Opening-wine

“Nice wine, no corkscrew?” strikes YouTube gold with 8+ million views

The British owner of a French wine company has created a viral hit on YouTube with his sassy video on how to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew. Nearly 8.5 million people have watched it to date – and no wonder, as it sure offers great advice!

Stephen Cronk, owner of Mirabeau En Provence winery, says the desire for a direct consumer connection inspired him to record the  50 second YouTube video that solves the dilemma of those lucky enough to own a nice bottle of wine and a smartphone, but unlucky enough to lack a corkscrew. [Perhaps another good reason to buy wines with screw caps. Ed].

The video features Cronk using a leather brogue shoe to open a bottle of wine – and, disarmingly simple though it appears, he said it took a long time to finesse his marketing approach in a very competitive wine world.

“It was my 222nd video. I’d been trying to engage with consumers in a fun way for the best part of four years. Then I seemed to strike gold totally fortuitously,” Cronk said, explaining that he started out trying to talk to the wine trade in his videos, but now speaks directly to the consumer.