Last year, I wrote in my French blog about winefair.com, this French initiative: a virtual and 3-D wine fair. I was impressed by the technology and the design of the site. This year, the second edition of winefair.com opens up to international markets.

During the last few weeks, I was in contact with many American winemakers and opinion leaders. The concept is not easy to grasp because it is rather innovative and creative: the site is mostly a business platform allowing winemakers and professionals to get acquainted, meet, talk and keep in touch after the show. In order to enjoy all the functionalities of the site, you must register as a visitor: you’ll then access the list of exhibitors, be able to see when they will be available on their booth (a green dot next to their name) and even make appointments with them on the agenda.

Wine enthusiasts are also encouraged to register as they’ll access a description of the winery, presentation of the wines available and also be able to chat with the producers.

Who are the producers ? A lot of them are French, some are American (Randal Grahm from Bonny Doon, Craig Camp from Cornerstone Cellars, Jeff “El Jefe” Stai from Twisted Oak Winery), Australian (Mark Gifford from Blue Poles in the Margaret River area), Portuguese or Spanish.  Consumers and professionals can take advantage of the agenda of each producer to come and meet them. It is a rare oppportunity as most of those international producers do not sell their wines in Europe.

As all fairs, conferences in French and in English will take place during the 5 days of the show: they are live video conferences. I listened to a couple of French conferences live today and was impressed by the level and interest of the content.

The first conference (image above) was with the CEO of the Spanish Qude Bodega about organic wines and wine tourism. This afternoon, the discussion was on the site wine-sign.com, linking communications and wine. It is a lot of fun to chat on line with the speakers using their tchat tool or Twitter.

There were some technical glitches yesterday during the opening. The site was even cut off for a few hours – thanks to a lot more connections than expected on Monday at 9:00 am!  But things seem to be fixed by now and hopefully the site will run smoothly from now on.  The wine fair might open an extra day next week to answer all the requests of people and give more time to the exhibitors to meet with the crowd.

Take the time to stop by the fair and enjoy the English-speaking program we designed specifically for you!

[Note: I work with winefair.com because I believe in the project, my first criteria to accept a new mission.]

You know a technology is successful when you start seeing it all over the place. Most of my favorite French wine and food or lifestyle magazines now have an iPhone app, making searching for a recipe or a match with a wine a lot easier.

It happened that one of the most respected and widely read wine sites, Natdecants.com, just launched a new version of its app available for Blackberry as well as iPhone, DrinksMatcher. Who doesn’t know Natalie MacLean? Just for those a little distracted, let me remind them that Natalie is an independent journalist and author of the bestseller Red, White and Drunk All Over. Her site, NatDecants.com, is a resource for all wine and food lovers. Natalie has won four James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. At the World Food Media Awards in Australia, she was named the World’s Best Drinks Writer.

The first version of her free mobile app worked well. The new version is much enhanced. It includes 380,000 food and wine pairings and thousands of wine reviews. You can search the reviews by winery, price, score, region, grape, vintage, food match, check how many bottles of a particular wine are in local liquor stores or search a directory of 10,000+ wineries to buy wine or plan a visit.

It is always exciting to see a new technology, 100% user-centered taking off and being adopted by more and more businesses. It is so positive to see entrepreneurs, such as Natalie MacLean, ready to make the investment in a new technology and not charging the consumers for this new level of service. Thanks to all those customer-driven entrepreneurs who make the world such an exciting place to be!

Next week I’ll be on my way to the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. I’m one of the lucky one who’ll get to speak twice – once on Social Wine Brand and the second time on the Future of the Social Wine Brand.

But what is exactly the social wine brand? More and more winery owners are getting aware of the importance of social media to reach their consumers. They start writing blogs, create a page on Facebook and an account on Twitter. Those are great initiatives but they’re far from being as efficient as they could be. Indeed being part of a social media network means a lot more. It means interfacing with other wine professionals – even peers – and, of course, consumers. One of the weaknesses of the European wine network is the lack of communication and cooperation between winery owners and wine makers. Europe is more individualistic and competitive than its New World friends – i.e. Americans, Australians or South Americans. It impairs the launching of efficient networks. Indeed, networks require trust and sharing information and tips. Europeans are usually more retentive and don’t give away information or tip to an unknown party.

