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June 8 2006

Is “The Long Tail” of Wine Yellow?

Manypundits of wine culture, and more in particular, wine marketing, have beencritical of the wine industry for its slow to adopt style of marketing to itsgrowing audience.

Growthequals new audiences. A new audienceequals fragmentation that causes splintering in demographics and marketingmessages.

Lifeisn’t as simple as it was before where you had real wine drinkers and, well,the rest of the world. Now days, youhave youth, differentiated gender buyers, trophy collectors, and you havenumerous other overlapping audiences.

Constellationwines recently undertook a wine research study that subsequently broke outconsumers into six categories spanning ‘Enthusiasts’ to ‘Overwhelmed’

Prevailingwisdom has always held that your “Enthusiast” or “Status Seeker” consumers werethe customer targets that would yield the most “bang for the buck.”

Anew marketing spin on the old 80/20 rule and economic theory may actually provethat a reaction time paced to the leisurely nature of a glass of wine mightactually be a good thing for those in wine marketing.

Insimplest terms, “The Long Tail” theory holds that niche marketing is the waveof the future. The Best Buys and theWal-Warts of the world that have limited inventory, but appeal to a widesegment of the consuming public (the 20% that buy the majority of goods) may besubverted by distribution mechanisms that make the other 80% of inventoryavailable to a narrowcasted 100% of the market.

Underthis premise, the most promising sales opportunities come not from hitblockbusters, but from niche products with smaller, but greater aggregateddemand.

TheDaVinci Codes of the world are few and far between—the book that hitsmainstream popularity and becomes a phenomenon. But, there is an entire segment of consumers that are agnosticand into conspiracy theories. “The LongTail” would posit that marketing to this segment with a deep supply ofesoteric, related books and media to sell these people is more lucrative thentrying to create a bestseller that bridges demographic segments.

Putanother way, in theory, “The Long Tail” would tell us that more wine could besold to the Constellation research categories 3 – 6, or the more casualdrinkers.

What’sreally interesting about this theory, applied to wine, is not the validation ofboutique wineries selling to a narrowed, differentiated market. What’s really interesting is taking nicheproducts to a loosely defined segment.

Takefruit wine, for example—these are the cherry, blueberry wines and cordials thateveryone can enjoy.

Thenexus of wine culture taken to the people nestled between higher-end non profitfundraisers and Thunderbird in a brown paper bag is the Wine Festival withlocal wineries.

Lastweekend two Midwestern states had independent wine festivals—Indiana andOhio. Having attended the Vintage Indianafestival and perused the wine lists of the participating wineries at the OhioFestival, I can tell you that both were extremely well attended and that fruitwines were predominant at both.

And,the demographics of the event were well outside of what you would consider thenormal wine consumer, as well. Theseare normal, reasonably sophisticated, middle class people that drink wineoccasionally and all were clamoring for a pour of Cherry wine. Likely, however, these were not the samepeople that have an open bottle of Cabernet at home through the week.

Whatif “The Long Tail” of marketing wasn’t getting an allocation of ScreamingEagle?

Whatif “The Long Tail” applied to wine meant that fruit wines had as big of amarket as vinifera wines themselves?

“TheLong Tail” stated differently says:

Inan era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks ofdistribution, narrowly-target goods and services can be as economicallyattractive as mainstream fare.

Oneexample of this is the theory’s prediction that demand for products notavailable in traditional bricks and mortar stores is potentially as big as forthose that are.

Idon’t have any answers on this one, but I do have lots of questions. With wine shipping laws relaxing, andconsumers drinking more wine, those customers will become much more segmented,and there is a clear area in the market, the long tail, if you will, that won’tdrink just fine wine, but appreciate the concept of drinking wine that is,right now, considered to be a part of the 80 percentile of the 80/20 rule.

Thisis a concept that I find very interesting and will probably explore to agreater degree. Check out these links,try to wrap your head around it and let me know what you think. Send an email, if you like.

