Summer wine and its marketing
In our wine business I had responsibility for marketing which took various forms: the wine estates and sometimes even the region would do their marketing, we were conscious of our own image as a prestigious St James wine merchant specialsing in vintage Clarets and Port but the aspect I found most variable and interesting was how taste and popularity could change.
Readers may know that Prosecco now outsells Champagne possibly the cleverest marketed region of all. As we move into summer, rose wines increase in popularity.
Two estates that have been cleverly marketed are Merival, a wine estate in Provence owned by actor Brad Pitt, and Whispering Angel.
In fact you can pick up from Majestic Wines for £4 cheaper a Chateau Minuty, a superb Provençal rose.
In Sussex Bolney Estate offer an equally delicious fragrant rose but because they cannot produce in volume this is priced at £12.
One rose wine you no longer see but you would 50 years ago is Mateus Rose in its distinctive rounded bottle.
White wines are also popular chilled as the temperature rises.
This I will cover in anothèr post but in terms of taste Sauvignon Blanc have caught the more oakey Chardonnay. Once a Sauvignon could be more green and immature than fresh but is at its best as in Cloudy Bay a top range wine.
Here the Southern Hemisphere – New Zealand, Australia and South Africa – have successfully marketed Sauvignon Blanc whereas France and Spain have lagged behind.
A region like the Loire which produces Sancerre, Chablis and Vouvrays do not produce a Sauvignon Blanc to rival Cloudy Bay.
The most marketed of brands are not wines but spirits.
Gin has been on the up and, whereas once it was Gordons or Beefeaters, now you have a full range of local gin and Hendricks, much more expensive than its peers but delicious with a slice of cucumber and Fevertree tonic.
I really admire Fevertree, not least as I hold their shares, for appreciating that as gin soared in popularity the public would want a less Sakharin mixer and soon British Airways, upmarket bars and supermarkets were stocking it.
Conversely vermouths were once the subject of glamorous advertising but as this declined, so did their popularity. Lorraine Chase became more famous than Campari and I’m old enough to remember Ted Dexter extolling the virtues of Noilly Prat. Constraints in tv advertising prevent say David Beckham ever being linked with an alcoholic beverage.
There is always the X factor in public taste which no amount of expertise and marketing can shape. Factors come into account like price, position on the shelves, display of wines, stocking by particular and favoured supermarket and word of mouth. These are in my view far more important than any wine critic and if the quaffer likes a mass produced blush rose for £4.99, who am I to criticise?