Is there a solution for this situation? Yes, we see in Europe innovative initiatives coming from wine makers who understood how working together (and not against each other) is important. The French “Mes Vignes” network is one of the best examples. Several winemakers from various French producing regions got together to offer wine lovers the opportunity to rent some vines for a year and create their own wine. In Cahors, the wine makers “banded” together to promote their wines in the US through blogs and buzz marketing. I’m sure other countries have many success stories they’ll share during this panel on social wine brands.

Blogging is certainly one of the best social media a winery can develop. But it is not enough to write posts on the state of the vine or how the wine is doing in the vat or in the barrel. The blog needs to bring value to the winery or the shop owner by creating a special relationship with the final consumer. The blogger needs to create links with other bloggers by sharing information, giving away ideas or starting interesting discussions. Topics can vary. I recently read a discussion on Facebook initiated by David Corey on : “would you rather buy high priced wine discounted or small production wines with consistenly fair pricing? let’s say $29 and under?” The question is a very good example of the kind of topics consumers are passionnate about: over 30 people answered and commented upon each other’s comments.

Don’t hesitate either to join professional networks such as OpenWineConsortium or LinkedIn with its Wine 2.0 or Wine Business section. Be proactive, create relationship and emotion around your brand. Comment on other people blogs, give away information to help somebody, get involved in discussions you are interested in – “just do it” or “think differently” but whatever you chose to do, do it in a spirit of cooperation and with an open mind.

It’s one of those minor (or major?) cultural differences that makes being a marketer such a pleasure. In France, Marquès de Cacérès sells its Rosé 2008 with a synthetic cork – just for the pleasure of hearing the little noise when opening the bottle. In the US, the same bottle is sold with a screwcap. What does it tell us, marketers? Americans are practical people: this wine is made to be drunk within the summer. Why bother with a cork? A screwcap makes the opening much easier and you can bring the bottle to a picnic or a barbecue without bringing a cork opener.

What does it mean for a winery? We all heard about the controversy of cork vs. screw cap for wines with ageing potential. I’m talking here about wines for everyday consumption – wines that could – and should – be drunk within a few months of their bottling. Are there any advantages for the winery to switch to screw caps? In some ways there are: Screw caps are cheaper – once the bottling line cost has been swallowed. Aluminium screw caps are recyclable and there is a security to avoid tampering with the bottle: the “Roll On Tamper Evident” (ROTE), which is the tiny metal “bridges” connecting the top of the screw cap to the body and making a distinctive “click” noise when the screw cap is opened, proving its integrity.

In spite of their advantages, screw caps are still not welcome in traditional Europe where consumers link wine and cork. They are associated with cheap and bad table wines when in the New World (US, Australia, New Zealand) they are common because consumers just hate the cork taint. European consumers consider the taint as part of the wine culture: it is unavoidable but rare in high quality wines – therefore their high level of tolerance for the problem.

In conclusion is there a real debate on screw cap vs. cork? Maybe not: it’s more a cultural debate on tradition vs. innovation.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the new Alcan closure for Champagne, first experimented with a Duval-Leroy Champagne. News now come from Australia as a new sparkling wine closure is launched by Zork on Zamphire, an Australian sparkling wine produced by McWilliam’s Wines under its Evans & Tate brand.

The SPK closure has been developed in response to market demand for a better solution for sparkling wine. Zork claims that the SPK closure will deliver high and consistent CO₂ preserving the bubbles, no TCA or flavour modification, an easy opening, a reseal by simple pressure. If we are to believe the clever video on the homepage of the Zork site, the claim is true to its words.

SPK delivers the same advantages as the Maestro closure of Alcan without changing most bottling facilities. Its look is more industrial than the Maestro – losing in the process some of the romance of the bubbles!

Funny story: Yellow Tail, the number 1 Australian wine brand in the US, is to launch in the UK a music and wine promotional campaign. British wine consumers will have the privilege to drink their Rosé with R&B, their Bubbles with Classic Pop and their Chardonnay with 80s rock.

Will this “alliance” between a wine and a DJ convince British consumers to drink more of Yellow Tail? Maybe since Yellow Tail also offers the chance to win one of 30 Yellow Tail remixing kits, which includes a six-pack of wine and CDs. On the brand management standpoint, Yellow Tail is the epithom of mass market brand and is bought as a convenience – like milk and soap. This strategy could work.

