Twitter.com just is launching a new wine brand, Fledgling, to promote literacy in the world. Out of the $25 paid by the consumer, $5 will go to Room to Read, a non-profit group dedicated to raising literacy levels in developing countries. An other innovative company was brought in this effort: the winemaking team of Crushpad in California designed the wines, a 2009 Chardonnay and a 2009 Pinot Noir.

A few things are striking in this “Fledgling Initiative” for the brand standpoint:
-Twitter has basically no business connection – except for a lot of wine professionals and wine lovers tweeting – with the wine industry but chose to link its name to a wine brand instead of a coffee or a chocolate. For this charity-related operation, the company is convinced wine is the right medium to carry their message. According to Biz Stone and Evan Williams, “The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter’s mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change.”

- The operation is conducted by two innovative companies: Twitter and Crushpad. Their marketing strategy is mostly digital and viral. Tweets have already relayed the initiative. As usual with Crushpad, buyers will be able to follow the making of the wine through digital channels, including Twitter.

- The label is obviously designed to remind the buyers of the charity behind the initiative.

This initiative is alrealy relayed by many print and digital media, by web users and many “tweeters” as well as bloggers. I could only wish more technical companies would use wine as a carrier of social and ethical values such as those promoted by Twitter and Crushpad.

I tend to consider the US as my personal paradise for wine brands. Indeed France is not really a champion in that category! Last night, I happened to share a bottle of Westerly Vineyards 2001 Estate Grown Merlot with some friends. besides the fact that the wine was a delight, I was intrigued by the label.

It has a very contemporary feel to it with the hand-written initial W and words: l’amour, les amis, la vie est belle (love, friends, life is beautiful). At the same time, the consumer has all the important information: the name of the vineyard, the vintage, the grape and the geographical origin (Santa Ynez Valley). This simple and elegant label draws the eye to the bottle and gives a high quality feel to the wine. Even before tasting it we all knew we would have a nice and elegant wine in our glass.

The back label comforts this impression: in two sentences, we learn that the vines are sustaibaly farmed and that the “terroir” is very present in the wine.

A few years ago, I was in a wine store in Charlotte, N.C. when a young woman walked in, looked around and grabbed with obvious delight a bottle of a red wine adorned with a stylish J on the bottle: no mention of the varietal or the vintage on the front part of the bottle. I never heard of the winery and was intrigued by this mystery wine. It happened to be a bottle of Pinot Noir from the J vineyards in Russian Valley. While I was looking at the bottle and trying to figure out what it was, the young woman bought a case of it as well as a case of their sparkling wine. Waoooo! This wine must be good! I asked the woman why she was buying so much from one single producer. Her answer almost knocked me down: “My name is Johnson and since it’s our anniversary tonight, I thought it would be so cute to serve a wine with our initial on the label.” “But do you know the wine? is it good?”, did I ask her. “Oh no”, said she, “I never heard of it and it doesn’t matter anyway: I just want the “J” on the bottle!”.

Why am I telling you this story? Because J vineyards just announced they’re changing their label for their new vintage releases. Since then I did my homework and now know that J vineyards produce nice wines, deserving better than being bought for a “cute” label! Does this story tell you something?

Want to know something really cool? It’s the new cold activated label of the Coors light beer. How does it work? Do you see the beautiful mountains in back of the name? They turn from white to blue when your bottle reaches the ideal drinking temperature – 4° Celsius or 39° Fahrenheit.

The best part is that it is also true the other way around. You got your beer out of the fridge at the perfect temperature and then left your drink somewhere while talking on the phone or pulling weeds in the garden? The mountains will turn white again to let you know you should put your drink back in the fridge!

This technology is available in Canada for now. What is its impact on the consumers? Prof. Rob Warren, I.H. Asper Executive Director for Entrepreneurship at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, told journalist Renee Alexander that “breweries need to do whatever they can to stand out from the competition in the mature beer market. He says the cold certified bottle technology will attract some beer drinkers to Coors Light who are looking for convenience or wanting to try something new. “Or they could be people who don’t care what they’re drinking but they just want to make sure it’s cold. There’s nothing worse than having a warm beer at a barbecue or when you’re outside on a hot day. This technology is saying, ‘It’s ready to drink,’” he says.”

Enjoy your cool beer!

How many times after drinking a good bottle of wine didn’t you think you should make a note of this wine to remember its name and buy it again? By the time you find a piece of paper and a pen you already thought of something more important or urgent to do and you forget. How frustrating when you look for your next bottle of wine and the name of this great wine escapes you!

That’s why I loved the post of thedieline.com blog on an innovative packaging: a tear-off tab to retain all the useful bits of information about the wine. It can be put on the back label to keep a pretty front label.

One more word about thedieline.com blog: it is a very interesting site on packaging in every industry with a strong section on the wine, spirits and beverage industry. A site to keep in mind!

Label… Label… On such a small space, so important to the wine brand, legislators and consumers agree on stuffing more and more information. Tina Caputa writes in Winesnadvines.com : “A newly released survey indicates that American consumers support the inclusion of detailed alcohol content information on wine, beer and spirits labels. The survey was commissioned by Shape Up America!, an organization founded by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to raise awareness of the health effects of obesity.”

“A strong majority (92%) of those surveyed”, continues Tina Caputo, “ranked the amount of alcohol in each drink as the top priority for required labeling information, followed by the amount of calories (84%), carbohydrates (75%), fat (71%) and protein (66%).”

Read more of Tina’s article.
Learn more about the survey of Shape up America!

Labels are a very important part of branding: a label will help a wine stand out among the hundreds of bottles displayed on the shelves in a supermarket or a wine store. They also have a very important legal function: every winery is supposed to print warnings on health and wine consumption, alcohol content, origins, place of bottling.

The legal requirements of the TTB are already numerous but might be reinforced. After 30 years of deliberations, the federal regulators have proposed requiring the alcoholic-beverage industry, i.e. wine, beer and spirits, to put nutrition and alcohol-content facts on the labels. The point that is rubbing is the alcohol-by-volume statement required by the TTB. Consumers currently have no standardized information on calories, ingredients, or alcohol in a serving of beer, wine or spirit. If the regulation is applied, wine producers will have to print a nutrition fact per serving on the label. It implies new costs as well as loos of quality in the art work that most labels have become.

In spite of an Anglo-Saxon name, I’m mostly French. Born and raised in Paris, France, I spent the first 20 years of my life speaking French and learning English. I’m not very gifted for foreign languages! After a lot of efforts, some years in the USA and more trips to California and other American states, in the last two decades I came to a reasonable level of mastering English.

Being a writer in French, I thought about a book on Web Marketing and Wine Brands. Several French publishers expressed their interest on Web Marketing and E-Commerce but were more inclined towards technical tips than a reflection on marketing wine brands through the Web.

Then good news: Palgrave-Macmillan liked my proposal. Bad news: I had to write in English. Up to that time I had written only short articles. Suddenly I had to write a full book. After a panic attack and a few sleepless nights, I came to terms with my new status as an American writer: just consider every chapter as an article and get to work!

What I want to share with you, readers and potential readers, is the behind-the-scene story of 15 years in Web marketing wine and the writing of a book on a very controversial subject: wine brands.