If you love wine, running and New York, come applaud 15 Classed Growths of Bordeaux whose managers decided to run the New York Marathon in November 2011 to raise money for a good cause. Under the name “Bordeaux Grands Crus Runners”, those marathon veterans will run the 26.2 miles to celebrate wine and raise money for the organization Lysistrata, which works to defend women’s rights in the world. The famous artist Titouan Lamazou is one of its supporters and will cover the event.

Taking advantage of the international coverage of the event, the French Runners will contribute by auctioning some of their best wines to help Lysistrata. They will also promote the Bordeaux wines by dinners and prestigious events.

Each of the 15 Runners has different reasons to leave for New York: Marie-Louise Schÿler, Communication Director of Château Pichon Longueville in Pauillac, is there for “the values of conviviality, solidarity and helping others”.  For Henri Lurton, owner of Château Brane-Cantenac, “New York represents the challenge of  overcoming his “deficient aptitude” through team  spirit and, above all, the motivation of being able to proudly sport a coveted medal”.  Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy, Director of Château Clerc Milon in Pauillac, “has been  motivated in his training by the group’s  enthusiasm, the charitable dimension to the project and the sporting challenge.”

Whatever the reason driving those men and women to run in New York, the cause, the event and the challenge are worth all the efforts, energy and talent put together to make a great success of the Grands Crus Runners’ initiative. Hat to them all!

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 Doon. Place is linked to the location that can help brand a wine: who didn’t hear of the famous Napa Valley Cab?

A brand is usually richer than those basic three components while those three keys can crisscross each other. The Bonny Doon brand is nurtured by the personality of its founder, Randall Grahm, by its wine styles (Rhone Valley) and by its location in the US.  What is interesting with Bonny Doon is that, since it does not bear the name of its founder, it will be able to survive it if an equally charismatic leader or a good business man runs the winery. In the case of Coach Ditka, it might not be the same if the marketing is heavily based on his personality and the person looses popularity. The brand might have a shorter life cycle.

As for the location, is it really strategic? New World consumers have the culture of the varietal when Old World consumers go by the location, even the “terroir”. As a wine consumer, I love to know if my Pinot Noir comes from Burgundy or from Santa Barbara, California. My expectations will be different for the style, the personality of the winemaker and, of course, of the location. New World consumers have also a good “location” culture: they know a Syrah from the Rhone Valley won’t taste the same as a Shiraz of Australia or even from Bonny Doone. Location is important in the branding od a wine.

Are the three criteria analyzed by David Anthony Hance the only three keys to position a wine brand? We could add the proper definition of its target. Tapena will appeal to the Hispanic consumers or the lovers of Spanish wine and food culture because of its astute combination of Tapa and Pena (the fork) with a Tempranillo grape, branding the product “Spanish”. Fat Bastard with its provocative name (and marketing campaigns) will target people who appreciate a “fun” wine with the French seal of quality.  The Barefoot wine brand applies to every kind of consumers, from the first time drinker to the hard core drinker with a large range of wines: old vines and mass market wines.

A wine brand can be positioned through various channels and strategies. The key components of a good positioning are very hard to define and are the first steps towards a successful launch. Good luck to all the new brands available each year on our shelves!

A few weeks in the US are the best way to fuel inspiration in a sometimes overwhelmed mind. The last few weeks were no exception.  I had the opportunity to go to various restaurants and noticed a few changes in the way some hospitality businesses are run in our lean times.

Two years ago, Leslie Thomas, a young wine consultant in Santa Barbara, CA, partnered with an organic local restaurant, Spiritland Bistro,  to offer a rather creative program, BYOB wine and dine. Once a month, people bring their own bottles of wine to match the theme: Pinot Noir, Roussane and Marsanne, Zinfandel, or whatever fits the attendees or Leslie.  The menu is designed to pair the wines. Of course, there is no corkage fee.  At the beginning, there were about 20 to 30 people attending the dinner. The relaxed setting, the convivial tables, the quality of the wines brought by the attendees and the moderate costs – the price of your bottle and the dinner – brought an immediate success to the event. Nowadays about 50 people gather every first Wednesday of the month to the dinner.