WikipediaDefinition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail

WiredMagazine article that started the conversation

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail_pr.html

TheWired authors Blog on the genesis of his book on the same topic

http://longtail.typepad.com/

Timemagazine article from May on “The Long Tail”

http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/printout/0,8816,1198903,00.html

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June 7 2006

Notes & Dusty Bottle Items (But, I wanted to call this the Cialis of the Wine Industry)

This article that I found on a wine news aggregation site, Wine Science News, from a U.K. newspaper, speculates that growing binge drinking leading to potential alcoholism might be the result of ... larger wine glasses.

This might be viable for the tipple at home where one glass turns into 2.33 glasses over the course of four hours, but the reference points are from restaurants and pubs:

Nick Gully, director of addiction services at the Priory Clinic inRoehampton, said: ‘They fill them up and believe it is OK because theyare only having one glass but that can now amount to a third of abottle.

‘If they have a small glass they feel cheated.

‘It’s the same in pubs. Someone goes to a bar and feel cheated if theyare given a small glass. People expect larger measures. ‘They havebecome normalised and with it the amount of alcohol we drink has goneup and has become normalised by society as well.’

Memo to well meaning social services organizations: Restaurants aren’t in the business of pouring 1/3 of a bottle as 1 glass of wine. If only we could control the size of our purchased glasses of wine…

Also on Wine Science News, the 2nd ranking article for the day is a curious article called "The Viagra of the Wine Industry." Damn. I wrote that. But, it’s a lame, no thought post with a picture I took of the Stormhoek winery wine that I received. If I’m going to get traffic, at least it could be for something thoughtful or insightful that I wrote. Lesson learned here: the headline sells it. Check out any headline for "The Onion" and they practically beg to be clicked. I will be following my own advice, but with content to back it up.

Since we’re talking about wine glasses, I think it stands mentioning that June is wedding month and the time of year when more decanters and glasses are gifted than any other time. There’s an article in Business 2.0 about the Riedel "O" glass--the stemless glass that is selling like hotcakes. It was *groan* a flash of inspiration for the 28 year old heir, Maximimilian Riedel. I quote:

Maximilian woke up one night wth a sudden flash of insight: "I should make a wine tumbler." Using the time difference to his advantage, he immediately called an engineer at his family’s glass factory in Schneegattern, Austria, to create a prototype of a stackable, stemless tumbler that would take up less cabinet space and also fit in a dishwasher.

Why does every business cliche start with a moment of inspiration in the middle of the night? I know exactly how this went down. A 30-something Brand Manager with a wife and kids proposed the idea a couple of times and it went nowhere beyond the walls of his syncophantic Mid-Manager’s office until one day the Mid-Manager gets called on the spot in the brainstorming session and he sheepishly throws the idea out there afraid of ridicule, yet taking credit for the idea. Maximilian sits on the idea through three more follow-up meetings over the course of seven months. Then, one day Maximilian wakes up with a flash of brilliance.

If anybody thinks this a good idea, please do me a favor and buy them from Crate and Barrel for $2 a piece instead of $19.95 for two, or better yet, buy ceramic tumblers and support a local artist--you’ll feel pretty hip and be drinking out of a swank vessel.

And, finally, a nod and thanks for the tip to Tricia at her blog, Vin, Vini, Vino, where she made note that Playstation is coming out with schwag--the detritus of trade shows and it includes wine glasses and corkscrews. You can check it out here.

No word on whether the PS2 glasses aid in the bouquet development on Mountain Dew Code Red.

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June 6 2006

What Wine to Pair with Pork Rinds?

Anybody besides me see the new "Lays Sensations" ads in print--the one that has the quote from Asian fusion Chef Du Jour Ming Tsai, late of the Food Network and last seen on PBS? In the ad he exclaims, "The perfect pairing with your favorite wine."

Methinks Ming Tsai likes to cash checks.

When I see this sort of thing, I usually pause, reflect cynically and then tear out the ad for later skewering.

