Lynfred Winery in suburban Chicago has found a way to continue to bring life’s most pleasurable beverage to its consumers amid retail turmoil.
March 25, 2020- Wine is a social creature and with social distancing and sheltering in place, it seems like wine sales could be going down the drain. Suburban Chicago’s Lynfred Winery is battling the temporary closing of its tasting rooms due to coronavirus with creativity.
“We had an emergency meeting a week ago with our team and instantly got inventive with ways to stay ahead of upcoming closures and limitations” says Lynfred’s general manager, Andres Basso. The winery quickly implemented curbside service with ‘blue glove service,’ implementing sanitary blue glove deliveries to customer’s cars. “We didn’t let the news get to us. Instead we created a reserve wine case sale for our wine club members that kept us hopping all weekend long”, Basso stated. Lynfred even created a ‘Lynfred & Chill’ to-go bag complete with wine, popcorn, cheese, sausage and chocolate.
Trying to keep wine social, the winery has been hosting live Facebook events and promoting virtual selfies of wine pickups. “On St. Patrick’s Day, our Wheeling tasting room hosted a Facebook Live suggesting the best wines for corned beef and bangers and mash. On Wednesday, our winemakers hosted a virtual wine tasting of our new reserve chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon wines”, says Lynfred marketing director Christina Anderson-Heller. “This week we plan on hosting a virtual tasting focusing on suggested wines for taking that beach or ski vacation in your living room”.
The winery has also organized fun wine promotions through April 1, including a gift card promotion that gives buyers a private party for 12, a $400 value, to go alongside any $500 gift card purchase, and $10 shipping on gift baskets, just in time for Easter.
Want to keep social during shelter in place? Join Lynfred on Facebook on Wednesday, March 25, at 5pm for an educational and virtual Wine 101 class!
Winery updates during the coronavirus pandemic will be announced on a continual basis through the Lynfred Winery website at www.lynfredwinery.com