While in Santa Barbara or in Napa, we brought bottles to several restaurants. Some of them lifted the corkage fee (ZuZu in Napa), one reduced it from $20 to $14 dollars and charged only once for our several bottles (Arts and Letters Café) while the last one, Olio e Limone, charged full price ($20 for each bottle) in spite of the fact the chef and the waiter were offered to share a glass with us.  What did those various policies tell me as a consumer?

- Some restaurants really care about their customers: they want them to have a nice experience and to come back with more friends. After all, what is the extra cost to a restaurant for washing a few extra glasses and having a waiter opening a bottle?

- Some restaurants think it is more important to make money than to care about their customers’  happiness. Too bad but this “European” attitude is not what will make customers loyal, at least not in the uS and even if the food is good.

BYOB is a very good way to attract wine lovers to a restaurant but corkage fees can (and sometimes should) be lifted when customers are loyal customers or, on the contrary, new customers who could become trendsetters.

Wine by the glass is a different story.  The price of bottles are sometimes a little extravagant. Why spend $50 or more on a bottle of wine you know you’ll buy from $15or 20 in a store? Consumers are usually ready for new experiences: why not a glass of a very good wine at $10 rather than a bottle of average wine at $30? A lot of restaurateurs understood this new trend and are now offering more wines by the glass. When a few years ago consumers had the choice between 6 wines and were not sure of how long the bottle stood open, they are now offered a more interesting and long list of wines: “The public has become more interested in different wines and different producers of different varietals, and there are more varietals available than there have been in the past”, said the owner of the Prohibition-Speakeasy Wine Club in Healdsburg, Richard Rosenberg, to The Fresno Bee. The quality of the experience is enhanced and the consumer happy.  And it’s much easier to get back behind the wheel after moderate drinking.

BYOB if you are not sure of the wine list or select your restaurant by its offer of wine by the glass? The consumers’ choice, but now at least there is a choice.

For many people, even in the wine business, the Masters of Wine are a mysterious entity.  They are the elite of the wine industry, having passed a very difficult series of tests. There are only 285 of them in the world: it is an exclusive club. At least, that’s what I thought before I met Christophe Macra, one of the five French Masters of Wine, a young and entrepreneurial spirit full of energy and humor, founder of  Tasteo and Esensio.  Thanks to Christophe, I was invited to the 7th Symposium of the Institute of the Masters of Wine held in Bordeaux last week and whose theme, “Forging Links”, for the perfect topic for someone who spent most of her professional life networking and “forging links” between several cultures and their people.

I will spare you the details of every dinner and tasting. I’d like to emphasize what was so new and fascinating during this symposium. Out of the 285 MW, “only” 75 attended the conference. The 250 other attendees were professionals from the wine industry: journalists, consultants, importers, distributors, writers and educators.  There were 17 countries represented between everybody. The official language was English.  I attended every session, every tasting and every dinner. I met people I knew but mostly I was able to “forge links” with people from all over the world: Russia,  USA, England, Italy, China, Belgium, France, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, among others.

The inaugural session was moderated by Christophe Macra MW on “Wine on the Web” with four major topics: are blogs the new gatekeepers ?; Reviews : wine critics for Consumers; Social Media and Icons on the Web; mobile strategy. The speakers were Jancis Robinson MW for her blog, Eric LeVine, founder of CellarTracker/GrapeStories, Rowan Gormley, founder of NakedWines and Micheal Linton, from eBay. Most agreed on the fact that consumers and bloggers are replacing the wine gurus but Jancis Robinson is comfortable with the situation.  Indeed a blogger is powerful if he/she has an audience: Jancis has the audience and even if her job is more difficult now, she likes it. Some other types of sites will attract a lot of people: CellarTracker, for example, has a strong following because of the comments left by its many users: it has 1,400,000 consumers’ reviews at the moment. What about social media? Jancis Robinson adopted twitter.com very early: she uses with talent and on a regular basis. According to her, Twitter is a good tool to react fast to a comment. The iconic figures of the wine industry, such as Yquem, are now on Facebook and Twitter to engage with their consumers. Mobility is an other key word for the future of the web: most people have a web access though their phones and use it to look for information and very soon to buy. The conclusion of this amazing panel: according to Rowan Gormley, Internet is the best way to cut down costs of marketing and promotion. It seems that social media, and especially Facebook, is now bringing more traffic on web sites than Google and any SEO techniques.

