Wines for guys or for girls?

Wine marketing is a funny line of work. A recent Vinexpo study showed that women despise "women wines" - i.e. "pink" or "sweet wines" - specifically designed for them and favor red wines. On the other end, Michelle Locke from the San Francisco Chronicle cites Nelson Barber, an associate professor of hospitality management at Texas Tech University who has studied gender differences in marketing wine, who said: ""As a general rule, guys get together, they don't want to be seen with a glass of wine".

Locke is obviously talking about American men. European men don't feel embarrassed to be shown a glass of wine in hand - quite the opposite. It is a flattering and glamorous image of a refined and elegant manhood. What's wrong in drinking wine for an American man? Men drink more beer than wine - true. Is it because beer is a symbol of masculinity in the US?

We are touching now the delicate subject of cultural differences. In Europe, beer is not connected with any social values, such as elegance, culture or refinement. On the contrary, it is a "popular" drink - one for picnic or for the "café" before going home. It's not young or trendy: it's the drink of the middle-aged, very medium income male. Wine carries historical values going over gender differences: it is the drink of the well educated and refined people.

The wine drinking America doesn't have yet this kind of cultural references. Wine is more recent in consumption history and doesn't carry the same image of quality and style for men. But I'm sure men will come to recognize the values of wine as they recognize the importance of... cosmetics and colognes!

Is the place in the taste?

Silly question? The Santa Carolina wine brands state in their printed ad: "The place is in the taste". It's signed "Santa Carolina" over the picture of 7 bottles of wines (2 whites and 5 reds) . I briefly scanned the ad and saw: a "Feel green" logo, a "certified carbon neutral" logo, a web site URL. Where is Santa Carolina? I read the titles of the paragraphs: Leyda Valley, Rapel Valley, Colchagua Valley, Maule Valley and Casablanca Valley. Casablanca? Marroco? I kept searching the text to confirm my guess and after at least 30 seconds (and with a mild irritation), I discovered I was... wrong! Santa Carolina comes from... Chile!

What does this story tell me? As all readers, I skipped most of the info: I read the title that attracted my attention and then moved to the picture of the wines. While doing that I missed the info I was looking for. The answer was in the first sentence under the title: "The roots of Santa Carolina go deep into the 19th century, and into the soils of Chile's best winegrowing regions." Am I so senile (or exhausted) that I missed an obvious information or is there something wrong to the ad? First of all, Santa Carolina assumed all readers knew their brand. Some of them might not. Second, it assumed that what is important is the taste more than the origin (the place) of winegrowing. Wrong again! When you don't know the brand, you look for the place. Third, they made me read 6 lengthy paragraphs on various valleys I never heard about to get a few banal words on "oustanding, aromatic, and finely balanced" sauvignon blanc, the "fine tannins and remarkable complexity" of their Carmenère-Syrah or the "well-developed flavors and firm acidity" of the Chardonnay because of those places. This focus on terroir is well and good and I'm very happy to see a Chilean winery focusing on its various terroirs. But it is an other level of communication: the first level is on the brands and then on the brands in connection with the terroirs. The concept is very clever but should be carried a little further in order to be 100% efficient. Or should I get some rest?

Vinexpo - Day 5: innovative strategy in Alsace

Today I met Jean-Claude Rieflé, owner and wine maker of the Domaine Rieflé in Pfaffenheim, near Colmar. The Rieflé family goes back to 1850 in the history of Alsace wine. Jean-Claude is also an expert in international commerce. As many of his peers, Domaine Rieflé produces Riesling, Late Harvest and all the varietal wines of Alsace.

Jean-Claude is very aware of a coming European regulation that will be operating in 2013. By then, producers will be able to create varietal brand, such as Riesling, from any place and apply on their label "Riesling", "Wine of France" or "Riesling "Wine of Germany", whether the grape was harvested in Languedoc, Mosel or Alsace. Those wines could be sold as low as 1,50 euros when a good Riesling on the right terroir can sell for up to 7,00 euros.

To counteract this problem, some Alsace wine producers, led by people like Jean-Claude Rieflé who have a vision, decided to stage the terroir more than the grape, as their Burgundy or Chateauneuf-du-Pape counterparts have always be doing.

In fact, as jean-Claude explained to me, this strategy is such part of the real Alsace tradition. Until the end of the 19th entury, Alsace wines were known by their terroir more than their grape. This change gives the Alsace producers the possibility to go back to their traditional roots and to make them express their terroir more than the variety.

Vinexpo - Day 4 : New Technologies for the wine business

Today is devoted to new technologies with the conference of the Bordeaux School of Business (BEM) in the morning and the Great Wine Capitals in the afternoon.

The focus of the morning was on Prof. Gregory Bressoles' new study on wine e-commerce. My readers know about Gregory's first study conducted in 2007 and presented at Vinexpo the same year. This e-Performance Barometer showed some improvements in some sites while others are doing poorly. Wine.com is the winner as in 2007 while winehcateau.com becomes second and the French vinatis.com is third. The portrait of the wine buyer on Internet stays very similar to the previous one: a CSP+ male, 35 yr-old and +, buying mostly for his pleasure. More surprising: the market shares of online wine sites are growing by 30%! The complete study is available for 249 euros to wine professionals.


In the afternoon, I had the privilege to speak at the Great Wine Capitals conference on New Technologies and Wine Tourism: social networks, Twitter, blogs were on the menu and suggested interesting questions to the attendees. All the conferences are available on the site of the Great Wine Capitals.