Since the Social Media Report by VinTank published a couple of months ago, the notoriety of adegga.com increased tremendously and got a much deserved attention. Founded in Portugal by Andre C. Ribeirinho, adegga.com is a very innovative company whose technology is well advanced.

In spite of being Portuguese born, adegga.com is an international platform available in Portuguese, French, English, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. Adegga.com and its team, the two Andres and Emidio, were the technical wizards behind the EWBC: all technical problems and glitches were solved with energy and efficiency by the smiling guys. But the interesting part was the discussions with them about what is their very unique creation, the AVIN code (Adegga Vin Identification Number). You certainly heard about the ISBN code, the identification number for books that allows any libraries or bookstores to identify a book by its very unique code. Adegga created the same system for wine. An AVIN code will be given to every vintage of the same wine.

Even more amazing is the ability for a consumer to access information on the AVIN coded wine through a mobile phone. A winery can apply either the diagram with the code on its back label or only the AVIN number. When the diagram is applied on the bottle, the consumer directs the phone camera on it and has direct access to the wine information on the adegga site or, very soon, on an other site.

This impressive technology is a big improvement for the wine consumer as well as the wineries. The consumer can access useful information while the winery has a direct access to its consumers.

This is the very unusual sight I came across today. At first the title of the article read: “Wine for women”. I got mildly annoyed and was about to move away when a sentence caught my eye: “Every smile has a story. And many stories are shared over a glass of wine”. Banal? Yes, but true. In our days of bad news, a smile is to be treasured preciously.

Back to wine! SmileVino is a weird but touching try to reach people through the best of their heart. Each label depicts a woman smiling. Each smile carries a different emotion: compassion, accomplishment, whatever. The back label tells the story behind the smile. What about the wine? There are two bottles – one of Merlot and one of Chardonnay, both from California. My feeling is that the wine is just the messenger for woman’s charities in various communities in spite of Nancy Moore, vice-president, affirmation: “Our signature Chardonnay and Merlot were specially created in California and offer a fresh taste for wine lovers.”

I like the positive side of the story: smile, telling a positive story, giving back to the community. But why only women and why so little on the wines?

I have a couple of issues with gender marketing applied to the wine business. First, many studies showed clearly that women don’t have special attraction to “feminine” wines, such as pink or sweet wines. Second, women are now learned in wine: they know what they like and what they want to buy. Last but not least, they are usually sharp shoppers and detect easily the false bargain or the marketing trick. Because let’s be honest and even brutal: a wine designed for women is usually poorly made – too sweet, heavy, poorly balanced. Give us real wines – with a smile, yes but also a wine that will bring a smile to our face!

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 days ago I was pondering about the problem faced by Alsatian vintners following the new EU regulations on the origin of wine. The question became a controversy in Alsace where labeling relies a lot on the grape since most wines are mono-varietal. The same wine maker can produce gewürtztraminer, Pinot Gris and Rieasling from the same plot or terroir. The only differentiating information on the label will be the variety indication. Mark Wessels of MacArthur Beverages in Washington DC told Decanter journalist Panos Kakaviatos, “How would customers know the difference between Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl Zind Humbrecht and Gewurztraminer Clos Windsbuhl Zind Humbrecht?”

Jean-Michel Deiss, head of the famous Marcel Deiss Domain, does not mention the variety on the front label. The mention figures only on the back label. On the front label customers read the “Grand cru” mention, the vintage and the “terroir”, Mambourg. One could assume that only a very erudite consumer would know that on the Mambourg terroir grow mostly Riesling and Pinot blanc.

Not mentioning the variety would indeed be confusing for the consumer – especially in that day an age when a lot of wine consumers from the New World buy mostly by the variety.

It would be counter productive for the producers to add to the complexity (or the mystery) of French labels. Let’s try to help the consumers understand, buy and appreciate our wines.

