A discourse in the communications of wine w/ Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible & Come Over October

As the wine world stumbles through difficult times (in early 2026), Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible and co-founder of Come Over October, believes part of the disconnect stems from time. The fastness of the modern, social media fueled world and the slowness of wine. Her solution is to focus the narrative of wine with well-being and wine’s long-standing role as a beverage that brings people together. Detailed Show Notes: Karen’s background: author of The Wine Bible , writer, speaker, teacher Worried that a change in culture, to a faster one with social media (took off in 2012 when Facebook hit 1B active users and >50% of the population had smart phones), has left wine, a slower product, behind White wine’s appeal may be partly that it implies fastness Wine is slower to create (can take 3-5 years) and to consume (high acid, tannins for reds) Larger selection of beverages may also be competing for wine’s share, including functional beverages that are marketed as “mindful” Wrote an article, “Is wine really in the alcohol business?” on how wine is more than alcohol, but threaded in the culture of food, history, religion, and art Believes wine should promote the notion of wellbeing vs health, which includes better relationships from sharing wine with people Started Come Over October w/ Gino Colangelo and Kimberly Charles, PR professionals 2025: reached 2.9B media impressions, had 1,400 retail store promotions, raised $250k Sister campaign is Share and Pair Sundays - to go beyond October, involve food, and help engage more restaurants All campaigns need a time, a reason, and a behavior Seneca Lake Wine Trail doing Share and Pair Sundays Texas Wine Country doing “Come Over October Y’all” Most impactful event was an interview with Pink and sports figures, showing wine connects people across industries The wine industry will need to invest to get more people involved, the “Got Milk” campaign spent $23M in the first year Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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A discourse in the communications of wine w/ Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible & Come Over October is an episode from XChateau Wine Podcast by Robert Vernick.

This episode is 48:12 long.

This episode was published on Apr 28, 2026.

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