Greg Sherwood MW: Is the wine trade being overwhelmed by technology?

In the good old days when I started out, the wine trade was incredibly well versed at “switching off” and taking a well-earned break for some all-important introspection, reflecting on what had been as much as what might be coming over the horizon in the future.

The post-January, new year wine sales ushered in the quiet month of February and school half-term where everyone either disappeared off to altitude for some European skiing to recharge their batteries, or, if like me, you preferred a sunnier disposition, you hot-tailed it down to the Cape mid-European winter, just in time to bother your winemaker mates all busy mid-harvest operating absolutely flat out.

The other traditional “don’t call me, I’ll call you” breaktime for the wine trade was of course the month of August, when retail sales went quiet, fine wine markets, for all intents and purposes, closed temporarily, and private clients disappeared off to the South of France or the Greek Islands to lie on a sun lounger by the pool. These two periods of respite, away from the never-ending grind of buying and selling endless new wine releases, were almost sacrosanct, written into wine trade culture as pastimes not to be tinkered with.

So, what has changed you might wonder? Well, for starters, the advent of the 24 hours / 365-day economy, driven by the internet, unbroken WiFi connectivity, Smart Phones, iPads and laptops, intensified the information avalanche. No one was safe and there were certainly no safe islands or ski slopes to hide on. Whether away on holiday or just taking a short break to refresh, the “out of office” bounce back only really bought you a few hours before wine suppliers, producers or clients would become agitated and expect a reply to their incessant emails.

Like a snowball picking up extra mass with every additional revolution, the information overload undoubtedly hit its zenith during the Covid-19 pandemic, that well and truly ushered in the new “working from home” epoque where the laptop never sleeps.

We are now sadly all guilty accomplices to this new socio-economic ‘tech-creep’ and the accompanying tsunami of information immediacy it brings with it. After all, I don’t know many people, if any, who can fight the urge to open that new email attachment on their laptop from a client at 10.23pm at night when your iPhone Gmail App has obligingly pinged you a notification and hooked you with its addictive bait.

The irony is that for many people, the wine trade once represented one of the last traditional bastions of resistance to the modern 24/7 information superhighway, choosing this career path for its well-established slower and more thoughtful pace and its more entrenched, conservative, and interpersonal way of doing business that was not necessarily reliant and beholden to “big tech” or AI. But like even the sturdiest of concrete sea defences, faced with enough winter storms, eventually the cracks start to appear and resistance crumbles.

Nowadays, the wine industry has certainly changed beyond all recognition and the full embrace of technology, and 24/7 connectivity is complete. While many will point out that technology was merely laid at our feet to simplify our lives and make our jobs easier and more efficient, in reality, due to the frailties of the human psyche, we instead have become the slaves to tech and the endless information overload.

Not wanting to sound like a technophobic troglodyte, even I can see many of the benefits technology has brought to the wider wine trade, none more so than the supposed democratisation and transparency of the internet. But even here, the clouds of this newfound informational freedom and power can be seen to have clearly eroded many of the most basic principles of a solid and loyal client / merchant relationship, by necessity turning many fine wine consumers into mercenaries unbound by any sense of loyalty or quid quo pro ethics.

Most importantly, as per my introduction, the wine trade has lost the ability to stop, pause, and accurately reflect on the past, present and future. Not enough time is set aside for reflection and the accompanying planning and strategizing that is required to innovate but also run intricate, unique and engaging fine wine campaigns that offer not only current, maturing consumers enticing incentives, but that also keeps another future-looking eye firmly on connecting with a newer generation of wine drinkers.

Clearly, the pace of technology and information overload is only going to get ever faster and more vociferous. Therefore, we, as the collective masters of these powerful tools, perhaps need to re-establish some more traditional boundaries and safeguards so that we’re not consumed by our own so called ‘progress.’ It is precisely because of the all-encompassing and all-consuming social nature of the wine trade, unlike many other jobs, that dictates that action is needed.

Thankfully, in some respects, the pushback has already begun, and personally, I am a big fan of the new footnote that accompanies many incoming wine trade emails… “We encourage a work-life balance at XXX Wine Merchant. Therefore, if you receive this e-mail out of your normal working pattern, I do not expect you to read, reply or action it until you resume your regular hours.” On that note… I am going back to my sun lounger!

• Greg Sherwood was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and as the son of a career diplomat, spent his first 21 years traveling the globe with his parents. With a Business Management and Marketing degree from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Sherwood began his working career as a commodity trader. In 2000, he decided to make more of a long-held interest in wine taking a position at Handford Wines in South Kensington, London, working his way up to the position of Senior Wine Buyer. Earlier this year, he moved across to South African specialist merchant Museum Wines to become the Fine Wine Director. He qualified as a Master of Wine in 2007.