“Yes”, is the loud answer of a recent study presented by Nielsen at the Oregon Wine Symposium on February 11, 2008 in Eugene. Over 3,300 wine brands are now crowding the shelves of grocery stores since 1999 and they now represent about 70% of active brands. Interestingly, their price points are higher. In 2007, 27% of new wines fell in the $10-$14 price range, while 21% were $14-$25 and 19% ranged $8-$10, still according to Nielsen.

Unfortunately, the consumers are not at all brand loyal. They love to try new wines and new brands. That’s why the labels are so important: they need to catch the eye of the consumers but more importantly, to answer basic questions. The wine label must communicate the quality of the wine (60%), reinforce the brand name (55%) and emotionally appeal to the consumer (42%) .

Is it true for all labels? While in California this summer, I was amazed to notice how many brands chose to just put a letter on their front label, like the J Wine label.

Quite beautiful, but not very informative. The problem with labels is to manage to have a beautiful label with a lot of information – back label is critical!

Being in California is a dream when you’re are as passionate about wine brands as I am. I spend a lot of time perusing in wine stores and supermarkets’ wine section looking at their selection, the labels and the way the wines are displayed on the shelves. And of course, I taste some wines, some we buy and others brought by friends. And our friends have very different tastes!

Over the last few days I happened to taste a 2006 Pepperwood Grove Cabernet Sauvignon “vinted and bottled by 3 Loose Screws”, a division of Don Sebastiani and sons in Napa, California, a Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio and a 2006 Gewürtztraminer of Chateau Ste Michelle from Columbia Valley in Washington. No need to present the Yellow Tail brand from Australia since it is now the most famous (and sold) brand in the US: everybody knows the funny label, the extended range of varietal wines and the (rather) low price. I try to taste a few of their varietal wines every year to see if the taste is evolving: I noticed it’s getting sweeter, at least with the Pinot grigio.

More interesting is the difference between PepperwoodGrove and Chateau Ste Michelle. The latter has a “French” style label with a castle silhouetted on the top, a rather old style font and a lot of information on the front label: vintage, varietal, origin and a little comment saying “Washington’s ste founding winery”. The back label has also an “Old World” flavor: it talks of “the magical combination of sun, soil and water – the terroir” and “a slow and cool fermentation” before even mentioning aromas.

Pepperwood Grove is one of the many brands created by Don Sebastiani and his two sons – the self-described “Three Loose Screws” of their wine division. Three Loose Screws describes itself as the “new generation in wine”. “We believe in unconventional and creative brands that generate an identity with the customer. The Three Loose Screws Wine Company really represents what we’re all about — making great wine at reasonable prices, without all the pretension normally associated with wine marketing,” said Don Jr. to BusinessWire in 2005. For memory, The Three Loose Screws created the Kono Baru brand I mentioned in Wine Brands for its reversed name. Back to the Cabernet Sauvignon: the label is light green and very attractive with just four mentions: the brand name, the varietal, the vintage and the origin (California). The back label text is signed by the wine maker, Richard Bruno, which is a nice personal touch. Unfortunately it’s not very informative for the consumer!

Yellow Tail, Pepperwoord Grove, Chateau Ste Michelle – we indeed went already through a few representative types of wines available in the US. Chateau Ste Michelle is very characteristic of the European style wineries developing in the US: working on their terroir and trying to match the European wines. More on the subject very soon!

On OpenWineConsortium.org, there is a European Community Group founded by my friend Robert McIntosh reflecting on the meaning (or absence of meaning) of the differences between “New” World and “Old” World in the wine business. This topic must be very pertinent since the French wine industry just decided to change the laws on how to label their wines. Why? To fight back the New World wines and regain market shares worldwide!

Why is this decision so important? As most wine consumers know, French labels are notorious for their complexity while American, Australian or Argentinian wines are going straight to the point: grape name, vintage, provenance and an explicit back label. French producers will be able to produce wines under the “Vignobles de France” (French Vineyards) denomination with a lot more freedom:

• They can plant any type of vine anywhere in France: for example, Gewurztraminer will no longer be restricted to Alsace.
• They can put the name of the grape on the label.
• Blended wines from different regions of France will be available for the first time.
• Producers are authorized to use oak chips and tannins during vinification.

