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March 12 2006
When I started this blog, I intended to never utter a word about French wine—I wanted my blog to focus on American wineries, primarily with a bent towards smaller wineries juxtoposed against some fun with the Adventure brands—many of which come from the wine conglomerates.
But, in the vein of constructive analysis, I’m amending that to this: I intend to never promote French wine.
Some things are so confounding that they deserve a closer look.
It used to be that the French Paradox used to refer to the seeming contradictory fact that the French ate large quantities of rich, fatty foods, yet had a very low incidence of heart disease. This positive has largely been attributed to their consumption of red wine with its ancillary health benefits.
I am lobbying that the New French Paradox is the seemingly contradictory notion that the French, particularly French winemakers know anything about marketing. Now, given that the French still have an ongoing love affair with Jerry Lewis, I suppose we should give them a hall pass.
This article appeared the other day related to the French importing three new wines called, respectively: 3 Bandido’s, Jet Lag and Tasty.
Los 3 Bandidos is one of dozens of French wines looking to moveinto the lower-end U.S. wine market. Many on offer at this week’sFrench Wine Road Show are aimed at younger consumers who may not knowthe difference between a grenache and a merlot—they just wantsomething to drink with barbecue ribs.
How does it taste? "Likethe first thirst-quenching drink after two days in the Sonora desert,"according to promotional copy describing the Bandidos Syrah Rose, which"jumps out of the glass, all raspberry and spunk."
Spunky ornot, it is made in southern France, and while its heritage includes oneJesus Navarro—reputedly the right-hand man of 20th century Mexicanrevolutionaries Villa, Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza—it isbeing marketed by Gabriel Meffre, a winemaker based in the village ofGigondas since 1936.
"These young people do not like traditionalconcepts" in wine, said Andree Ferrandiz, who manages the wine-tradingfirm Somacvins DF Service. "They prefer to be caught by somethingspecial, a new concept of what the consumer wants to find."
Here’s why this won’t work. First, it’s a tremendous disservice to a customer that I doubt they are in touch with. But, second, any state side wine marketer would say the following:
The reason that Yellowtail worked for Australia and other adventure brands are working for New Zealand, Spain and Argentina is because those countries didn’t have a wine identity in the states, so clever marketing helps create an identity to fill the space that wasn’t previously filled in the consumers mind.
But, with all due respect, the reason your 3 Bandido’s won’t work is because the younger consumer that you are trying to target already have a pre-conceived notion of French wine. They pass that section at the wine shop to get to the back corner where the specials are. By pandering to this demographic by associating a French wine with Mexican Cowboys to Americans is beyond a level of comprehension. The very first tenant of marketing to Generation Y (Generation X, for that matter) is to be authentic.
The second reason this won’t work is you anticipate targeting a younger consumer that may not know the difference between a Grenache and a merlot. But, unfortunately, Gen. Y is coming online as a "Core" wine consumer and they are the most learned generation ever. They know what they like.
This is as far from authentic as possible. Contrived comes to mind. Grasping at air comes to mind, as well. 
You have violated that tenant and have added gas to the fire by invoking it as, "Like the first thirst-quenching drink after two days in the Sonora desert.
Nevermind, that when parched from being in the desert nobody wants a glass of wine over, say, a glass of water.
If Gerard Depardieu and Salma Hayek had a love child it would surely drink tequila.
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March 10 2006
In the upper reaches of the wine world, there is a simmering disagreement over the direction of wine.
In one camp, you have the so-called "Adventure Brands" that might be a blend of grapes from different vineyards to create a specific taste profile, or just simply not marketed so much based on its place of origin.
On the other hand, you have wineries both great and small that actively embrace the notion of terroir.
The Terroir-France website asserts that "a ‘terroir’ is a group ofvineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specificappellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions,grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute to give itsspecific personality to the wine." Some writers include history,tradition, vineyard ownership and other factors.
