September 20 2006
The national U.K. based The Daily Telegraph had a story yesterday that featured data from the International Wine Challenge in which some analysis of tainted wine was offered against the total sample population. The comparison between the wines with cork closures was against those with screwcaps--a small, but fast growing means of sealing wine bottles.
This article was mildy pro-screwcap and drew commentary from Fermentation and the Zinquisition both of whom opined not on the actual issue of cork versus screwcap, but instead on how the article was written to be biased in the favor of non-cork enclosures.
Their posts happen to coincide with an ad I pulled from a recent Wine & Spirits magazine that struck me as peculiar.
The headline of the ad is: “My Favorite Moment With Real Cork” the sub-head reads: “If you have ever uncorked a bottle of wine, you could wine a $1,000 shopping spree.”
The promotion appears to be organized by Balzac Communications in Napa and it entails a $1000 Port and Bordeaux “shopping
spree” to three winners that write a winning 250 word essay about their favorite moment with “Real Cork.” Though, winners #2 and #3 actually win just $500 and $250, respectively, if you read the fine print.
This all strikes me as very odd.
The total prize for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize is an underwhelming $1750 dollars—surely a one page ad in Wine & Spirits magazine costs a good measure more than $1750.
But, mostly, this strikes me as odd because cork is in the supply chain for wineries and this consumer-facing activity must be because APCOR (the Portugese Cork Association and client for Balzac) is more than a little bit nervous about the encroaching competition from alternative closures.
But, is taking this fight into the streets with consumers really the way to go?
Ultimately, and I prefer cork, I think this is a bad money spent. I guess I understand it—if customers demand cork finished bottles then vintners are less likely to change, but are full page ads, promos and web sites going to turn a potential tide. Should ALL of this money go into R&D to eliminate the amount of TCA to a much more acceptable level?
APCOR does have a polished web site that can be found here. The site goes into some level of depth on cork, harvesting and recent technological advances.
The coup de grace is a quiz on cork—the preamble for the quiz says:
Becoming knowledgeable on cork is incredibly important. In learning and understanding the unique and complex characteristics of this natural product you will also consequently increase your perspective and knowledge on wine. After reading through the information available on this website please complete the Cork Certification Course. If you can answer 80% of the questions correctly, you will be a certified cork expert.
Very interesting. If I were running APCOR I would not spend a single cent on downstream consumer marketing until I had managed and mitigated all of the risk that I could via research on actual rate of incidence, and subsequent testing on the elimination of TCA in corks.
Actually solving the problem seems much smarter then creating consumer demand for a small part of the ceremony of wine.
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