March 23 2007
Stop the press. An Indiana native son winery, Oliver, dropped a press release today announcing anticipated growth. Significant growth!
My headline was going to read, “The Arbor Mist of the Midwest,” but I didn’t think that would be fair. The crown jewel of the Indiana wine market makes a lot of good wine and they do a lot of good for the Indiana wine industry. Even so, and separate from the point of this post, I was shocked to see that they have released some new wines that pay homage to Arbor Mist—a Mango, Black Cherry and Strawberry wine. Um … yeah. As a nice contrasting juxtaposition between big and small wineries, consider Josh at Pinotblogger’s recent post and this winery start-up spreadsheet.
Despite Oliver’s egregious affront to fine wine lovers via Mango wine, every NBA team needs a franchise player, and Oliver Winery is the state of Indiana’s franchise. And, fortunately, Black Cherry wine aside, there is no Allen Iverson-type of baggage associated with Oliver, either.
Just the same, Oliver makes a lot of wine that would make a staunch wine lover cry in their Bordeaux. I’m talking many other semi-sweet wines besides the Strawberry. The #1 selling wine in the state, based on the concord grape, is called “Soft Red” and it sells by the pallet at Sam’s Club.
But, hey, this is John Mellencamp, Chevy Truck, “Our Country” territory.
Oliver has built their business by creating high-quality products that appeal to many residents taste preferences, and frankly, they lap other Indiana wineries in packaging. Their packaging competes with anybody’s in the country, whereas most other Indiana wineries are still fussing around tweaking their own computer (read: bad) art and printing on third-tier labels, Oliver invests in packaging to the extent that nobody looks both ways to make sure nobody notices when picking up a bottle of their Muscat Canelli or their Blackberry wine with enough residual sugar to use it as an ice cream topper. Check out their new “Late Harvest” packaging and tell me that it’s not attractive.
Their tasting room is very nice as well, competing with 80% of the tasting rooms I’ve been to in California. I can’t be certain, but Bill Oliver, the president and son of the founder, must subscribe to the current design ethos that indicates that quality in the product is no longer the primary purchase driver—it’s quality in aesthetics, a fundamental value that Target retail stores understand very well.
But, Oliver does other wines as well, including some fine wines that are distributed in 10 states, mostly in the Midwest but as far afield as Colorado and Louisiana and Virginia. Their Merlot, Cabernet, Shiraz and Zinfandel are all fine representatives of their varietal.
And, if today’s news release is an indicator, the # 4 hottest 2004 small brand according to Wine Business Monthly may not be considered small for much longer. Oliver has already grown from 250K gallons in ’03 to an expected 600K gallons in ’07.
This news report indicates that in order to ramp up to the 600K gallons, Oliver Winery has just purchased 12 new stainless steel tanks creating a total additional capacity of 258,000 gallons. Or, if my math is correct, the tanks will afford an additional 107K cases of production.
The news release indicates that the tanks will be used to produce four main varieties of wine.
I’m not certain, but my guess is that those four varieties will be the aforementioned fine wines and Oliver is going to make a push into national, or at the least, expanded regional distribution.
Congrats to Oliver--a nice drinking companion to the Indianapolis 500 and John Mellencamp--something to make all Hoosiers proud.
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Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print | Email This
March 21 2007
Tim Elliott, our generous host and producer of the Unfiltered podcast, has completed and posted the third edition of the Unfiltered series. Nice editing job, Tim--completely taking out most of my guffaws and vocal tics, which is always nice.
I feel like Carl Spackler from Caddyshack when he’s talking to Ty Webb. “This place got a pool?” Ty: “Pool and a pond. Pond would be good for you.”
A pond would be good for me. I’m not sure I rate caddy swim time with these good guys and their good, smart company.
This podcast is designed to be something of an insider confab on wine topical items--something akin to the MacNeil Leher hour or (if you’re like me) the Sport Reporter’s on ESPN on Sunday morning--which is more my speed.
Our guests for this edition are Josh Hermsmeyer from Pinotblogger.com and Andrew Barrow from Spittoon.biz
Covering a bunch of different topics, this was a fun conversation ... give it a listen at the following link.
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March 20 2007
One of the things that has not coalesced in this hyper-age of wine marketing is branding towards Baby Boomers.