A pasionnate debate took place between Margaret Hernandez, head of the House of Krug, Sylvie Cazes, President of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, and member of the famous Bordeaux family Cazes and owner of Château Lynch-Bages with her brother Jean-Michel, Eduardo Chadwick, owner of Villa Errazuriz in Chile and Christian Seely, CEO of AXA-Millesimes, the insurer owner of several wine estates in the world. The debate was : “Who serves the consumers best? Families or corporations? A quick survey in the room seemed to show people trusted families more than corporations. Maggie Hernandez and Christian Seely preached so eloquently for corporations they turned some attendees in their favor! Both are very lucky to manage what was formerly family owned estates. The tradition of a strong family management is still very much alive in Krug and the estates managed by AXA-millésimes: Château Pichon-Longueville, Château Pibran, Château Petit-Village, Château Suduiraut, Quinta do Noval (Portugal), for example. As Eduardo Chadwick and Sylvie Cazes strongly emphasized, behind corporations or families, there are people. This is the quality of the people that make the quality of the management and of the wines.  At the end of the discussion, almost everybody agreed that people are making the difference, not an administrative structure.

Some sort of illustration of this principle came out during the next session, “Passing the torch”. Three families, three stories: Jean-Bernard Delmas and his son Jean-Philippe both managing Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion owned by the Dillon family, Miguel Torrès and his daughter Mireia, Jean-Claude and Olivier Berrouet, managing Petrus for the Moueix family. Two families, who are now owners of the estates, figured out a way to pass the torch for 3 generations in Haut-Brion and 2 generations in Petrus to people ouside their own family. They showed that family owned estates trust the family managing the estate enough to create a sort of “succession” tradition. There is legitimacy founded on trust, high level of professional skills and a certain sense of continuation. Some people even questioned the legitimacy of passing the torch to a child who might not be as good as a hired professional. Of course, it was not the case with the Torrès family: Mireia is certainly one of the brightest wine professional of Spain. But the question was asked and deserved an honest answer: sometimes it might be better to let a professional manage the estate until a scion of a next generation can take over with the same passion and the same skills as his/her predecessors.

The next day, we were asked to concentrate on “Emerging Markets: BRIC”. We also focused on “Asian markets and their links with the world consumers”.  On those dry and very technical subjects – full of figures and hard facts – we had the most amazing speakers: Judy Leissner, CEO of Grace Vineyards for China, Eleonora Scholes for Russia, Magandeep Singh for India and Dirceu Vianna Junior for Brazil. Full of humor and anecdotes, they filled us with thoughtful insights on their respective countries. Judy emphasized the importance of the government in the wine business: the three major wineries are state owned (ChangYu, Dynasty and Great Wall).  When the typical consumers’ profile is changing in the Western world, the typical Chinese wine drinker is male, 45 to 60 yr-old and drinks frequently… without liking wine. Indeed drinking wine is a social status related activity.

Eleonora Scholes showed us the differences between the perception of the Russian drinker and the reality. Russians are considered heavy drinkers, big spenders, conspicuous consumers, unpredictable and opinionated. They are in reality not the heaviest drinkers, spend the few money they have because if they don’t, the government will take it or the economy will collapse; wine is still status related and Russians are cultured and educated.  Russians drank in 2009 81 liters of beer, 15 l. of vodka and 7 liters of wine (down from 21 liters in 1985).  Every third wine is imported but, being expensive (150 roubles=3,8 euros), they’re drunk by people with higher income.

