MATTHEW CLARK
VR WINE TASTING
Matthew Clark Ltd is the UK’s leading drinks distributor to pubs, restaurants and hotels. They approached us to create a virtual reality experience for their generator bar at a series of #UnCovered events across the UK.
After an initial brainstorm, we decided upon creating a “virtual vineyard” wine tasting experience using two Samsung GearVR’s. Event delegates were invited to put on a Samsung GearVR headset and be transported to a beautiful sunny vineyard. While in the virtual vineyard they could see three unlabelled wine bottles on a table in front of them. They were given hints and tips by way of pop-ups about each wine and were then asked to taste two different wines in a blind taste test. They were then entered into a draw to wine a case of wine. Over the five events held nationwide, there was great excitement over the virtual reality experience with many people keen to try it out and to ask questions about the tech.
Testimonial - I worked with Fourth Reality to create an immersive vineyard, tasting experience. In terms of the virtual and wine tasting element, it was the first of its kind in the industry and the reactions we had from press and customers were incredible. I came to Fourth Reality with a brief of what we wanted to create. Very often wine bodies will offer wine tastings, or blind tastings even at events. I wanted to take it one step further to really challenge and educate our customers, but do it in a way that was fun, engaging and drastically different to anything they’d ever experienced before. Gary and Sharron were great in suggesting ideas and different ways to do things, and since it was quite last minute I came to them with a finalise brief, they worked brilliantly with my timings. We showcased the virtual tasting at 5 of our largest trade shows earlier this year, in which hundreds of customers got to try the experiment for themselves. We gave each participant 2 wines to try and in the outdoor virtual vineyard they were presented with 3 different wines, tasting notes, hint and tips. Using the info presented to them within the virtual environment, their nose and palette they had to try and guess the grape varietal of each wine. Not an easy feat, but our customers relished the opportunity to give it a try.
- Eleanor Webb, Experiential Manager, Matthew Clark
