Rick Bakas is the Director of Social Media for St. Supéry winery in Napa. There are so many things to like about what he’s doing and how it intermingles seamlessly with PR and Promotions. I’d say this is a rather exemplary way to use social media to generate buzz and sales and audience and brand recognition. To wit:

1) In October, he’s taking the winery tasting room experience on the road for the wine industry’s first ever Tweetup Tour. <This is genius!>

2) All are welcome, and there is no charge to attend, but aside from that, they’ll have special guests, including their wine maker and chef appearing via U-Stream. <Double-, wait, no, make that TRIPLE- genius! First it’s free, and there’s a live feed from their master craftsmen. So their experts follow them around the country in real time. So your experience at your local Tweet-up is deepened.>

3) If people don’t make it to the live Tweet-ups, they can follow along on St.Supery’s custom TasteLive page or with Twitter using the #stsupery hash tag.  <This is nice. Not particularly genius, but read on and combine it with #4 and we have a real winner.>

4) In an effort to get online followers to taste along, the winery has created “taste packs,” 4-packs of wine sold at a discounted price. <This is supremely great. It generates sales, but also serves to keep the online audience involved and engaged inside a common circle of experience. This is really using the medium, and I love it!>

Signing up for tickets!