Let’s move to Brazil now. It is a young, energetic and rich country where wine is important. According to Dirceu Vianna Junior, There are two markets: one used to domestic wines and entry level imported wines; then demanding professionals with high disposable incone. The Bazilian market meets with three main obstacles: uneducated consumers, price sensitive market and an invasive bureaucracy. But the potential is huge because of a strong population increase and the increasing interest in luxury goods.

India is the “mystery” land where an average salary is 90€ and a good salary 200€. Can Indians afford wine? Hardly, answered Magandeep Singh: the price of a bottle is about 10 to 20 euros. How often can you drink a bvottle of wine on a basic income of 90€ a month? The market is small considering the population of  India: 1,200,000 9 liters cases are consumed in India, including 200,000 cases of imported wines. Mumbai and Delhi are 80% of the market. Any hope for the future: yes, with an up to date marketing to reach the younger consumers through social networking.

The highlight of the aftertnoon was our keynote speaker, John Hegarty, creative director of the ad agency BBH and ower of Domaine Chamans in Languedoc. “Lose the mystery, and enhance the magic” of wine, was his advice to an enthralled audience.  He reminded us that the basic rule is “engagement” because of the fragmenting of the audience. he emphasized the importance of “brands” in the wine business because “brand=reputation”. He pleaded for innovative, creative, daring strategies to create differentiation. Differentiation generates traction, that generates premium. How to brand a wine to create the magic ? We have  to understand the purpose of wine (we know the function) . Wine flavors our life.

Nothing was truer than this statement when we were sitting in front of four glasses featuring wines from Paul Draper, Alvaro Palacios, Paul Pontallier and Peter Gago: “modern legends”. No, because legends are make believe or dead and those wines and their makers were wonderfully alive.

After those four days spent with stimulating speakers and guests, I completely reviewed my idea of what a Master of Wine is: he or she is a great human being able to make 250 guests from all over the world gather in Bordeaux. They’re fun, bright, knowledgeable and open. I can’t wait for the next Symposium held in 4 years somewhere in the world. See you then!

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 Untold Story of American Wine (Clarkson Potter, NY, 2010).

Daniel Norton was a  physician who died very young but not without leaving as a legacy to America a strong and resilient grape bearing his name, the Norton. It is a native grape like Catawba, Scuppernong or Niagara.  The wines made from Norton won awards in Europe in 1873 during the Vienna Universal Exhibition. A wine critic Vizettelly wrote: “The finest American red wines were those yielded by the vine sknown as Norton’s Virginia, [...]. The former produces a well-blended, full-bodied, deep-colored, aromatic, and somewhat astringent wine, only needing finesse to equal a first-rate Burgundy [...]” (p. 122).  Like some other grapes, Norton lost ground to other grapes, mostly coming from Europe. At the end of the 20th Century, some wine makers, led by the Chrysalis vineyards, re-discovered the potential of the Norton grape.

I let you discover the story told almost like an historical novel by Kliman. What interested me most in the book is Kliman’s thoughts on the “domination” of the vitis vinifera mostly coming from Europe over the native grapes. European wines were the benchmark of  viticulture and wine making for centuries. European wine growers and makers brought their knowledge to America when they emigrated.  Sometimes they applied it to growing local vines, sometimes to growing what they knew to grow – Cabernet, Pinot Noir or Shiraz.

My question now is: is there room in the American wine industry for a wine brand based on a native American grape? Chrysalis Winery took up the challenge.  As stated on their web site, “Here at Chrysalis, we’ve undertaken a serious commitment to restoring the native American grape, Norton, to its position of prominence as a source of world class wines.  Cloaked in myth and mystery for decades, Norton thrives in the mid-Atlantic and Midwestern regions, and produces a robust red wine with big fruit flavors that ages beautifully over the years.  One hundred and twenty five years ago, Norton wines were deemed the “best red wine of all nations” at a worldwide competition in Vienna. Today excellent Norton wines are again being produced in many states east of the Rockies.”

