So my sample of Stormhoek has arrived, along with Hugh's excellent little booklet. The booklet starts by talking about an experiment in disruptive marketing, and only gets round to pitching the wine later. Which makes sense, as we can try the wine for ourselves anyway.

You have to hand it to Hugh. I've not touched the wine yet and already I'm blogging it. What is it I like?

1. The tone of invitation. No hard sell, just the presentation of an interesting idea to take or leave as you please. No grandiose posturing.
2. The sprit of experiment. Selling isn't all about certainty, it's also about curiosity. Hugh is inviting us to play a game of let's disrupt marketing to see what happens.
3. A cause to believe in, if you like. We're not talking about saving the world here, but we are offered an interesting windmill to tilt at - namely the established way of marketing stuff.
4. A bit of provocation. There is actually a proposition in here somewhere too - the one of freshness being undervalued in the wine business. Take it or leave it, it provides a bit of interest.
5. The fact that this is so clearly a message from a real live human being, with a personality of his own, not a committee.
6. Transparency, that oft-quoted term. The whole thing smacks of "What you see is what you get, this is what we're up to, what do you think?"