Free Wine in Exchange for Feedback – Ditch the Pitch

Receive free wine in exchange for pricing feedback? Did I hear that right? Yes in fact I did! Newcomer to the scene Ditch the Pitch (DTP) are wine aficionados who are wanting to put the power back into the consumers hands when it comes to wine buying.

At the recent UnWined Western Australia boutique wine and food festival in Perth, I got a small introduction to who and what exactly DTP are trying to do. As part of the festival DTP held 2 sessions a day free of charge to share the vision of DTP. We sat down to find 6 glasses full of different wines in front of us, a marking sheet and of course a spittoon and bottle of water. We then proceeded to taste the wines and for each wine we had to mark whether we were familiar with that particular wine style (you can guess who had all ticks for theirs!) and how much we would pay for such a wine.

Phil May, the owner of DTP explained to us that he wants to determine what us the consumers are prepared to pay for a wine without being aware of the typical wine sales prompts, such as recommended retail pricing and third-party endorsements.

We the consumers are able to say that this is a good wine with great structure and complexity, I would pay X amount of dollars for it or this wine is unappealing with a lack of flavours, I would pay X amount for it.

I think this is an interesting initiative and I am intrigued to see what comes out of it. It is nice for the average wine lover to have their chance to evaluate and provide feedback on a wine instead of having Mr. Master of Wine tell us what we should and shouldn’t like. Plus you can also be awarded the “ Ditch the Pitch Most Representative Palate” of the year. That has to be a good party conversation starter!

Now I am off to taste my first DTP wine – a 2010 Margaret River Chardonnay from Shag on a Rock!

For more information on Ditch the Pitch, check out their website here and watch this fun introductory video below.