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February 8 2006

Satisfy Your Inner Wine(Maker) Geek

Occasionally you run into something that makes you anidiot because you love the notion and/or the execution of the idea somuch.

CrushpadWine isjust such that thing for me—the kind of concept that has me doodling in meetingsand anxious with excitement at the possibilities.

Thepremise of the business is for the average Joe (albeit an average Joe that canpony up a pretty significant amount of money … to become a winemaker withoutthe hassle of buying land, planting grapes, waiting three years, knowing how tomake wine, etc., etc.

Inthe entertainment economy, where rock star and sports fantasies can belived out at a weeks camp, this is genius.

CrushPad Custom Wine
The Custom Wine service is designed for non-traditional winemakers who workhand-in-hand with Crushpad staff and consulting winemakers to define and createtheir wine. You can choose from among our excellent grape sources or identifyyour own, and are encouraged to participate in the roughly 30 decisions necessaryduring the process. The end result is the finished product – a world class winewith your brand. Custom Wine customers are encouraged to visit Crushpadfrequently and actively participate to gain the full experience – education isa key part of Crushpad.

The pricing for this, make no mistake, takes a certainlevel of commitment. It looks like youhave to ante in by the barrel and each barrel produces about 25 cases ofwine x 12 bottles = 300 bottles andeach bottle at their wholesale costs about $14-16 dollars—according toCrushPad. They liken it to wine thatwould cost about $30 at retail.

Ilove this concept.

Acouple of challenges, really, though, if I look at this from a contrarian pointof view. If you did this as a hobbyist,you’d have to be pretty committed. Spending $4500 for your own house wine and the experience would be funand would make a lovely gift at parties—perhaps a bit vain glorious, but a nicegift nonetheless.

But,in order for this to be successful they will have to tap into the wine retailerand restaurant market that would like a private-label wine. But, if you were really committed to this,couldn’t you just buy bulk wine on the bulk wine market and work with a companythat would bottle it for you—at potentially a significant cost savings to theabove?

TraderJoe’s does this all the time—as Mark at Uncorked found out, sometimes differentlots of wine go into the same label (mistakenly or aggrievedly).

And,the final point is, many wine experts would tell you that #1 taste is the bestindicator of preference and that spending anything over $25 a bottle at retailpays for nothing but limited availability and marketing—because price does nothave a correlation to value.

Inthat regard, selling the wine at a 50% mark-up really takes you to thethreshold for a basic wine rule of thumb--$24

Nonetheless, this isa new company and I would expect that as they expand the price/value equationwill go down and there is a lot to be said for the control you would have incrafting a bottle of wine exactly to your tasting likes.

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February 6 2006

The Great Equilizer

The Wine Institute released a bunch of press releases early in January--all based on consumer research that they conducted with Yankelovich Monitor, a consumer research and trend-spotting company.

Interestingly, it said that wine consumers are among a group of consumers that are on the leading edge of shoppers:

http://www.wineinstitute.org/communications/statistics/USWineConsumerResearch.html

Included in that blurb is the fact that wine consumers are:

1) Open to new experiences
2) Follow their own path in life
3) Are Information savvy and confident
4) Desire intangibles, experiences and emotions
5) Eschew brands as badges

This seems to me to be pretty dead-on. But, what is incongruent to me is the brand as a badge. So, what the research is saying, I think, is that wine drinkers aren’t exclusively brand loyal. Woman who may carry Kate Spade purses will buy multiple labels without an overt consciousness about the label they are buying.

And, I believe it. Oddly, here, I think the ‘brand as a badge of honor’ goes to the approximately 2% of the wine drinking population that fall into the snob category.

That’s pretty interesting to me ... so, a woman that wears Jimmy Choo shoes and carries a Prada bag might, in an interaction, be intimidated by a wine drinker that really knows his stuff.

Somewhere Booger Armstrong is smiling.

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February 6 2006

What’s in a Color?

Maybe it’s because of the last remnants of the Red Truck wine that I’m currently drinking, but I started thinking about color and the psychology of color--particularly as it relates to all of the "color/noun, color/verb" types of wines that are selling today.

Yellowtail wine, by all accounts, is a huge success--and it has ridden the nascent trend of bold graphics coupled with animals to great effect. Many say they, in fact, started the trend. Little Boomey and The Little Penguin, notwithstanding.

It makes you wonder if we’ll look back on these times with fondness, just as a child of the 80s reminisces about Pac-Man at the arcade or something similar. Or, maybe the way Blue Nun and Cold Duck or lambrusco holds a special place in the heart of those from the early 70s.

But, according to Wikipedia, yellow is not an exceptional food color. And, any married guy knows that yellow kitchens incite arguments. But, I think, based on just a little research that the colors black and yellow go well together and might be the subtle calling card that helps consumers pick it up off the shelf. Or, maybe its just the cases and cases piled high on an end-cap. Either way ...

If yellow means happiness and black means sophistication, then yellow and black means I’n going to be doubly happy when I get a sluggable wine for $7.99.

At least that’s the idea, right ... who says we don’t respond to marketing?

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February 5 2006

New World

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February 5 2006

If Loving you is Wrongo, I don’t want to be right!

Spanish wine. Oddball wine. Catchy graphic. Bright yellow color. Inexpensive price.

I rate this three bottles--Sweet Nectar

Buy a couple of bottles of this very drinkable wine--somewhere in between plonk and a guest-worthy bottle--though, don’t be surprised if it shows up on your counter if you’re hosting a party.

I think I paid $7.99 for this at Cost Plus World Market. I like World Market because they buy nationally--which means I’m not always held hostage to the same lists that the distributors locally sell to the wine shops--so I can find a little something different.

This is a good example of that. Spanish wine in the Spanish section on my local wine shop would gather dust, but elsewhere you give it a crack.

This is an interesting wine--it starts out a little restrained, a little tight and really turned kind of nice in the glass after mellowing for 45 minutes or so. I pick up a lot of berries mixed with some earthiness ... kind of like a picking up a raspberry from some dry ground.

It has a poweful aroma and an inky garnet color, but it doesn’t linger with an aftertaste or finish.

This is a quaffable wine, a nice table red. Recommended for daily drinking!

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