March 8 is officially our day, Women’s Day.  We should pay more often a tribute to those women, wine producers or professionals, who are often the source of interesting initiatives. This article aims at mentioning just a few of those ideas or different approaches on various wine related topics. This is my way to tell them “Thank you” not only for some of the best wines I tasted but also for being great human beings and friends.

A few days ago, I received an email from Laetitia Mauriac, who owns and manages with her brother Arthur Château La Levrette in Blaye near Bordeaux, to join a group of women wine professionals.  I knew Laetitia’s wines and strategy from various tastings and events.  Her name is famous in France as she is the great-niece of the writer François Mauriac, who owned Château Malagar and placed many of his novels in the Bordeaux region. But Laetitia is more than the heir of a prestigious name. She is a nice, bright, creative and imaginative wine producer and woman. The label of her wines is a delight in the conservative Bordeaux world: on a white background the design of the letters and the little greyhound, elegant and delicate like Laetitia’s wines, makes the bottle stand out immediately on a shelf.  Laetitia and her brother Louis are also responsible for one of the funniest video I ever saw going viral on the Web: how to seduce a woman with Château La Levrette. And the wines themselves are so good: I especially enjoy her white wine at various tastings.

During this meeting with several wine women, I was also surprised by the design of an other label, Château Saint-Barbe. According to the marketing director, Claire Lescanne, the design was the result of a study on what kind of labels women like. The idea behind it was that women are mostly buying wines and they love elegant and original labels that enhance the quality of the experience. It does not mean they are not able to make the difference between a bad wine in a nicely designed packaging and a good wine in a so-so packaging. They just enjoy a nice looking bottle: it is part of the wine experience.

During the same lunch I also met a woman who is going to open a wine store in Paris dedicated mostly to wines produced by women. The world of wine is so rich in great people I always enjoy spending a few hours talking to wine professionals.

And there are so many great women with whom I spent many delightful hours talking about and tasting wines – theirs and others’. In that very special day I would like to raise my glass to Joan Dillon, Duchess of Mouchy who opened the doors to great wines, Caroline Lestimé in Chassagne-Montrachet, Joëlle Brouard, founder and director of the Wine Management Institute in Dijon, Burgundy and many others I crossed paths with and am very grateful to. Cheers to you, ladies!

A few days ago, I was talking with one of my MBA students on Bordeaux as a brand. The question was: Should Bordeaux brand itself like Champagne?  By branding its region, Champagne allowed small family owned properties to shine and sell their wines. The region leaders, the famous Krug, Bollinger and other Ruinart, did not hide the many little Champagne houses. On the contrary, under the umbrella brand, every brand was able to shine.  Champagne developed a very creative image of happiness, party and pleasure.

Would such a strategy be possible in Bordeaux? Bordeaux has the privilege of having many Classified Growths – about 5% – leading the way in term of image and price. Hidden behind this massive tree, there is a forest of small properties and estates. Some of them have a very hard time surviving and selling their wines at a decent price.  In the mind of many international consumers, Bordeaux means “quality” and “expensive”. The down side of this excellent reputation is that, when seeing a Bordeaux wine sold around $10, the consumer thinks it can not be a good Bordeaux wine because too cheap.

Is there a solution to this problem? I’m not an economist, just a marketer. As such I would answer: “Change your image”. At $10, a Bordeaux can be a very good wine. There were some efforts made at changing the image of Bordeaux in the US. Did you hear of “Bordeaux MatchMaking“? It is such a fun idea as explained on the web site : “Just tell us who you are, your interests and the wine you enjoy and we will match you with the Bordeaux wine that best suits your palate. You’ll get to enjoy this amazing evening with a group of new friends who share your way of life and most of all, your interest in affordable Bordeaux. Wine experts will be present during the evening to answer all of your questions, while our hostesses will ensure your group has an unforgettable experience. The soirees will all take place at exclusive venues in Boston, Chicago, NYC and Miami.”