I mean, honestly, who cracks open a bag of chips and has a glass of wine?

Ah, not so fast. A quick Google search tells me one of two things: A) The world is full of people that drink wine with chips and snacks or B) The world is full of marketing people that would like to presume that people drink wine with chips.

I’m going to go with the latter, but no less a source than the Wine Market Council, an industry association, has potato chip wine pairing advice on the Supermarket Guru web site that can be found here.

They say:

Potato Chips

Light and crisp Pinot Gris (or the Italian Pinot Grigio) will balance the oil and salt of chips. Merlot is delicious with onion-flavored chips, or with chips and sour cream dip. Zinfandel stands up nicely to barbecue chips

Hmm. This is a surprise. I thought you just ate a bag of Dorito’s after a 12-pack of Milwaukee’s Best while in college, but here’s a legitimate pairing.

The web site Wineanswers.com goes in a little bit different direction and says this:

Potato chips and popcorn
Nothing goes better with crispChampagne than plain old potato chips. The salty fattiness of chipstakes the edge off sparkling wine’s snap of acidity. Salted nuts oreven buttered popcorn works in much the same way. Best-bet bubbliesinclude Champagne and California sparkling wine labeled Blanc deBlancs, which means the wine is made from chardonnay grapes, and Brut,which indicates the wine is dry.

Creative Loafing, the alternative weekly in Atlanta has this suggestion:

Potato chips: Because of their delicate salty quality, lighterwhite wines tended to meld the best with potato chips. Try a Pinot Gris(PEE NO GREE), a Sauvignon Blanc or a light Chardonnay.

So, what’s the lesson here? I’d like to say that this is another indicator in the "mainstreaming" of wine, but, alas, I think this is really just an ad that’s designed for woman that buy high end chips on the mental basis that they would make their own Panini sandwich on the press at home, that sadly hasn’t been used since being gifted in December.

As for my wine pairing? I personally think a Champagne would go best and barring that I’d go with a Gewurztraminer--the slight sweetness combined with the crispness would go well with a bag of chips, just make sure you keep an eye out for Ming Tsai’s hand in your pocket.

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June 5 2006

The American Vine-Dresser Chapter 1 Pages 13 - 16

Chapter 1

Brief history of theintroduction of Grape—How it was introduced into Europe—Demitian’sdisastrous law to destroyvines in Gaul—Restoration of them by Probus, two centuries after-Emigrationof the Helvatians to where grapes grew—Introduction of vinesinto the United States—The Jesuite vineyard at Kaskaskia--Wine made atMarietta with sand grapes—Tradition among the French on sand grapes.

The Scriptures of Holy Writ, tell us that Noah wasthe first man who made wine from grapes; profane history, says that it was Bacchusfor the Greeks, or Janus for the Latins. It is very probable, that all thosedifferent names have reference to the same man; and that they have the same meaning, but in differentlanguages. Be it as it may, we learn at least, by it, that the cultureof the grape, and the art of making wine, are old; and that it was in Asia thatit begun, and from thence came to Europe. Whatfollows, is the translation of part of what the celebrated CHAPTAL has told us inthe “Dictionary of Agriculture of Labe Rozier”’ in thetenth volume, at the article vine:—

Europe isindebted to

Asia, notonly for civilization and arts, but for most of its grasses, fruit,pulse and vines. The Phenicians, who often explored the coast of the Mediterranean,introduced its culture on the Islands of the Archipelago, in Greece, toSicily, at last into Italy, and in the territory ofMarseilles, that culture had made but a small progress into Italy inthe time of Romulus—for that prince forbade the libations of wine, which werein use in all the sacrifices of Asiatic nations. It was Ruma whofirst permitted it; and Pliny adds, that it was one of themeans made use of by the politicians, to encourage the propagation of thatculture:--for soonafter, its produce became, in fact, so abundant, that peoplecould make a free use of wine, such that the Roman Fair were accused of going too far in that enjoyment;which abuse by the ladies, caused a law to be enacted, that women were forbid to drink wineunder penalty of death; and at Marseilles, the same law had been enacted for thatrepublic; but there, as well as among the Romans, the too great severity of thelaw was an obstacle to itsexecution, and soon afterthey fixed at the age of thirty years on both sexes the right of drinking wine; but they soon found out that that restrictionwas too great on the use ofsuch a precious product, whichhad become very common and abundant, that they were obliged, at last,to leave the use of it entirelyfree.

