From the category archives:

Featured Articles

Beaujolais back on the road?

September 1, 2009

Readers of Wine Brands might remember I opened the book through the story of the worldwide celebration of Beaujolais Nouveau. It happens that Beaujolais Nouveau’s international success became a curse for the image of the good Beaujolais wines. In his article “Taking on the Beaujolais Clichés” in his blog The Pour, Eric Asimov stated clearly [...]

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Tapas and friends=Tapeña wines

August 4, 2009

When I was working on Wine Brands, I happened to notice the launch of a new Spanish wine brand, Tapeña. At that time, I was mostly intrigued and seduced by the great label. Two years later, I had the opportunity to hold a bottle of their 2008 Tempranillo in my hands and taste the wine, [...]

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A huge discount, good PR?

July 20, 2009

Want a Barolo, Penfolds’ “St. Henri” Shiraz or a Roederer Cristal 57% down their regular prices? Go to a few sites just opened to surf on the new (unfortunate) wave of overstock: winestilsoldout.com or thewineliquidator.com. On winestilsoldout, the sale rarely exceeds 8 hours – about a working day. That’s why many high-end or luxury wine [...]

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Is the place in the taste?

July 6, 2009

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 [...]

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European consumers loyal to their wine brands

May 11, 2009

A short study conducted by Gfk among wine consumers of 9 European countries (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Russia, Poland) brought good news to wine brands: European consumers are loyal to their favorite brands. Asked if they would consider switching to a similar but cheaper brand, an average of 67% said they would [...]

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Napa Valley’s historical roots

January 8, 2009

To a lot of wine drinkers around the world, there is the Old World of wine – mainly Europe – and the New World of wines – mainly the US, Australia or South America. Andy Beckstaffer, one of the most prominent grape growers in Napa Valley, initiated a research to map the old vineyards of [...]

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A funny Monkey in Australia: new brand and Web 2.0

January 6, 2009

At the end of last year, I was contacted by Sid Patel, Marketing Director of The Friday Monkey wines from Australia. Since I didn’t know this brand, I was curious enough as to look for it on the web. The web site is clean, user-friendly and answers most questions of somebody who didn’t drink their [...]

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"the ones that innovate will continue to grow"

December 22, 2008

This is the positive statement of Harvey Chaplin, Chairman and Chief of Southern Wine and Spirits, as quoted in Wine&SpiritsDaily newsletter. Chaplin is convinced that there will be growth in the wine business as new generations come to legal drinking age and get interested in wine and spirits. It may not grow at the same [...]

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“French wines are so good they don’t need to be advertised”

December 18, 2008

Who said this? French State Secretary for Prospectives and Evaluation of Public Policies and Internet, Eric Besson when asked why French wines couldn’t advertise on the Internet at LeWeb8 conference. This rather silly statement went around the world through various web sites, twitter and videos on the conference. Unfortunately, as soon as this statement was [...]

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Twitter for a brand?

December 15, 2008

Dr. Mark Drapeau thinks brands should be banned from Twitter. Why? “Not unlike Facebook and other sites, every account would represent a person using a real name, location, and picture”, wrote Drapeau. “New users would find having only real, authentic people on Twitter more attractive.” As a Twitter user, I can say most people I [...]

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