Unfortunately the rewards are not coming easily to those strong willed wine makers. An “Heritage Tasting” held in Richmond did not attract the attention of the wine world outside the producing area.  Articles in various national magazines failed to increase awareness of the grape. What’s wrong?  When “googling” Norton grape, very few information come up: a Wikipedia article, the Missouri Wine Organization web site and a few articles on the grape.

It seems there is no real strategy behind the revival of the grape. Let’s hope that Kliman’s book will allow Chrysalis and the other wineries growing Norton to get more coverage. But only a strong and clear strategy that will allow the Norton grape to get back on the map. The revival of a forgotten grape is no trivial matter, but not an impossible task. Some regions succeeded in creating awareness on brands with a very difficult name, like the Müller-Thurgau in the 80′s on the West Coast of the US or  the Cahors Malbec in France whose fame was “stolen” by Argentina.  Let’s hope for the best…!

Some thought it was a good idea, making it clear that Laville was the white wine of La Mission Haut-Brion while others were sorry to see an old name disappear from Bordeaux. Re-branding a well established wine brand is usually a very well thought out decision. In the case of Château Laville Haut-Brion, both names were historically justified. For almost 100 years, Château Laville Haut-Brion belonged to the Laville Family. Marie de Laville bought the estate on July 16, 1611. Ten years later it passed to her brother, Bertrand de Laville. It was only in 1717, that the Laville family sold the estate to a surgeon called Bernard Gaussens.

It made a lot of sense to name the wine after the place it came from. Even after the Laville family didn’t own the place, the successive owners kept the name as part of the tradition. But, at some point during the 20th century – around 1930 if I remember well my history – the owner of Château Laville, M. Bibonne, changed the name to La Mission Haut-Brion blanc. The Woltners went back to the original name.

What does this story tell us about re-branding a wine? For three centuries, the name of the Laville brand was associated to a family who did not belong to the place anymore. By changing the name to associate it to a place currently existing, La Mission Haut-Brion, two factors were accounted for at once: the historical value of the name and the consumer. The latter will gain a better understanding of a rather complicated system since there are three wines available in the La Mission Haut-Brion range: Château La Mission Haut-Brion red and white, La Chapelle de la Mission Haut-Brion, the second wine (red) of Château La Mission Haut-Brion. It is always positive to help the consumer better understand the world of our wines.

A few months ago, I wrote about the clever initiative of a Rhone Valley producer, Laurent Habrard, in Crozes-Hermitage, who created little bottles to send samples to his potential customers. The wines were then presented by videos on the web site by a sommelier and the samples could be purchased on line. The customers could request the samples for a few euros then deductible from the price of the purchased bottles.

This clever initiative is now relayed in California by Crushpad. As you well know, I keep following since the beginning the progress and evolution of this innovative company. Crushpad just launched “Tiny Bottles” which is very similar to Laurent Habrard‘s process, but the American way.

What’s the story behind “Tiny Bottles”? According to their new web site, most of today’s consumers refer to “influencers” to buy wine, either a wine critic, a friend or a site. Those influencers are giving advice on a wine they enjoyed or disliked, and are influencing our choices. Crushpad is now offering a new level of services: the possibility to watch videos about wines recommended by influencers and before buying, tasting some wines for sale in “Tiny Bottles”. As of today, there are two packs of Tiny Bottles, one of four Pinot Noir and one of four Cabernet Sauvignon available for $19 or $29.

It’s always good news to see new services offered to consumers and this is one of great value. I just wished that the tasting of the wines included in the Tiny Bottles was made clearer among the many videos available on the site. I had to look around for little while but besides that “tiny” detail, the idea is fun and well implemented.

Those last few months I’ve been collecting information on green winemaking, biodynamism, and sustainable development. Not so much because I thought about writing about it but mostly because I was curious about this trend after tasting many organic wines.

This lead me to Olivier Dauga, a winemaker and consultant in Bordeaux, whom I met during Vinexpo. Dauga amazed me when he said he didn’t believe in organic winemaking because of the use of copper. Equally, biodynamism doesn’t sit naturally with him – because, “as a concept it is too complicated”. What’s the solution? Biotope! According to Dauga, it “means working the vines in harmony with nature, and thinking of the vineyard as part of a wider natural estate.” For example, it can lead to protect some pre-phyloxerra vines that are still growing on sandy soils, and still producing grapes from ungrafted vines. Everywhere, it is about taking into account the natural flora and fauna, and not engaging in winemaking practises that would be harmful to them.

