Come Over October: ‘Wine is so much more than alcohol’
The Come Over October campaign is back, and this time it’s calling on wine businesses to fight for their future. Eloise Feilden speaks to its founders.
Come Over October is back for a second round after a successful inaugural campaign last year.
First conceived by US wine journalist Karen MacNeil with co-founders Gino Colangelo and Kimberly Charles, the campaign fights back against growing negativity in the media about safe alcohol consumption. It encourages people to gather and converse over a glass of wine, or non-alcoholic beverage, during the month of October.
This year, Come Over October has grown. More than 150 wine businesses, media and trade organisations are involved as patrons and friends of the campaign.
Retailers Kroger’s, Total Wine & More, Gary’s Wine & Marketplace and Wine.com have joined the cause as patrons, promoting Come Over October across more than 1,000 retail store outlets across the US. Outside the industry, Yelp is a community partner and Lyft is this year’s ride share partner.
Participation has also extended beyond the US. “We had Canada join us this year through the Wine Growers of Canada and the Arterra Wine Company, promoting Come Over October across the entire country,” says co-founder Kimberly Charles. “We’ve had international endorsement before, but this was an entire execution.”
International support is also coming from the Brunello Consortium, Prosecco Consortium, Wine Australia and other international wine trade organisations.
Both at home in the US and abroad, Come Over October’s mission is to galvanise the wine community into action, advocating for wine’s cultural role in society.
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MacNeil says a big part of the growing stigma around drinking wine is down to the discussion being “framed around alcohol”.
“Wine is threaded into a rich tapestry of culture, food, art, religion, and nature. For most wine producers, wine is so much more than alcohol,” she says.
Ultimately, Come Over October’s mission is simple: “telling wine’s 8,000 year story as a force for social good”.
So what are the barriers holding the industry back?
Gino Colangelo, the campaign’s third co-founder, says there has been a slight evolution in perspective since Come Over October was first launched. “I see some indications that we’re starting to change the narrative around wine from negative to positive,” he says. But there’s still a long way to go, and Colangelo makes clear that “this is a long-term process that requires consistent activity”.
He says: “The anti-wine [and] alcohol forces aren’t letting up; we’re just getting more voices on our side.”
Beyond campaign friends and patrons, Come Over October has secured celebrity endorsements from Alecia Moore, the artist known as P!nk, chefs Lidia Bastianich and Charlie Palmer, and NBA star CJ McCollum who owns Heritage 91 winery in Willamette Valley.
Ultimately, the success of the campaign will come down to producers, merchants, distributors and retailers advocating for themselves and their products. Colangelo wants to see more of one thing: wine businesses “getting off of the sidelines and joining the fight”.
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