As the recession continues to hurt people and companies, some tech-savvy wineries have contemplated the convention of jetting their winemakers around the country for in-person tastings with top connoisseurs.

Instead, wineries such as California’s Kendall-Jackson are adopting low-cost, eco-friendly virtual tastings via the Internet. “We’re reinventing the time-honored tradition of winemaker tastings for leaner and greener times,” says Kendall-Jackson spokeswoman Caroline Shaw.The tastings, which Kendall-Jackson launched earlier this year, come at a time when the slow-moving wine industry has begun to examine the new communication options surging across the Internet, specifically social media. The Kendall-Jackson tastings are set up with winemaker and critic interacting one-on-one. Here’s how it works: wine critics are sent the bottles that will be sampled and e-mailed tasting notes. If they don’t have a webcam, the winery sends that along, too. The winery’s tech people do a test run to make sure everything is set up and ready to go.

The tastings are the same as in-person sessions but instead of sitting across a restaurant table, critic and winemaker view each other by videoconference.

Pretty interesting I think. I find it empowering that people and companies all over are trying to be greener. Let’s hope their eco efforts remain long after the recession ends.