14. the future of the groundswell

Jason Korman makes wine. He’s made wine his whole life. That’s how he knows it’s a terrible business.

Success in running a small winery is pretty close to impossible. There are thousands of new wineries all around the world. Distribution is challenging. Awareness tends to come from magazines like the Wine Spectator, where it can take months to get a review—if you’re lucky.

So when Jason Korman started his winery, Stormhoek, in South Africa in 2003, he knew he needed a different approach to reach people. He decided his wine would be the first to succeed through the groundswell.

Jason realized the key was to concentrate on the experiences wine is a part of, not the wine in the bottle. “Wine is a social lubricant,” ...

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