However, the culture of the vine, was gradually extending among theGauls; it occupied already a part of the hillsides of the, Department of themiddle and south of France. When Domitian,either by ignorance or weakness, as Montesquieusays, gave order to root out unmercifully all the vines growing in Gaul;because one year, the crop of wheat or grain had failed—as if anything analogous exists between the way of living andgrowing in these two sorts of plants—as if the produce of one might ever bean obstacle to the crop of the other; and as if then as well asnow, the ground occupied by vines in France, was not the worse for theproduction of grain. Any how, ourforefathers by the disastrous law, found themselves condemned to drink beer,metheglin, or a sorry decoction of bitter plants. That privation, which began aboutninety-second year of the new era, continued two full centuries. It was the wise and valiant Probus, who,after having given peace to the empire, by his numerous victories, restored toGauls, liberty to plant vines. The remembranceof that culture, and of the great advantage procured by it, was not yet allgone from the memory of men; the tradition had kept even the details, the mostnecessary in the art of vine dressing. The vines, brought again from Sicily, Greece, theArchipelago, and Africa,became the origin of those innumerable species of grapes that now cover the territory of France. Itwas accordingly the saying of Dunod:—A charming and grand spectacle, to seecrowds of men, women and children, spontaneously and eagerly devotingthemselves, with enthusiasm, to that grand and sublime restoration ofliberty—to re-plant vineyards: Effectually all, could take part in it—for the culture of grape vineshas that peculiar to itself, that in the details, it offers occupations to suitthe strength of both sexes of all ages.

In this excerpt from the first chapter, John James Dufour, the author, of this, the first N. American book published about wine and grapegrowing, he expands upon history in the Roman times. Note, at the very beginning, his knowlege of history--or lack thereof--that Noah, Janus and Bacchus might be one and the same, depending on perspective.

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June 5 2006

More Cowbell, Wine Style

SaturdayNight Live’s last golden era with Will Ferrell used an absurdist point of viewas their stock in trade for skits. Thegloriously hilarious “More Cowbell” skit with Christopher Walken is one exampleof the laughs that can be had by taking a normal situation and turning up thelights to the point that characters turn into caricatures.

Hedid this with great success with Alex Trebek, James Lipton from “Inside theActors Studio,” and Neil Diamond, amongst many others.

Now,I’m not suggesting that Mr. James Suckling from Wine Spectator is anything buta genuinely passionate wine lover with a great deal of knowledge to share.

But,what I will suggest is that Wine Spectator’s new on demand video on their website (found here)is fodder ripe for the picking and it’s probably a pretty good thing thatWill Ferrell has moved on to the movies, because Suckling’s fawning with MichelRolland and his own en primeur tasting of the ’05 Bordeaux inspires severalvery funny moments that could be a gold mine for SNL writers.

It’snot so much that Suckling inspires laughter, its that he really inspiressomebody to point out the absurdity of referring to the calendar year as“Two-0-0-5” instead of “Two Thousand Five” as the rest of the planet does, orhis off-screen spitting because “You don’t swallow barrel tasting wines becausethey aren’t finished” or his orgasmic moans at some of the good ones he tasteswith his almost immediate proclamations for score, “I would rate this inbetween a 92 and 94.”

Seefor yourself. And, the last time Isaw Rolland he was getting edited into buffoonery in the documentaryMondovino. Here, he doesn’t redeemhimself to any great degree. He mightactually just simply be a wealthy, globally flying gadfly with a midas touchfor the French.

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