The International Associated Women in Wine conducted a study on the consumption of wine by European women. The results were announced in June 2008 during the general Assembly of the organization and the official analysis was just released.

Some intriguing points were raised by the answers to the questionnaire, depending on the country where it was issued. Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Spain and Hungary were covered by the study.

First topic covered was women as wine buyers: in all countries, they buy local wines, shop in supermarkets (65% for Italy and 40% for Greece), in wineries (Switzerland, 68%) and in wine stores (Spain, 40,7%). Italian women buy wine for their home (35%) and to drink with their friends (22%); 54% of Greek women buy for their home; 88% of the Swiss for meals for friends; Spaniards for home (55%) and Hungarian mostly for home.

As wine consumers, women are full of surprise and have very different behavioral patterns from one country to an other one:

Where do women drink wine?

-Italy : 33% in restaurants
- Switzerland: 93% at home with friends

Spain: 70.6 % at home with the family

Hungary: mainly (without percentage) at home with friends

Which wines do they usually drink?

Italy: 48% red

53% light-fruity

54 % still

Greece: 61 % red

56 % white

37% dry

24% still

Switzerland: 89,8 % red

52.2% full bodied with intense flavor

53,8 % white

34.9% still

42.5% dry

Spain: 100% red

and 46.9% white

31.2% light-fruity

21.9% sparkling

Women also have a good wine knowledge: they attended wine seminars and tastings as well as they visited wineries to expand and diversify their knowledge. They know the main grape varietals of their country as well as in what order wines should be served at a meal.

In spite of its limits, this study shows general patterns in consuming and buying wines among European women. The International Associated Women in Wine is now working on a more complete and scientific study conducted in every European country.

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!

Our first day of conference ended last night with a grand buffet and the pouring of the wines of the Douro Boys. But before we were rewarded by such a feast, we had to work hard through two tastings.

Both tastings were a real initiation to Spanish and Portuguese wines. Esteban Cabezas, Marketing Director of the Wine Academy of Spain, conducted a fascinating tasting of the fortified, dessert and natural sweet wines from Spain and Portugal usually featured during the Vinoble Fair (Salon de los Vinos Nobles) held in Jerez from May 30 to June 2, 2010. Esteban made a brilliant presentation of the style and history of those wines followed by the tasting of two Amontillado wines, some Port wine, a red Moscatell, a Madeira and the mysterious Garvey Gran Order PX. It was a trip in the history of various wine regions and through elegant and unusual flavors and aromas.

After a much needed palate cleansing, we were back in the tasting room facing 18 wines of the energetic and talented Douro Boys. The Douro Boys is a group of five wineries: Quinta do Vale Meao, Quinta Vale D Maria, Quinta do Crasto, Niepoort and Quinta do Vallado. After the serving of their white wines, each wine maker conducted the tasting of his wines.

Questions on wine making were asked by the floor and the Douro Boys answered with humor and talent. We had a fascinating and entertaining event. As a wine marketer, I was also interested by their branding strategy. Douro is a very easy name to remember whatever the native language. As one of them pointed out, “boys” might be more ambigous in some countries but to most people, the Douro boys is a group of wine makers from Douro. This collective branding strategy was the first step that now allows them to differentiate each winery from the other ones. The tasting showed clearly that each winery has a different style of wines. Every attendant has the possibility now to make his/her choice among the various styles of wines.

Besides tastings and panels, the EWBC is the best opportunity for us, bloggers, to meet face to face with our contacts and Facebook friends. I also had the opportunity to see again some wine professionals I rarely have the opportunity to meet. I was delighted to exchange ideas and renew acquaintance with a lot of people. And I’m looking forward to getting acquainted to many of the other participants – all fascinating people from different countries.

Thanks to the Dream Team of EWBC to bring us all together!

According to Adam Lechmere from decanter.com, a Spanish children’s book, El Estornino Saturnino en la Tierra del Vino (The Gloomy Starling in Wine Country) by Judith Sáenz de Tejada won the prize for best illustrated wine publication at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2009, which took place in Paris on July 1st, 2009.

Without even reading the book, I feel very happy for Spanish children whose wine culture is explained to them with care and certainly talent. It will be a long time before French children can have access to such a book. Spain understood the need to promote the wine industry as part of their cultural heritage. France is on its way to destroy one of its cultural gems as well as a very important economic resource.