Those new rules mean more flexibility and reactivity to answer the new trends. Maybe it will allow the launch of more brands, such as Chamarré. This new system should bring the wine industry up, since the Controlled Appellation will be harder to obtain and the top vineyards will keep their high standards.

I just read an article in the North Bay Business Journal that raised a very interesting question: is it better for a winery to create a second label or to sell the wine in bulk when you have too much of a lower quality wine for your main brand? This discussion happened during the Business Journal’s 2008 Wine Industry Conference on April 9. Some said that their “winery had considered a second label but determined selling the excess wine in bulk was better than risking diluting the brand.” Others argued that “a second label can help a winery with distributors, but it should have a different name,” and be tied to the main brand at least on the back label.

The debate is still going on in the trade anyway. I can think of a few successful examples I know in the French wine industry. In 1998, the famed Château Palmer, a classified Growth of Margaux, near Bordeaux, launched a new brand called Alter Ego de Palmer. It’s not a second wine but a full new brand, clearly linked to the main brand but different in its positioning: the wine can be drunk young with all the qualities of a great Margaux wine, finesse and elegance. It is not confusing for the consumer and very reliable for the distributors.

An even more recent example is “Clarence”, the second wine of Château Haut-Brion, one of the five First Classified Growths. For many years, the second wine of Château Haut-Brion was named Château Bahans Haut-Brion after the plot on which the vines were planted. The name was difficult to remember and to pronounce, even for French people. A few weeks ago, Domaine Clarence Dillon, owner of Château Haut-Brion, officially announced the new name of the second wine: Clarence. “In 2009, stated the press release, Domaine Clarence Dillon will be celebrating the 75^th anniversary of the first visit of Clarence Dillon to Chateau Haut-Brion. This milestone will enable us to write a new page in the modern history of our second wine. In recognition of three quarters of a century of presence of the Dillon family at Chateau Haut-Brion, Domaine Clarence Dillon has decided to mark the occasion by renaming our second wine “Le Clarence de Haut-Brion” and by bottling our second wine in the elegant “Haut-Brion” bottle, specially engraved with the mention:“Clarence”. It was Clarence Dillon himself who fifty years ago brought this now iconic bottle design to Chateau Haut-Brion and first began using this elegant form for the 1958 vintage.”

Second label and second wine are common business practice in the French wine industry. This practice is considered as a reinforcement of the primary brand instead of a dilution.

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!

Again labels are in the news. As I stated in “Wine Brands”, labels are what customers see first when they browse the store shelves: kangaroos, dogs, frogs, rabbits and many animals attract the eye but what’s in the bottle? Good question that some consumers don’t ask themselves: when I was in the wine store of my friend Barbara Tyree, Under The Grape in Charlotte, N.C., a charming young woman walked in the store, started looking around and made a sudden and joyful move towards a bottle with a stylish “J” letter on the label. She didn’t even look at the back label to have more information on the wine before moving to the cash register and asking: “Do you have 2 cases of that wine?” While she was waiting to be brought the cases, I asked what attracted her to that bottle: “The “J” on the label, of course! It our anniversary and our name is Jones. It’s so great to have a wine with the initial of your name to serve to our friends tonight at our party!”

Got the picture? That’s why my friend and wine journalist Robin Garr, founder of the site WineLoversPage.com titled his 30Second Wine Advisor Newsletter on January 30th, 2008: “Cute animal labels? Holy Cow!” Like me, like a lot of wine lovers, he’s tired of cute animal labels or funny labels hiding poor quality wines. Does it mean an ugly black and white cow is appropriate for a wine label? Why would a winemaker from Washington call his Chardonnay – as good as it is and I trust Robin’s taste – “Holy Cow” and design a cow on the label? To me it seems more appropriate to a dairy farm or a cheese store than a wine label!

Holy Cow! I’m so tired of meaningless or non related labels! Is it that difficult to design a label appropriate to the content of the bottle? Are we so sure it would impair the success of the wine? Let’s think about it and come back to the topic when I’ll be in a better mood!