“Bordeaux wines are meant to celebrate everyday occasions”, says the tagline. A little like Champagne ? What kind of Bordeaux wines ? Red, white, rosé ? All of them? In fact it seems a little difficult to match one Bordeaux with one occasion. Bordeaux wines are so different and complex it is hard to pair an occasion and a wine: birthday and white ? party and red ? pizza party and rosé ? Do you understand what I mean ? The complexity, the variety and the number of styles of wines make it a marketing nightmare.

Bordeaux is not a wine brand, not even a potential one but there are many wine brands in Bordeaux you should enjoy in every occasion. Cheers!

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.

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!

Last week I was interviewed for the French TV channel France5 on how to market efficiently French wines to international markets. The first question of the journalist was: is there any difference between “Old World” and “New World” wine labels? She wanted me to show some “New World” labels. I pointed the “Red Rover” label to her as being “fun” and efficient with the dog face, the name “Red Rover” and the obvious grape mentioned on the label. She was sure no French wine could feature a dog on a label. Really?

Next day I had lunch with a friend in a Bordeaux restaurant and we both ordered a glass of Château La Folie 2005 with our lunch. We asked to see the bottle. And bingo! There was the cutest little dog on the label. Of course the style of the design was very different: I didn’t have my camera and couldn’t take a picture but it was one of those nice looking dogs – not the impressive mean-looking dog of Red Rover.

What does it mean? First of all, French labels are getting more contemporary. Wine makers are now aware that pets are part of our everyday life, like our wine and food. This kind of design is a good way to reach the consumer and appeal to his/her emotional side. Then, it also means that wine makers are ready to simplify their message on wine: wine is not always a serious and difficult subject. It’s fun and can be drunk without commenting on it for hours. Enjoy your wine in front of the fire place with your dog sitting at your feet during the cold season or outside in the garden while your dog is playing when it’s nice!

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!

Videos, Google-style search engine, blog, Facebook page – Millesima.com, one of the leading e-commerce site, is gearing up towards Web 2.0 level and entering the age of social media.

Millesima.com is positioned as a very high-end e-commerce site. It sells only 12-bottle cases of Bordeaux classified Growths, Burgundy or Rhone Valley wines. Their customers are passionate wine amateurs and connoisseurs. Prices are obviously high and there is no bargain or discounted prices. Millesima.com sells in Europe. In their US on line store, the offer differs slightly as it sells sought-after South American, Italian, American and Spanish wines.

The move towards Web 2.0 is not without danger. The image of Millesima is linked to the image of the Bordeaux Chateaux, Burgundy domains or Champagne houses the store sells – an image of excellence and prestige. Their chais hold over 2,000,000 bottles of the best wines in the world by cases of 12 or special formats (Magnums, jeroboams). That’s why its entry in the world of social media has to be well thought out. Gerard Spatafora, the Web Marketing Director, chose a rather elegant strategy. With the help of a former wine journalist and expert in communication, Frederic Lot, he launched a series of high quality videos about some of the estates and their wines sold by the company. Those videos are in three parts: a presentation of the estate, a more technical part and a third one wore consumer oriented with wine and food pairing or drinkability of the wine, for example. They’re implemented in a separate section of the site and have a different design. The videos are not meant only to sell more wines but also to share with Millesima’s customers the world of culture represented by prestige wines. At the moment, the videos are only in French but English and German versions are in the making. When the series will be completed, there will be 150 videos – one for each reference stored by Millesima. But even with only 3 videos, the section is like a little oasis of culture in the middle of an e-commerce site.

At the same time as Millesima launched the video section, it opened a Facebook page. It’s still a little too early to see any significant initative. For now their page is only announcing their events or the new features of the site. It needs a little kick up to become a real Web 2.0 tool in their communication strategy.

Let’s Millesima keep working on their Web 2.0 strategy. See you in a few months with more news on an innovative e-commerce site!

On November 5, 2009

I’ll be speaking (in French for a change) on new technologies and their impact on brand management in Bordeaux.

