What do the following wine event listings have in common? A Merryvale wine dinner in Rancho Mirage, California; a "Rainbow of Reds" tasting in Victoria, BC; and a "Cooking & Quaffing" course at the Cookery School in London? Besides offering interesting tastings and pairings to the public, these disparate events are all listed on a website called LocalWineEvents.com, a mammoth international wine, food, spirits and beer events calendar that is free to consumers, restaurants, non-profits, educational institutions and the wine trade.

"LocalWineEvents.com is a great comprehensive listing of wine events across the country and the world," said Gwen McGill, director of public relations for Icon Estates in Napa. "It's easy to search, and it's easy to post events. It also provides good information about lodging and dining, and even recommends local restaurants that have a corkage fee."

Founded in 1999 by Eric Orange, based out of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the site is the only comprehensive listing of its kind to date, receiving more than 10 million hits per month. "We're nearing 63,000 events posted and will cross 50,000 members signed up in the near future," said Orange. In the beginning, Orange saw a need for an online gathering place where businesses could post events free of charge. He started LocalWineEvents.com but had to hustle to find ads to keep the site running. Fortunately, Google eventually came a-knocking. "What changed was Google AdSense," said Orange. "I was one of the first ones to use it." Google sent out a "spider" or "bot" to gauge relevance, and the ad revenue took off. The ads are food- and drink-related and in many cases also "city" specific, so they are a perfect match for visitors. "Soon, we started to earn a paycheck every month. It enabled me to stop worrying about finding ads and links."

According to Google's website, "AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, unobtrusive Google ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on your site, you'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages." AdSense has worked well for LocalWineEvents.com. "They feed very relevant, targeted ads," said Orange.

LocalWineEvents.com is visited by a wide spectrum of visitors, including Michael Dellar, a Napa Valley winegrower and restaurateur. "I'm finding all sorts of interesting tastings and activities. It is great to know what is happening around town and in other cities when I travel."

"I like the fact that the events are all over the map, in terms of type: in-store tastings, serious seminars, fun dinners," said W.R. Tish, a New York-based wine journalist. "Some events are free, some are pricey, but at least all the options are in one place."

New York Leads Listings

Presently, the area with the most listings is New York City, followed by California, Ohio and Texas. There are numerous Chicago and Napa Valley listings, and Vancouver, BC, is also well represented. Though mostly based in North America, the international arena is growing, with listings throughout the world. "I find the site very easy to use," said Sherri Maddick of Sherri Gilman & Associates. "With one particular client, Le Titi De Paris (a renowned Chicago area French restaurant) I use the enhancement add-on for two wine dinners each month."

The site also provides an introduction to consumers about lesser-known areas. "I'm going to post our events for the year on the site just as soon as we finish bottling," said Tim Sauer, winemaker at Livermore Valley Cellars in Livermore, California. "I'll probably provide a link on our webpage to the site as well. I like the fact that it has the events broken down by region, not just general categories. I especially like that they actually had a 'Livermore Valley' section. We seem to get lost in the shuffle a lot of the time, so the fact that we are listed is great."

Public relations firms also seem to latch on to LocalWineEvents.com once they learn about it. "Eric Orange is providing a tremendous service to all aspects of the wine industry: the wineries, the restaurants, the public," said Lee Healy, of Lee Healy Marketing Communications in Newport Beach, California. "It's a great idea, with great execution; and they're always working to make it better. I use it to list my clients' wine dinners whenever possible."

Tyfanni Peters, of Santa Rosa, California's Wolf Communications, has used the site several times for promoting events that appeal to folks who enjoy wine and are looking for fun activities when traveling to Sonoma or Napa counties. She also likes the speed of LocalWineEvents.com. "It only takes a few minutes to post an event-and it's free, unless you add extras like graphics or the ability to sell tickets online; and even those options are affordable," said Peters.

"LocalWineEvents.com has a unique package because everything is so localized," said Jane Hodges Young, a public relations wine consultant based in Sonoma. "Eric Orange also offers an email notification service to alert consumers when new events are listed in geographic areas they've shown an interest in. He also exercises consistent quality control to make sure everything is correct."

Online Ticket Sales

Another powerful function of LocalWineEvents.com is the ability to sell e-tickets to wine events, an option that most customers choose. Orange sold over $50,000 worth of tickets in 2005 and more than $500,000 since LocalWineEvents.com began.

Wineries as well as other hosts find this ticketing aspect helpful. "I use LocalWineEvents.com for all of our events, whether it is a group event or just here at my winery," said Stephanie Trotter-Zacharia, of Calistoga's Casa Nuestra Winery & Vineyards. "I also send the link to my customers who are planning a visit out here. It has the most complete listing of wine-related events for all the destinations." The interface is easy to use, and the ticket-selling options can be utilized without having to set up a credit card account.

One company's vice president of marketing said they used the website as a tool to determine a particular market's number of wine events for consumers or trade, allowing them to know if their customers in a market were saturated with brand marketing events or if there was a unique opportunity to reach their audience.

LocalWineEvents.com is certainly an example of how technology, innovation, a good idea and commerce can all intersect in the wine world for the greater good. wbm

Bob Ecker is a freelance wine and travel writer based in Napa, and is also President of the Bay Area Travel Writers.

Note: For those who work in the wine industry and wish to stay abreast of upcoming seminars, workshops, continuing education classes, and other exclusively trade-related wine events, also visit WineBusiness.com's comprehensive resource, "Industry Events."