France is currently debating a law on how to save its health coverage system and prevent various costly diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular accidents and so on. First culprit: wine consumption. I suppose drinking a glass of whiskey a day or a glass of vodka is much better for your health!

Whatever the culprit or the intentions of the government behind this targeting of the wine industry, I suspect France doesn’t to find the right answer to the problem of binge drinking among young people. The answer is called: education. In countries where drinking wine is not denounced as a crime, alcoholism decreased while wine consumption increased. Weird? Not so much! Education was the key word. Young children learned how wine was made, how it was part of their history, their culture and their traditions, that it was part of a high quality lifestyle. Grown up, they knew to choose wine, consume it with moderation and appreciate it for what it was: the result of a difficult work done by people dedicated to a high quality product.

This is so true that some French people are at the origin of very original and innovative ideas. The small but rising Chaors appellation is one of them. Its Marketing Director, Jeremy Arnaud, launched last year the Malbec Academy in partnership for the Wine MBA program of the Dijon Business School, under the direction of Pr. Joëlle Brouard. Each year, the students spend a week in Cahors to get both a theoretical and practical knowledge of the Cahors region and wines: in the morning, they follow seminars on the international strategy of the Cahors appellation and brainstorm with the speakers on various subjects. In the afternoon, they visit properties and meet producers and negociants. To complete this “splash course”, each student is invited to spend the week with the family of a producer or a negociant.

The program takes place from March 23rd to March 27th in Cahors. I’ll be one of the keynote speakers among many others: Jérémy Arnaud, Marketing Director of the Cahors Appellation (UIVC), Pr. Joëlle Brouard and Pr. Jean-Guillaume Ditter, authors of a comparative study on Cahors and Chablis; the journalist Jérôme Baudouin for his comparative study on Cahors and Australia, Pr. Valérie Olvier on agricultural management; Pr. Jean-Christian Tulet author of a documentary on Cahors wines; Franck Lederer, Financial Director of the Taillan Group, to mention only a few.

This initiative shows how education and not repression is the best way to answer the problem.

When the Western world is in financial trouble, eyes turn to other markets: India, China, Russia carry the hope of our sick economies for recovery. The wine business is no exception. Wine consumption is on the rise in India but it’s still very marginal compared to spirits and beer consumption. The yearly annual wine consumption is estimated at 10 millions liters – compared to 3,000 millions liters of spirits and 1,000 million liters of beer! The potential for the wine business is huge as long as the wine industry can convince the Indian consumer to trade beer and spirits for wine.

What could help the average Indian consumer to change habits? India produces wines from international grapes, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Shiraz and Zinfandel in red and Chardonnay, Chenin, Sauvignon, Clairette and Ugni in white. Chateau Indage, Sula, Grover, Vinsura and Vintage are the five top producers. Indage produced 3,600,000 l (40%); Sula, 2,700,000 25%); Grover, 1,250,000 15%); Vinsura, 250,000 and Vintage, 100,000. This shows Indians are familiar with our traditional grapes and wine styles.

On the other end, their wine and food traditions don’t play in favor of wine consumption. Indians drink tea with their meals. Wine is more the before dinner drink during the long pre-dinner meetings with friends and family. An other obstacle is the legal drinking age of 25. Last but not least, only the upper middle class can afford to drink wine because of its still high price for the average income. The middle class is estimated at 300 million individuals, but the upper middle class at a mere 30 million potential consumers. They are mostly located in three states: Maharastra, Kamataka and Delhi.

Imports are a very small part of the Indian market because of the high taxes and the little number of importers. Getting an import license costs the equivalent of about 8000 euros, which is a very high price for a local merchant. What are the market shares of the various importing countries?

- France: 40,5% (81,500 cases)
- Australia: 22,4% (45,000 cases)
- USA: 14,9% (30,000 cases)
- Italy: 8,2% (16,500 cases)
- Chili: 5,8% (11 750 cases)
- South Africa: 4,1% (8,250 cases)
- Germany and Argentina: 2,7% each (5,500 cases)
- Spain: 2% (4,000 cases)

What is the best strategy to approach the Indian market? First of all, there is no Indian market: each state is different and requires a specific approach. Second, there are two main doors: Mumbai, capital of the Maharashtra with a booming economy in spite of the terrorist threats and attacks and a good wine knowledge because the region includes 90% of the Indian vineyards and Bangalore, capital of the Karnataka, the Indian “Silicon Valley”, head quarters of the Grover Vineyards and full of young graduates back from Europe or the US with a thirst for Western lifestyle.