So, under the sub-set of the argument of "New World" wine versus "Old World" and the real difference between the two being the alcohol-level and "fruit-forward" nature of the wine (New World wines are considerably fuller in fruit flavors then Old World), you also have the terroir disagreement.
Now, unfortunately, this isn’t of real interest to 98% of the wine consuming public who just care that a wine is enjoyable and enjoyable with the company that they are sharing it with.
But, to 2% of the wine drinkers—the folks that buy prestige bottles and have the cellar this is a major source of contention.
Leave it to good marketing, though, to kind of turn this thing around. Kendall-Jackson is a pretty big winery—they sell boatloads of their Vintner Reserve Chardonnay on end-caps at grocery stores. But, they try to present themselves as a small winery. It’s an interesting dichotomy and one that they seem, by and large, successful in pulling off.
I noticed in a recent ad, that features Jess Jackson, the founder, and, if I’m not mistaken, the current equivalent of Colonol Sanders as founder and eponymous spokesperson, that they are using the term "Flavor Domaine" as a descriptor for the taste profile of their wine.
This is really clever. Because, at the end of the day, in order to build a brand you have to have a repeatable product. People have to trust you and the product enough to know that they are going to get the same consistency from visit to visit.
This, of course, runs counter to the wine business because wine is, afterall, a highly variable agricultural product. Year to year the product can change radically.
http://www.kj.com/learn/vineyards/regionalflavor.asp
Ultimately, the wine business is big enough and fragmented enough that it will continue its trajectory of high-end boutique wines while the major producers produce a relatively repeatable product—as this follows what we are seeing in other industry’s where we might buy all of our daily needs at Wal-Mart, but create a personal identification for ourselves by buying groceries at Trader Joe’s and clothes from Anthropologie—both retailers that focus on a more refined customer segment.
But the duality of the Kendall-Jackson play deserves watching because they are creating the rules in this branding exercise and not following the rules as so many other wineries seem to do.
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March 10 2006
A month or so ago, we reported on the off beat wine label phenomena and highlighted a picture from Cleavage Creek winery.
Thanks to Tom at Fermentation’s for highlighting a follow-up on the wine brand. According to the classifieds in Wine Enthusiast magazine, it is officially for sale for the low, low cost of: $460K
Never mind that it’s a brand and as such you don’t have any land, or the fact that it’s a very niche player with questionable pull-through from distribution. It’s most sizable asset appears to be the double assets of the model on the label. Cleavage Creek, after all, ain’t a river in California.
No word on what services are rendered to the buyer of the label above and beyond the branding.
In other prurient interests, boutique winery Pinup Wines also, apparently, puts a tasty bottle of wine out to complement the tasty wife on the label.
PinUp Wines are handcrafted in very small lots from our premium estate vineyards located in the Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley and Sonoma County appellations.
Eachyear, our female wineclub members of all ages take their chances in arandom drawing to be featured on our PinUp label. Tastefullyphotographed and embodying the high-spirited lust for life found inwine country, our PinUp Wines have become a cult favorite and sell outquickly!
PinUp Wines are available only in our tasting room or by direct shipment.
Does anybody else wax philosophic about the the halcyon days of old? It used to be in the world of wine that it was enough to want to enjoy the lifestyle of good food, good drink and good living. Now, like reality television, it looks like the fourth wall has been broken down. The good life includes the night cap, after the night cap.
Cheers!
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March 2 2006
Mark, the Dayton Daily News Wine writer has a post on the "Youth Movement" in wine—his post is based off a recent online article from Wine Enthusiast magazine called, Young Wine Drinkers Abound
The youth movement in wine, from a research and polling perspective, and not an ‘actually what’s happening on the streets’ thing can be credited to Gallup, I believe, before the Wine Market Council took up the cause.
The Wine Market Council releases an annual research study on wine consumption, buying attitudes, and other "adoption curve" types of information.