When it comes to finding information on wine on the Net, is it better to google or ablegrape? This morning I made a very simple test. I “googled” a few wine brands or names and then checked comparatively on ablegrape.com. Guess what? I had more pertinent answers through ablegrape.com.

Let’s take one example. Clarendelle is a relatively new Bordeaux brand. The brand never really advertised but has a web site of its own in French and English. It is distributed mostly on international markets. Google found 3,960 answers for Clarendelle but about 95% were not pertinent or linked to pages saying “There is no answer about Clarendelle on that page”. Thank you for the information!

Ablegrape.com was more helpful in that sense that I was able to figure out faster and more accurately if I would be able to find the information I was looking for on the page. It found 1,764 entries for Clarendelle, most of them quite pertinent. The page also gave the language and the type of site (wine store, blog, producer, trade). It was also possible to search by tasting notes, reference, producer, etc.

What is ablegrape.com? Behind the search engine, there is a man, Doug Cook, passionate about wine and good programmer. Instead of talking about search engine optimization (SEO), he’d rather talk about “search friendliness”, a concept he brilliantly presented during the American Wine Bloggers Conference in July 2009. His work is a work of love and passion he keeps improving with the help of a strong community and a team of wine lovers like him. He’s committed to present the wine trade, wine writers and wine consumers with the best tool to research on wine.

In the current situation where SEO strategies through Google are challenged by brands, a search friend specifically designed for wine is certainly one of the possible answers. I was rather impressed by all the improvement Doug brought to ablegrape.com since I first reviewed it in February 2008. If you’re a wine professional – whatever your area of expertise – or if you love buying and drinking wine, ablegrape.com is certainly the most adequate search tool offered at the moment. Enjoy!

The French blogging scene is a rather unknown phenomenon at the international level. That’s why I didn’t miss the opportunity to meet some French bloggers in Paris at the initiative of the store chain Monoprix. Monoprix is the equivalent of Ralph’s in the US – a middle upscale grocery store with a nice wine selection.

Monoprix just opened a new store, Monop’ Store, in the trendy Saint-Emilion shopping center located in the old “chais” of the now defunct wine quarter in Paris. Wine bars, trendy restaurants, nice stores thrive in this elegant center. Monoprix stores offer a selection of wines in their stores for the traditional September wine fairs. The selection itself was done in a rather original way: Monoprix selected a few of their customers to be part of a jury to select some of their wines. The jury knew also the origin of the wine (Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc.) and the price point. Question: would YOU buy this wine at this price on our shelves? The wines selected by the customers will then submitted to the final approval of two French famous wine critics, Thierry Desseauve and Michel Bettane. The selected wines were then singled out on the shelves with a special aknowledgement in the “Gourmet” brand of Monoprix. The “Gourmet” series of wines represents about 10 to 15% of the wine brands sold in Monoprix stores.

To promote this new selection process and the “Gourmet” brand, the Monoprix Internet Manager (with the help of the Sowine Agency) imagined to ask several wine bloggers to taste their selection of wines being promoted during the September wine fairs all over France. About 10 bloggers met at the Monop’Store in the Saint-Emilion quarter. Most of them were… men, French speaking and only interested in tasting the wines. From what I heard, the wines were very eclectic and represented in fact a rather wide array of tastes and styles. Which means that French wine drinkers, mostly Monoprix customers, are certainly different from what we imagine: they have diverse tastes, don’t hesitate to select more “difficult” wines and enjoy easy to drink wines at the same time. We’re far away from the image of the traditional French wine drinker – either “amateur” of great Bordeaux or Burgundy wines or drinker of mediocre table wines. I just wished I could have a better description of the wine consumers on the MOnoiprix panel.

It is significant that this first experience was launched by a middle size distributor. It is a good way to associate consumers, producers and bloggers to promote wine in a country that seems to be losing its interest in one of its best accomplishment – a pleasant lifestyle associating wine and food.