Virtual wine tasting

For three generations, the Bianchini family has created exceptional wines in its idyllic Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona estate, which spans about 2,000 hectares in dense forests and hills near the Italian city of Montalcino in Tuscany. Paolo and Lucia Bianchini run the winery since February 2004, after the death of their father Giuseppe, and Paolo’s children help them: Alex and Esther.

For the Bianchini family, this was a compromise, allowing to preserve the traditions of the estate, but at the same time remain at the forefront of winemaking technology. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has been a test of their adaptability. Exhibitions were canceled, international travel was banned - the pandemic has changed everything for such small wine producers as Cacci.

In ordinary years, the release of new wine is accompanied by international trips and personal meetings with distributors and critics, tours of the wine cellars. This year, consultant and wine producer Gabriele Gorelli, like the entire Cacci team, had to look for new ways to share their products with wine lovers around the world and grow their business in a crisis. For this, the Cacci winery turned to Microsoft Teams. The result is a perfect balance of tradition and technology.

Thanks to Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, the Cacci team was able to act quickly and developed a completely new way to present their wine to distributors, critics and wine lovers from around the world. Virtual wine tastings through Microsoft Teams have changed the winery’s working methods, saved time and travel costs, strengthened and created new relationships with customers.

Using the communications capabilities of Microsoft 365, Cacci employees quickly replaced physical appointments with virtual wine tastings through Teams. Members of the Bianchini family also began to use Teams to work together and to communicate with partners and suppliers to continue the prosperity of the business.

Thanks to Teams, Cacci saves time and travel expenses. A typical international trip to sell wine took at least a week, but now Cacci just sends his products to the distributor and makes an appointment for two hours at Teams to discuss the details.

While everyone in Italy is eagerly awaiting a return to normal, Cacci is rethinking the future of his business. Virtual communication with wine lovers around the world opens up many opportunities for expanding the customer base. Cacci is already thinking of organizing virtual tours to invite fans from all over the world into the little-known world of a traditional Italian wine cellar.

The winery also plans to use Teams to establish direct lines with customers, rather than relying mainly on sales to distributors. For this, Cacci has everything you need - an online store and the potential of Teams for interactive communication.

The Cacci winery continues to withstand its wine in barrels in the old cellar, but on the surface of the earth this business uses advanced technology to flourish even in unstable times. Previous investments in Microsoft 365 and, in particular, in Teams allowed the family business to adapt to a new reality. The result is a revolution in the digital advancement of wine and a new vision for the future.

Source: https://news.microsoft.com/ru-ru/features/teams-wines/