Wine Influencer: @grapechic - Nicole Muscari

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview wine influencer Nicole Muscari (Instagram: @grapechic).  Nicole tells Robert and Peter about her journey from a career in dance to fashion and then into wine.  Having built a 23.5k+ Instagram following and launching a wine blog, Nicole has become the Private Client Sales rep for the Northeast for Chateau de Pommard. 

Other topics covered in this episode include:

• BFA in dance, her first job was with Carnival Cruise Line
• Worked at Walt Disney World and wanted to be Princess Jasmine
• Visited Napa in 2014 and fell in love with wine
• Quintessa was the experience that stood out, and she’s still in their wine club
• Founding member of The Chelsea Wine Society
  • Started when Charlotte (thelondonwinegirl) was in NYC
  • Invited a group of Instagram wine folks to a Chapel Down tasting
  • Became a study group for WSET courses
  • Members would post on IG, which got wineries wanting to send them wines and do tastings
• Fellow Instagrammer (idream.o.vino) asked her if she was interested in wine as a job and introduced her to her current job
• Private Client Sales for Chateau de Pommard
  • Manages direct sales for the Northeast US
  • Launching a members-only, interactive platform soon
    • Pay a yearly membership fee
    • Live experiences for wines/regions from all over the world
    • Wine advisors host experiences
    • Get sent small tasting tubes to try
    • Option to buy the wines
• Social media platforms
  • Instagram focus, started 3 years ago, was part of the “1st wave” of wine influencers - grew to 10,000 followers in 1st year, lots of engagement to grow base (answering comments / DMs)
  • Has FB, Twitter - just mirror content
  • Pinterest - never pinned
• Social has a side hustle
  • Press trips, samples, sponsored posts
  • Does ~2 paid sponsorships/month
• Interacting with wine brands
  • Transparency is key - say right off the bat if you want to just send samples or do a paid partnership
  • Email is preferred over DMs
  • Has media kit
    • Regular posts (usually with 3-5 stories)
    • IGTV tastings with brands
    • Live Tastings (30 mins about the wines)
    • Website / blog packages
  • #ad - reach is usually less than without it
  • Paid sponsorships - a brand can boost the posts (Gerard Bertrand did this on Facebook)
  • Successful partnerships
    • Lovejadot - Giveaways, Instagram Live, and Posts
    • Wine regions - Vinho Verde, Loire Valley, Discover Bojo
• Print vs social media
  • Print is longer-lasting, enables search, good SEO articles have a greater impact than social
  • Instagram gets more engagement, but because it’s easier, posts die after a while
• Instagram demographics
  • 55% male, 45% female
  • Female younger (25-35), male (35-45)
  • US, Italy, France, UK, Brazil
  • Cities - NY, Paris, London
• Content Strategy
  • Closer photos work better than further away
  • The wine matters - better wines get more engagement
  • Known for her shoe collection
• Wine education - adds value to the content

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