I mean, sure, we have every “adventure” label you can think of aimed at just about every demographic segment—everything from “White Lie” to “Red Truck” and a marketer somewhere probably could tell me who “Gnarly Head” appeals to, bonus points if it resonates with Gnarls Barkley music fans. Everybody gets a turn except, it seems, for upper middle-class Baby Boomer’s.
Maybe it’s because wealthy Baby Boomers have a corner on their own slice of the wine market—it’s called the allocated and futures market.
Allocations notwithstanding, I know some of these wealthy white guys are still rocking out to Jimmy Buffet whenever the Margaritaville Parrothead party rolls into town, bumbling the words and doing the standing weave dance whenever “Pencil Thin Mustache” is played.
And, I know some of these guys are pulling out and wearing the Tommy Bahama shirt at the concert.
Tommy Bahama, for the uninitiated, is what can best be called a “lifestyle” brand—a purveyor of the “island lifestyle” as they like to say. They sell everything from Hawaiian shirts to furniture and a lot of things in between. Bob, the accountant, arm chair sport fisherman and grillmaster weekend warrior might be a customer, for example.
So, when I was reading Food & Wine magazine and I saw an ad for Tommy Bahama rum, found at www.tommybahamarum.com it hit me like a ton of bricks … that could be the Baby Boomer marketing angle for wine—what a great idea for a winery to license and/or work with the company that manages the Tommy Bahama brand to produce some vino--I’m thinking a nice summer deck Rosé and white to start, hints of pineapple on the nose, an island paradise in a glass of chardonnay.
So, this is how a blog post originates at Good Grape … I see something that leads to an idea, that idea bounces against another idea, I do some cursory research and then all of sudden it spills out. However, something is wrong with this situation. The underpinning element of this blog post was the fact that surely I would go to godaddy.com to do a URL search and find that http://www.tommybahamawine.com was already registered by the same good folks that are pimping the rum. I could then give a scoop, some omnipotent scoop based on deductive reasoning.
Not the case. The scoop I was going to deliver is, apparently, not to be—there are no plans for a Tommy Bahama wine, at least not as measured by a registered URL name.
In fact, I registered the URL today. Cybersquatter I am not, but, what the heck it’s only $9 bucks.
So, if you’re a winery or a brand-builder and you think this is a good idea and want to approach Tommy Bahama with a proposition AND the URL, send me an email I’ll give you the URL for cost and a bottle of the to-be-made wine.
And, I suppose, the beat still goes on for the lack of Baby Boomer wine marketing … the good news is though that we’re getting closer and closer to chilling the Rosé, and firing up the grill, Tommy Bahama notwithstanding.
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March 19 2007
About seven ad campaigns ago the soda 7Up was known as the “Un-Cola.”
It was simple and brilliant. In a soda landscape that was decidedly less complicated back then, they were not a cola. It was easily understandable and simple.
These days, one can hardly do any reading about wine or the wine industry without running into an article about Sonoma.
Sonoma is not Napa. But, damned if it doesn’t seem that Sonoma is trying to figure out what it wants to be—mainly because Napa is burnished into the retina of the most wine lovers’ mind’s eye. And, Sonoma, well, Sonoma is kind of an enigma to a lot of people.
Last month the San Francisco Chronicle had a feature by Tina Caputo on the growth, development and evolution of Sonoma County, while maintaining its small town, eccentric roots. From the article:
Napa Valley has long looked down on its less sophisticated country cousin, and until recently, Sonoma seemed to accept and even embrace its reputation as a funky destination. But according to regional associations like Sonoma County Vintners (SCV) and the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau (SCTB), who cater to the nearly 2 million tourists that visit the county each year, Sonoma is now making a conscious effort to promote itself as a luxury destination on par with Napa—and the shift in direction seems to be paying off.
Winebusiness.com had an article today about the Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance recently announced and new event, “Passport to Sonoma Valley.”
Executive Director for the Alliance, Grant Raeside, said:
A huge part of Passport weekend will be creating an identity for the Sonoma Valley region. “We are all searching for identity and we can do that during Passport with the entire valley,”
I’m used to transparency, but these sorts of articles kind of seem like women with their g-string exposed—Oddly fascinating? Yes. Do you look? Yes. Completely interesting? Not so much.
This is, of course, on the heels of seeing a two-page spread in Food & Wine magazine for Sonoma placed by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers.
