How the wine community is carrying October’s invitation into the holidays
For the third year, Come Over October asks wine lovers to invite people over and open a bottle. That invitation runs well past October 31st.
We’ve come to see the campaign as the unofficial kickoff to the holiday season. It’s the first gathering in a stretch of shared tables that carries through Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The habits people build in October are the ones they bring to those tables.
So, our message as we head into the holiday season is “Keep Coming Over.” It’s a call to wine lovers at every level, from the curious newcomer to the collector with a full cellar, to keep the gatherings going. Several organizations have adapted the idea for their own audiences. Here are four examples:
How American Lamb put Come Over October on the menu
The American Lamb Board’s Gather & Graze program is a cookbook club built around shared meals. Selected hosts receive a kit with American lamb, a copy of the featured cookbook for each guest and planning resources, then cook together at home.
This year the Board is bringing Come Over October to the table with a joint Instagram giveaway (running from October 20-27) called Come Over for American Lamb. One winner received the makings of a dinner for friends: eight American lamb loin chops, plus a gift card donated by Gloria Ferrer to pick up the wines Come Over October recommends for the featured recipe. Be sure to follow @comeoveroctober on Instagram for all the details and to enter.
Four weeks of collaborative recipes and pairing ideas with @fanoflamb are surrounding the October giveaway, and these are available for audiences to enjoy well after October 31. Lamb reaches a wine-engaged audience, and the campaign reached home cooks. The underlying idea is simple: invite friends over, cook a meal and share a bottle.
How Spottswoode will carry the spirit into November
Spottswoode Estate Vineyard & Winery put it plainly to its community this fall: wine belongs at the table, shared with people we’re glad to see, over conversations we wish could go on a little longer.
The St. Helena winery is embracing Come Over October and extending it into November with a screening of Groundswell, a documentary on regenerative organic agriculture, on November 9th at Cameo Cinema in St. Helena. Andrea Robinson, MS, will moderate a panel with Paul Lightfoot of Patagonia Provisions and the Regenerative Organic Alliance, fourth-generation farmer Brita Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms and Spottswoode winemaker and vineyard manager Aron Weinkauf. Tickets to the screening are available for purchase.
Guests who can’t make the trip get a second invitation. Ask a few friends over, open a bottle of Spottswoode, stream the film and stay a while to talk. It’s a natural extension of Keep Coming Over, linking the winery’s values to the act of hosting.
How Wine for Normal People is opening the classroom
Plenty of people would love to host but hesitate over what to pour (as the results of our consumer gathering survey confirmed). Elizabeth Schneider of Wine for Normal People answered that with a partnership offering free online wine classes in Come Over October’s name. Each class is designed to tackle the most common wine questions in a fun, approachable way, from understanding why certain food and wine pairings work to demystifying the sometimes-confusing European wine labels. Free classes can give newer wine drinkers more confidence as hosts. More experienced drinkers may find something new to bring to the conversation.
Four classes are offered throughout the month of October (registration is open here), inviting wine lovers to gather for watch parties and helping them lower the barriers to enjoying wine. Replays of the classes can be enjoyed on Come Together’s YouTube page anytime. Follow @winefornormalpeople to see more of Elizabeth’s engaging content.
How Women for WineSense is spotlighting its chapters
Women for WineSense has supported Come Over October since its inception. This year the organization is running a nationwide spotlight on what chapter members are doing for the campaign, sharing their gatherings on social media. The posts give other chapters practical ideas to borrow and serve as gathering inspiration for all as we head into the holidays. Follow @womenforwinesense to see the creativity of different chapters.
Keep the door open
A lamb dinner with friends. A film night at home. A free class to enjoy before your guests arrive, or together once they do. A chapter gathering shared with the country. Each partner takes different route to the same idea, and each extends naturally into the holidays.
The holiday season is a natural time to keep hosting, and to say yes when someone else does. Invite the neighbor you’ve meant to get to know, the colleague who just moved to town, the friend you haven’t seen since summer. Pour something you enjoy and ask what they think.
Free tools, pairing guides and hosting tips are available at comeoveroctober.com. The invitation stands well beyond the month of October. Keep coming over.
Cheers.
Kimberly Noelle Charles, DipWSET, is the president and founder of Charles Communications Associates and a co-founder of COME TOGETHER: A Community for Wine along with Karen MacNeil and Gino Colangelo. For more information about Share & Pair Sundays visit https://shareandpairsundays.com/