What’s the difference with green winemaking? Not much if I believe Dauga’s latest project: his Green Winemaking Charter. According to the press release, “The Charter looks at key stages across the entire winemaking cycle, and suggests concrete ways to optimise energy consumption, to reduce dependence on non-renewable sources of energy, to phase out use of herbicides, to apply prevention rather than cure measures against disease, to respect treatment thresholds, to encourage biodiversity, and to ensure reduced use of sulphur in the cellars.”

“There are many practical ways which ensure clean, clever winemaking and keep the quality of our wines paramount,” says Dauga. “Part of the solution is using sensible viticulture such as clearing weeds away manually and not using treatments, and partly it is understanding as new
technologies evolve to help us find ecologically-sound solutions. Part of my job with this charter
will be to ensure my clients know not just what is out there, but what is coming.”

Dauga’s project could help the wine makers to reduce their production of carbone and lead to a cleaner way of making wine. No exciting technology behind the project, just common sense but very useful in our crazy world!

Wine tourism is a difficult topic when you’re not a specialist of… tourism but love wine. Promoting both at the same time is a difficult exercise: wine is part of a local culture. When you didn’t travel to the place where the wine comes from, you discover a region through the wine. How to connect both?

Some people found the right answer and founded 10 years ago the “Great Wine Capitals Network” or GWC. The network includes the major wine regions of some parts of the world: Bordeaux in France, Mendoza in Argentina, Bilbao and Rioja in Spain, Mainz in Germany, Napa Valley in California, Cape Town in South Africa, Porto in Portugal, Firenze in Italy and now Christchurch in New Zealand. It is the only such network to encompass the so-called ‘Old’ and ‘New’ worlds of wine, and exists to encourage travel, education and business exchange between their internationally-renowned centers. In its 10 years of existence, the network has created many interesting initiatives: the “Best of Wine Tourism awards”, an annual international grant for students, organization of many symposiums and conferences as well as facilities to promote wine tourism.

The GWC is managed by its General Secretary, Catherine Leparmentier, based in Bordeaux, France. The group is very active on the Net with a Facebook group, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn Group and now a blog. Quite recent, the blog opened about 3 weeks ago but has already many interesting posts. I especially enjoyed the ones on Tourism 2.0 and the Vivanco Dinastio Wine Museum.

The Great Wine Capitals are really in Web 2.0! Long live to their blog!

Back to work and to reality after 3 days in sheer bliss working on wine and social media, meeting my virtual (but good) friends and getting to know more people.

Technology people are very often environmentally conscious as they mostly try to work without paper and if they use it, recycle it. They’re also aware of the environmental risks created by discarded computers’ parts and technological waste. That’s why I was not quite surprised when I got the pre-package of the conference sent by email by Gabriella Opaz. Under the self-explanatory title, “EWBC Supports Sustainable Living”, our Dream Team set the few sustainable principles of the conference:

- all the documents are available on a 4gb USB Flashdrive held to the nametag. It stores a lot of information on the sponsors, the speakers, the conference as well as various booklets. Having had a look at the contents when back in my room, I refrained to grab too many booklets from our sponsors, knowing the information was on the key.

- when arriving, we were handed a 100% biodegradable bag. It was very useful during the conference to carry around a laptop anda notebook (yes, I know but we usually use recycled paper notebook!). When leaving I packed it carefully – thinking it would be very useful to have it at the bottom of my bag for last minute grocery shopping at home.

- the Dream Team also convinced our 5* hotel to recycle the many bottles we emptied during our various tastings and meals.

I’m glad EWBC set such a great example of sustainable consciousness and I just hope other conferences sill follow the same pattern for the sake of our planet. Keep the good work and thanks for having set such a great example.