Here’s my question for the Un-Napa, Sonoma. Does marketing really have to take place? Does Sonoma have to be more sophisticated? Can’t Sonoma just, kinda, well, stay the way it is—celebrate their eccentricity and quirkiness and spreadouted-ness, winding roads and agricultural bent?
Can’t Sonoma simply be the Un-Napa and isn’t that enough? Post a comment with your thoughts.
*Update* Currently site comments is a feature having technical difficulties. I’ll update when fixed.
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Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (3) | Print | Email This
March 18 2007
Many that have paid occasional attention to this blog know that I used to do rudimentary cartoons in black and white. Since the move to the new design of this site in November of ‘06, I’ve been working with a collaborator to significantly increase the quality of the comics while at the same time taking something of a sabbatical to let the illustrator help me get things moving in the right direction. Over the course of the next several weeks I’ll re-start the strips and I think you will find that the quality of the new comics will be fantastic (thank you, Sean!).
Having grown up reading Spider-Man comic books and being a faithful daily reader of the comic section in the newspaper since grade school, I’m excited about doing these hope that readers of this blog will find them to be a break and/or a breath of fresh air. Before we get started, a little background on the characters ...
As always, thanks for checking my little part of the blogosphere and welcome to “New World.”
“New World” Background:
Taking place in an unidentified urban environment, New World is a comic that reflects a contemporary and enthusiastic attitude toward wine commenting on social circumstances, current events--both popular and wine-related--and major trends in the world of wine.
Centering on a group of friends, J. is the central character and primary protagonist –he knows Andy from childhood, Luće (pronounced Lucy) from college and Vince from the neighborhood.
Character Bio’s:
J.: (first person on the left) Is a smart, literate, well-read everyman—and our protagonist. He doesn’t accept the status quo and isn’t a consumerist in the sense that status is something he seeks by consumption. He’s just as likely to buy wine at the grocery store as from the allocated mailing list, though he clearly is a “wine geek.” A hardworking professional, J. asks a lot of rhetorical questions, is grounded and balanced. Generally speaking, J. is more of the straight man than the guy that delivers the punch line. His parents are the conservative traditional type from a smaller town and he has broken away with a more modern view and liberal leaning based on his lifestyle and living in the city. J. plays the naïve or straight man in the comic having questions interpreted and answered for him … he’s not dumb, quite the contrary, but he doesn’t leap to conclusions and is measured in thoughts. Of all of the friends, he is the most wine astute with the most knowledge of wine.
Vince (w/ goatee): Vince is carefree with more a hip, iconoclastic sensibility. A cut-up and the funny guy of the group, Vince is a cool guy and the life of a party. Vince is a very bright guy, but doesn’t channel his energy into any one pursuit, a member of the “slacker intelligentsia.” Well traveled, Vince has been to many wine growing regions around the world, in contrast to others in the group of friends, but he has no preference for wine over any other social beverage. Vince and J. get along because Vince is very outgoing and fun, while J is grounded and more sensible. Friends with J. since both moved to the city from separate colleges, Vince is a bit of a schemer, the guy that always has something up his sleeve … he is very well-networked … and knows “everyone.” Vince is a ladies man … always quick with a story; some of which are on the absurdly fantastic side and cannot be corroborated.
Luće: (female character) Luće Is the sophisticated member of the group … something of an “in the moment” person … smart, but gossipy, she is into and understands pop culture, and dates a lot—though she is not romantically involved with any of the characters in the strip … her dating life is a reference point for a lot of wine related conversation … she has very high standards for guys and is something of a contradiction and gets herself into situations that are hard to extricate herself from … i.e. dating … drama while dining out, etc. Luće is, perhaps, the biggest wine drinker of the group, but she has an unsophisticated palate, in contrast to the other fine things she enjoys out of life.
Andy: (the character with the glasses): Somewhat irascible, Andy is a guy whose glass is more often half empty then half full. He’s the most successful of the bunch and works a great deal. When he’s not working he can be frequently found with his friends complaining about the inanity of daily life and the people or events he comes across. Andy isn’t necessarily a wine guy, but enjoys it for what it is and he is the most gifted wine taster of the group, frustrating J. to no end with his indifference. Very pragmatic and a realist, Andy often explains why a situation is the way it is based on a cynical business perspective or his interpretation of reality. Andy is more of an accountant type … somewhat guarded and reserved, but a very good friend to a few people. J. has been friends with him since grade school – and maintains the friendship even as both have evolved.
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