Tesco and Enotria to produce ‘socially created’ wine

Tesco and wine importer Enotria have launched a campaign to produce the world’s first socially created wine, which will help the Enaleni Community in South Africa to build a sustainable future.

Members of the Enaleni Community in South Africa

The campaign, which sees the two companies working with global social media agency We Are Social and PR agency Green Row, kicks off with a tasting for press, bloggers and members of the Tesco’s social media community. At the event, attendees will be given a choice of five wines to taste, two red and three white, all made with different grapes picked by the Enaleni Community. After tasting all the wines, people will vote for the one they think should be sold in Tesco stores.

After the grape has been selected a social media campaign will start, which will enable fans of Tesco’s Facebook page to submit their suggestion for the wine’s name and bottle design. Once these have been collated fans will be able to vote for their favourite name and design for the bottle.

One winner, whose name or design will be voted for by the online community, will win a trip to South Africa, courtesy of Enotria.

James Griswood, product development manager for Tesco said: “This campaign is not just about producing a bottle of wine, it’s about supporting a community. It provides the Enaleni Community with the opportunity to get their amazing wine onto the shelves in the UK without using a third party producer, which wouldn’t have been possible without an initiative like this. I can’t wait to see what the social media communities suggest and select – I’m sure this wine will be a best seller by the end of the year.”

The final wine will be produced by the Enaleni Community and sold in Tesco stores and on its website from October this year.

The community, which is a South Africa black empowerment project, have only been able to sell their grapes to other winemakers up to this point as they can not afford to produce, make and market their own product. This campaign will allow them to launch directly in the UK and create a sustainable revenue stream, with funds going back into the community’s infrastructure.

Deola Laniyan, account director at We Are Social, added: “We’re incredibly excited about this campaign, it’s a social media first – a wine selected by social communities from grape to bottle. Consumers now have an expectation that their voices will be heard, they want to be more involved in the process and this campaign answers that beautifully. It’s great that the Tesco social community will be able to make such a difference to another community.”