherwise. Consumer-focused data can do that.

What about you?

Do you have data priorities for 2018? What are they? Do you also have opinions on our list, above?

I’d love to hear them.

As always, thank you for reading.