Famed Producer Chateau Petrus Opens Twitter Account
Creative Commons licensed image from Flickr user Zach Klein
In a sure sign that the wine industry is being heavily influenced by technology, Chateau Petrus has started a Twitter account and will be tweeting regularly about all aspects of their business. Petrus has been in production for over 200 years and management is famous for spurning technological innovations such as micro-oxygenation, electronic filtering, and electric power. The move to Twitter shocked many and is widely regarded as a desperate plea to reach out to a newer, younger customer base in these difficult economic times
“Well when you set your release prices in the quadruple digit range in the face of the biggest global financial disaster since the Paleolithic Age, you need to find more people who are willing to pay our prices,” said Suzanna Cardiffe, public relations manager at the Chateau.
“The game is changing,” said Gary Vaynerchuk.
Not everyone is convinced that the move will prove to be a benefit to wine lovers. “Until they Tweet that their prices have come down 90%, they can stick their thumb drives up their ports,” an Area Wine Lover said.
“Please RT,” Vaynerchuk added.
Twitter, the micro-blogging service launched in 2006, allows its users to post 140 character updates to their personal feeds. Readers, or “followers” in Twitter terms, subscribe to the updates and can comment on them or pass them along. The service has seen unprecedented rapid growth ad of late. Studies show that people who use Twitter have better networking skills, earn higher salaries, sleep through the night after just four weeks, and can make thirty minute brownies in just twenty minutes.
Petrus believes that Twitter will fit in fine with their new, forward-thinking business plan. “We hired a high-school kid to just walk around the estate and punch in updates. He’s drunk and stoned half the time, but he really likes following all the P.R. people on Twitter because they update every three minutes,” said Cardiffe.
Link to Chateau Petrus’ Twitter account
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
THIS was the funniest 4/1 post that I read.
(Love the tags too!)
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:14 am
Thanks, man. Glad someone enjoyed it.