India is indeed one of the most promising market for imported wines but the “candidate” to this Eldorado has to be aware of the numerous traps: a family oriented type of business, very strong local cultures, a complex and subject to change system of distribution and high costs of imports in taxes. But the Indian consumers are curious of our wines and open to the adventure!

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 Napa Valley, in the hope of proving wrong the idea of California as part of the new world of wine. Theproject spearheaded when he saw some maps dated 1890.

When the Europe of wine is moving away from its roots and trying to match the New World wine industry in creating brands and refering to grape varietals instead of terroirs, the new world of wine is tracing back its roots. More and more Californian wines are refering to local places or specific plots of land. Very soon some Californian producers will even be able to date their vineyards and write the complete history of their land. Which is the proof that both strategies are valid: it is possible to link a place to a varietal as well as find your roots in history and geography.

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 wines and could be a potential customer. I especially liked their first sentence – direct and enticing: “Friday Monkey wines are drinks for any occasion; be it at home, a casual dinner with friends, or at a BYO restaurant. We give you the finest quality wine that tastes good and lets you have all the pleasure. ” As well as their closing statement: “Wine may be regarded as a metaphor for the spirit of Australia, reflecting the multi-faceted elements of a nation that retains the essence of its origins, embraces the new and distils both into a product of vigor, variety and complexity. Our wines are young, trendy and sophisticated.” The Friday Monkey winery produce the usual culprits: Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Shiraz, Cabernet Merlot, Rose and Chardonnay. I liked what I saw and sent a few questions to Sid who answered very nicely. Friday Monkey is the new brand by excellence: well thought out and very well marketed within the Web 2.0 world.

How did you choose the name?

The Friday Monkey name was chosen with the purpose of gaining immediate brand recognition. Friday is the best trading day of the week for liquor sales in the United States. USA and UK are our focus. The sight of a cute monkey swinging on a vine is one which delights people of all ages. Combined on a wine label, they present a whimsical image which is readily noticed with irresistible appeal to the impulse buyer. Its name is easily remembered and describes the contemporary personality of the wine. It also conveys a feel good factor while making a purchase decision in the store. Last and not the least, it will boost retailers’ wine sales without them doing any hand selling.

How innovative is your marketing strategy? Do you use Web 2.0 tools?

We have a Facebook group page with 325 members, a group on LinkedIn called “Beverage Network” and we are on almost 50 blogs. We are not on Youtube yet, but will be there soon as we have just completed a wine tasting video with a critic. This is posted on our facebook group page for the moment.

Other marketing strategies include traditional tastings, posters, banners, magazine adverts, print articles, house wine programs. We also partner with ‘event’ companies and give them our wines to use for free (almost). Thus they open our bottles at wedding events, birthdays, corporate parties, dinners, etc and we get awareness. We also partner with clubs, charity organizations, etc. For example: we offer discounts to YHA members, South Australian Farmers Federation, University of Western Australia, etc. We also sponsored a global conference of the Australian Primate Society. We will be sponsoring an event for American Primate Society this year.

We are now considering advertisements on Facebook, MySpace, etc….but we are hesitant and working on the statistics as 25% of the audience on web 2.0 are under 21 (legally cannot drink) and it will more of a brand awareness program than depleting stock. Therefore, we still prefer print and traditional advertising in wines. Facebook allows and places your adverts to users which are above 21, so we may start with those.

Besides the US, do you plan to reach other markets (Asia, Europe)?

We are in a few countries but we have not really mass marketed them as the duty and taxes are very high. We are waiting for the local government to cut down some taxes and that will be the right time for us. As far as Europe goes, we will be starting distribution with a UK based importer and Finland importer in 2009. Due to the current economic conditions, we are waiting for the right time to launch as we don’t think that this is the right time to introduce a ‘new’ brand in a ‘new’ market. Thus till mid next year, we will focus on penetrating where we are.