From the category archives:

Brand Articles

The Success Stories of Burgundy on the Digital Map

June 20, 2011

Yesterday, the 2011 edition of Vinexpo opened in Bordeaux and Burgundy was the guest of honor of the ESC Dijon Institute of Wine Management conference. Three keynote speakers presented the success stories of their business or organization : Florence Ragonneau of the Bureau of Burgundy wines (BIVB), François Desperriers, founder with Aurélien Ibanez of BourgogneLive.com [...]

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2010 Château d’Yquem, the zen attitude

April 11, 2011

For the last two weeks, Bordeaux buzzed with the “En Primeurs” campaign for the 2010 vintage. Last week was the peak of the campaign with tastings all over the Bordeaux area. Every appellation and classification opened their doors to journalists, bloggers, importers, distributors and all kinds of professionals. This time of the year is a [...]

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How to position a wine brand

November 28, 2010

David Anthony Hance found 3 keys to success for a wine brand: the wine type or style, the personality or the place.  By wine type, he means a zinfandel or a Pinot Noir “burgundian style”, for example. Personality implies the brand is based on a person, such as Coach Ditka or Randall Grahm of Bonny [...]

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A New French Wine Brand in the US

November 15, 2010

After the unfortunate recent failure of Chamarré it seems very brave to launch a new French brand on the US market.  The press release bears the rather off putting title : “300 Year Old French Winery Brings Prestigious Wine Appellations Into The 21st Century”. The 300 Year Old French Winery is Arnoux et Fils, family-owned [...]

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Premium Wine Brands from Pernod-Ricard?

October 12, 2010

Pernod-Ricard went through major organizational changes in the last week: they launched a new brand company called Premium Wine Brands. Under this umbrella brand, consumers will find some of the group’s major wine brands: Australian wines (Jacob’s Creek), New Zealand wines (Montana and Brancott), Spanish and Argentinean wine brands with international potential (Campo Viejo and [...]

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Are We “Branded To Death”?

September 29, 2010

According to Seth Godin, “There is too much clutter … because we’ve branded ourselves to death.”.  The CMO should now be a “Chief Movement Officer”. “In short: don’t market — inspire, lead, tap into your brand’s passions and you’ll tap into consumers’ passions and build a small and committed following that will scale through word-of-mouth.” [...]

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A Forgotten American Grape: Norton

June 7, 2010

There are grapes whose story is very sad. Norton is one of them. It is one of those grapes that history forgot and that some bold wine makers are trying to put back on the map. The story is told masterfully by Todd Kliman in his book: The Wild Grape. A Forgotten Grape and the [...]

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Is Bordeaux a wine brand?

June 2, 2010

A few days ago, I was talking with one of my MBA students on Bordeaux as a brand. The question was: Should Bordeaux brand itself like Champagne?  By branding its region, Champagne allowed small family owned properties to shine and sell their wines. The region leaders, the famous Krug, Bollinger and other Ruinart, did not [...]

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Vinho Verde, the new Beaujolais Nouveau?

May 6, 2010

When traveling to Portugal, one drinks two wines: vinho verde and port. Unfortunately, vinho verde has a very poor reputation due to its poor quality: sweet, heavy, low in alcohol but sooooooooo easy to drink. Unfortunately the low quality of 98% of vinho verde damaged the reputation of an appellation that can produce great wines. [...]

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Artisan Wines in Santa Barbara?

March 17, 2010

You know how much I love Santa Barbara, California and the beautiful wines grown in the area. I raved often enough to bore everybody. But today I’m more skeptical than raving.  I just read a press release by the Santa Barbara Wine Company announcing the launch of their “Artisan Wines”. What a strange concept! What [...]

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