Would you go to the wine equivalent of a Tupperware party? This is a serious question. When a major wine producer embraces the Tupperware selling model, an at-home wine-buying party just might be in your future.
“It’s the social marketing way of selling wine, friends to friends,” says Jean-Charles Boisset, proprietor of the Boisset Collection, his family’s group of 20-odd wineries in California and France. He started testing the idea about a year and a half ago with his new venture, Boisset Wine Living. Now, based on its success, he’s aiming to expand.
“Our program is like Tupperware’s, but it’s high end,” Boisset said over lunch in New York.
The company’s “wine ambassadors” set up and pour the wine for the in-home tastings. New Yorker Liz Howng, who works in corporate finance, grabs her Boisset Wine Living kit several evenings a month and heads out to pour and talk about Boisset wines for friends of friends at their apartments.
The kit includes Riedel glasses, wine fact sheets and a corkscrew. Because of byzantine U.S. wine regulations, the host orders the tasting package of five or six wines through an ambassador such as Howng, buying one of the eight offered or a custom mix at