March 23 2008
The increase in wine consumption in the U.S. is great for everybody; a rising tide raises all ships, right? It could, however, be better.
How so, you ask? Well, for starters, it would seem that most of the growth is from new customer acquisition, which is fantastic. In the parlance of Wine Market Council research, new consumers are coming in as “Core” consumers—those that drink wine at least once a week.
No doubt, the increase in wine consumption in the U.S. is tied to Generation Y and no doubt, it is linked to the absolute boom we have seen over the last decade in terms of fine dining and Chefs as celebrities.
I grew up watching the Frugal Gourmet and Yan Can Cook on PBS and now there are whole channels dedicated to food. Mario Batali, amongst many, is ubiquitious, leading to a more sophisticated food culture.
New customers and a more sophisticated culture are contributing to the wine bottom line.
However, after reading an article in Wine & Spirits magazine (summary here) and watching Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives on a perpetual loop on the Food Network, I am beginning to re-think the culture of wine.
Instead of new customer acquisition the way we are seeing it, the low hanging fruit, what about conversion of those less inclined to wine? New business development, if you will.
Perhaps I am biased because if I were ever going to open up a restaurant (I am not masochistic enough to actually do that) I would open up a joint. It seems much more interesting to open up something that can become a local institution than to try to hit the next wave for five years of boom.
That said, it seems like our joints, diners, drive-in’s and dives never have a wine list that is worth a damn.
If I had one wish, it would be that every distributor sales rep. in the country would pick out five joints in their territory, the local institutions, the places that give our cities a sense of place and soul, and work diligently to build a quality wine list at these cultural gems citing all of the research about wine consumption in the U.S.
Selling wine to fine dining establishments is great, but it is competitive and there is only so much room for so many bottles of wine at a finite number of places where you would expect to sell wine. However, by farming the acres of diamonds, by building the bottom up, the places where you do not expect to see a nice, affordable bottle of wine, the wine industry can create cultural change and a culture of wine for good, for the long haul.
Anything else is a cyclical trend.
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