New York Wine Expo 2012

We were lucky enough to be able to join some of you at the New York Wine Expo this past weekend; and what a weekend it was. Thousands of wine lovers (and some more ‘likers’), sampling hundreds of wineries’ newest offerings to see what they may like to pick up a bottle of, or stock for their store (Sunday was trade only).

On Saturday, we were lulling around the show, enjoying the odd tipple – more on that later – when we noticed that everyone was taking pictures of the bottles to remember. We couldn’t just stand idly by and watch this happen – Corkbin to the rescue. After the 4th or 5th person that we introduced to Corkbin (they all loved it!), we decided to throw together a promotion for Sunday. 12 hours later – 4 people on the ground handing out 1,000 coasters repurposed as flyers and on Sunday – dozens of people around the show floor could be seen taking hundreds of wine images, making tasting notes and saving the list of wines they want to stock for their stores.

Ad-hoc Corkbin Promo Kit!

Hopefully, Corkbin proved useful to everyone who discovered it on Sunday – and we’d love to hear any feedback that our new users have.

Now – back to the show.

The array of wines on display was fantastic – no corner of the world went unrepresented! Peru had a stand with multiple wineries, as did India – two regions I certainly had never tried. (I feel like India may not have been well-represented, I saw a number of people getting new glasses because they couldn’t get the taste of the Indian reds out!)

There were a couple of wines that really really stood out.

Firstly, the Pronto Lambrusco – from Italy, and made in a traditional style that is no longer exported. It was more reminiscent of a light Balsamic vinegar than a typical Lambrusco, but paired perfectly with the italian food provided.

Pronto Lambrusco on Corkbin

Secondly, the Green Griffin Diamond-themed Champagne. It was a delicious, light bottle but with so much character outside of the wine that it might just make it in the hyper-competitive world that is high-street champagne.

Green Griffin Champagne on Corkbin

Every 500th bottle contains an actual 1-carat diamond; assumedly not in the bottle! And the fancy beading around the bottle, comes off to make a bracelet which is surprisingly believable-looking. They are a recent startup in France and best of luck to them!

Very pretty Diamond-themed champagne. Balling!

The App

The conference had an iPhone App all of it’s very own provided by GenieMobile – their usual 9 panel home screen with features that seem like they should be awesome, but nothing quite meets the mark. For anybody who has been to CES, you’ll be quite familiar. The Wine Event app market (and Events apps in general) are proving to be difficult to crack!

That said, it did provide a useful list of wine merchants and I did star off merchants that I loved (as well as adding their Wine to Corkbin ofcourse)!

Lots of wine meets beautiful NY Skyline!

It was fantastic to meet some Corkbin fans at the conference & hope to see more of you at future Expos!

The Corkbin Team