Indeed France is depicting wine as evil – it must be part of our axis of evil of sad memory! Vineyards are part of our landscapes like wine is an important component of our lifestyle. In spite of that, French children are taught that wine and any alcohol beverages will lead to alcoholism, drunk driving, cancer and tragedy. They’re not taught the beauty of the wine countries, how wine is made and the true values of wine as a cultural product.

The good side of this story is that Judith Saenz de Tejada’s book was awarded in France by a French institution. The first step towards the recognition of the true value of wine? Let’s hope this book will be translated in French for the good of our children and of their education.

I’ll be speaking on Wine Tourism and New Technologies at Vinexpo on June 24th during the seminar organized by the Great Wine Capitals Network. Here is the program for those who will be in Bordeaux at that time:

Great Wine Capitals Global Network (GWC GN) is pleased to announce, in partnership with the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a conference on:

Wine Tourism: New Trends, Benefits & Challenges faced by Wineries.

The purpose of this conference is to inform participants about new marketing tools & strategies, their uses and impact on a winery’s wine tourism strategy, the marketing of their service towards tourism operators, social networks and blogs, wine clubs and best practices.

The conference, held in English with simultaneous French translation, will take place during the VINEXPO professional wine trade fair (21st-25th June), on
Wednesday 24th June, 2009 at the Palais des Congrès in Bordeaux Lac, Bordeaux

Speakers are all experts belonging to one of the member cities of the Network and have a wealth of experience in the wine tourism field, an important basis for them to give an insightful and knowledgeable talk on their specific subject of wine tourism. There will also be a questions and answers period at the end.

The conference speakers will be:
André Morgenthal, Communications Manager, Wines of South Africa. Moderator

1. Terry Hall, Napa Valley Vintners, Communications Director.
Bringing forward the Wine Tourism concept

2. Karine Quéron, Château Fonplégade, First Rank Growth of Saint-Emilion.
The adaptation in Bordeaux vineyards of a typical Californian tool: creation of a Wine Club at Fonplégade.

3. Raquel Perèz Cuevas, Bodega Ontañon, Rioja.
Return on investment of the opening of a museum in a winery.

4. Steffen Schindler, Head of press office & Director marketing, German Wine Institute.
The Marketing Strategy of German Wine Institute to develop wine tourism.

5. Vincent Lhoste, International Wine Travel Market (IWTM).
B2B: How to market your service product to tourism professionals.

6. Evelyne Resnick, RESMO, International Web Strategy wines and brands, Bordeaux.
Social networks and blogs influence on traveling in the vineyards

7. André Morgenthal, Communications Manager, Wines of South Africa.
International Best Practices: ‘Best Of’ Wine Tourism.

About Great Wine Capitals Global Network
Great Wine Capitals is a network of eight major global cities in both the northern and southern hemisphere, which share a key economic and cultural asset: each is an internationally renowned wine region. 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 exchanges between the wine tourism centers of Bilbao|Rioja (Spain), Bordeaux (France), Cape Town (South Africa), Florence (Italy), Mainz|Rheinhessen (Germany), Mendoza (Argentina), Porto (Portugal) and San Francisco| Napa Valley (USA).

For further information, visit www.greatwinecapitals.com
Contact: Catherine Leparmentier, Permanent Secretary
+33 (0)5 56 79 51 64
cleparmentier@bordeaux.cci.fr

Nowadays most trips start in the virtual world. We go on line to look for ideas, get the best prices for plane or train tickets, hotels, etc. But most of all we look for the right information: what’s interesting? Where are the best vineyards? The best wine country?

While surfing you hit web sites, blogs, forums and other sources of information. Two things seem to be mandatory: a good web site presenting the winery but also the region and the opinions of the other travelers. Why is a good web site important? When traveling to California wineries for the first time, I asked some of my California friends their recommendations. I “googled” the wineries and the places. Guess what? Some web sites were almost non existent. Some less famous regions had no general information site. I couldn’t access any information. What did I do? I “googled” for more information and went to other places. Of course I might have missed a few very good wines, great regions and fascinating winemakers but… we’re in an age of information and I don’t have time to waste with phone calls and sometimes even… faxes!

Fortunately this situation is getting rarer. You always get information from your peers. There are many forums who give you the opportunity to read travelogs or get in touch with people. Wine geeks are good travelers. Some professionals offer interactive and in-depth information, such as Wink Lorch and her Wine Travel Guides to Bordeaux and other French regions, Italy, Spain and Germany. There are blogs of winemakers, wine professionals and wine lovers who share information, tips and good addresses.