This year’s research from which the above both likely derive can be found in Executive Summary form at www.winebusiness.com
It’s an interesting read. Obviously, this blog makes it a small mission to keep track of wine consumption from the Generation X & Y set, so this batch of research didn’t send me into an analysis frenzy, but interestingly, many of the things that are inherently felt as the way things are moving are manifested in this research. For example, French wine sales have been slipping here and in France where overall wine consumption is dropping. Yet, it feels like Spain and Italy are coming on. The research bears this out to a certain degree by saying that consumer perception from 52% of those polled felt that Italy and Australia had "better quality than similar wines."
Another interesting supposition coming out of the research is:
However, only 38 percent of coreconsumers and 28 percent of marginal consumers agreed with thestatement, "You can enjoy fine wines at a reasonable price by buying bythe glass at a restaurant." This is a fairly significant drop fromprevious studies. In 2000, 50 percent of both core and marginalconsumers agreed with the statement, while in 2003, agreement droppedonly slightly, to 45 percent of core consumers and 44 percent ofmarginal consumers. What is creating this new barrier is up todebate do consumers feel that wines by the glass are too expensive, ordo they feel that there aren’t enough good quality fine wines availablein that format?
The mark-ups at restaurants will continue to be something I rail against.
However, more interesting then the Wine Market Council and more important on a global level is the Gallup research that was released last summer.
In this research it noted that wine has overtaken beer as the primary drink of choice for most Americans.
So, to net it out: Generation Y are adopting wine as a drink they enjoy, people do not agree that buying wine in a restaurant is a good deal and people are buying, in addition to California wine, Italian and Australian varietals.
Hmmm ... somebody should start a blog about these converging topics ...
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February 28 2006
As a kid I grew up in a house where Stroh’s was always on hand, there was some scotch in the liquor cabinet and my Mom had the occasional Bartles & Jaymes on hand.
That is to say, I grew up completely naive that wine was anything other then the Cold Duck in my Grandma’s fridge next to the Mountain Dew’s.
When I graduated from college, having been in a Midwestern middle-class kind of sensory deprivation I decided that I needed to figure out two things if I wanted my ambition to meet a kind reality—learn how to golf and learn about wine.
My golf game stinks, and still stinks some 10 years later.
But, wine, on the other hand, that was something I could get better at. If only they had some classes in school to help set you on the right path ... correct the error of my parents way ...
CIO Magazine has an article on just such a place.
Knowing which wine to order at a corporate dinner is one skill that canhelp a CIO distinguish himself as a businessperson and save him fromsocial embarrassment. "When you’re asked to smell the cork, you need tobe able to do that without looking like a geek," says Jeff Connery, awine lover and CIO of two Canadian banks: Envision Financial inLangley, British Columbia, and First Calgary Savings in Calgary. NotesConnery, "CIOs are not just computer people anymore. They are dealingwith boards, other executives and clients. Knowing about wine roundsout one’s business character."
But, before I go anything further, let me note that I did a Google search to see if anybody else was running a story based on this press release and found none. If you are a P.R. professional are you chagrined that the only magazine that picks up your release is the email newsletter for CIO magazine? Yeah, I would be.
And, if you’re of Executive timber and on the Board of a Bank and you cannot small talk your way out of a wine conversation with another blowhard, may God be with you.
I digress, the University of California, Irvine has just announced new continuing education course credits for the busy executive that wants to use wine as a business tool. Classes include:
Wine Basics 101
You have the Wine List, Now What?
Interactive Blind Wine Tasting: Team Building
Entertaining your Multi-cultural client: Wine as a Business Tool
CEO/Executive Round table
Developing Your Home Wine Cellar
This was really funny to me, and reeks of Prof’s that have been holed up doing too much research to try and publish an article to put on their C.V. for that year on the way to tenure after which they can be really mean to a freshman that actually thought his education was going to happen in the classroom.
Before I get too cynical, check out the site and see if their other course offerings are of interest, what with BOTH connoisseurship AND yoga being offered ...
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