I’ll be speaking at Vinexpo on the topic of Wine Tourism and New Technologies on Wednesday 24, at 2:30. I’ll give you more details very soon but hope to see you there!

A short study conducted by Gfk among wine consumers of 9 European countries (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Russia, Poland) brought good news to wine brands: European consumers are loyal to their favorite brands.

Asked if they would consider switching to a similar but cheaper brand, an average of 67% said they would stick to their favorite: 53.5% in Germany, 75% in France, 74.9% in Spain and in Poland, 51.4% in Austria, 70.2% in Italy, 77.1% in Netherlands, 74% in UK and 62.2% in Russia.

However, for other goods such as food or electronic devices, consumers admitted they would change brand for a cheaper one. It means that wine has still a special status in the consumers’ mind. It is not (yet) a commodity good. Cheers!

A few years ago, the French Paradox thrilled Americans (and French as well): by drinking a glass of wine a day and eating some olive oil, a lot of fruit and vegetable, fish (rather than meat), men and women could stay healthy for many years and avoid the dreaded and dreadful cardiovascular disease. And now here is the bad news: one glass of wine a day will cause cancer! The study by France’s National Cancer Institute (INCA) says that consuming just a 125ml glass of wine increases the chance of developing mouth, larynx, esophagus, colon-rectum and breast cancer by 168%.

Who should we trust? Europeans have been drinking wine for centuries with their meals. Wine is part of our culture and tradition. Poets, writers, musicians, painters celebrated its history, beauty and positive influence on Western civilization. We, Europeans, are blessed with the beautiful landscapes of our wine countries: travel along the gorgeous Rhone Valley, cross the hills and the valleys of Burgundy, admire the fabulous landscape of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire painted by Cézanne near Aix-en-Provence and now the place of one of our Controlled Appellation areas. More South, did you go to Rioja in Spain or in Tuscany in Italy?

As soon as this report of the INCA was published, a general outcry was heard all over France. Wine consumers expressed their disbelief: wine is not bad for your health – certainly less than all the chemicals, salt and fat in processed food sold freely in every supermarket. Forums, blogs, answers to articles expressed the same irritation to the dumb propaganda. Respected physicians and researchers published answers to the study, showing how the data were manipulated by the authors of the INCA study. They contested its results and conclusions. Vintners are considering suing the National Institute of Cancer for “misleading information” and for damaging their image and business.

Why all this noise? This week the French Parliament will discuss a new law on alcohol: how to prevent binge drinking by young people, advertising wine on Internet, suppress the “open bars” (which will outlaw all wine fairs, public tastings and tastings in vineyards), how to save money by avoiding dangerous behaviour such as drinking a glass of wine. When is the French government going to prevent us from crossing a street, shaking hand with a colleague or a friend (hands are the most common vector of contamination when you sneeze or cough) or forcing us to exercise 3 hours a day after work? All for our good, of course!

Let’s be serious: as grown-ups and responsible human beings, we have the right to our own privacy. We have the right to decide what kind of lifestyle we want to live without interference of our government. We are very privileged to be living in countries at peace and rich enough (even with the current crisis) to worry about health and prevention. Does it give the right to our government to decide if I should have or not a glass of wine or a piece of meat? I don’t think so. I think our money would be much better spent to help better causes.

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!

I must confess I have a soft spot for strong but fine wines. That’s why I enjoy wines from Cahors, Languedoc, or Spain, for example. Cahors and Languedoc are still fighting some prejudices as for their qualities. After a few years of campaigning Languedoc is now better off but Cahors is still carrying a wrong image. I even read lately on blogs or in the press some untrue comments onhow they are”tannic” or “rustic” or “difficult to drink”. Since I just came back from Cahors and had the privilege to taste some of their wines, I’d like to answer some of those articles.

Malbec from Cahors is the original Malbec – the Malbec that went to Argentina at the end of the 19th century and thrived in this new land. It gave birth to a new kind of Malbec due to the climate. While Argentinians were working with this new grape variety, Cahors was being true to almost 800 years of history of wine making: their strong and powerful wine was a huge success in Europe until the 1956 frost almost wiped out the vineyard. The producers replanted with even better quality vines and since then have been producing nice and powerful wines. Of course, there were low end wines like in every appellation but most producers tried to create high quality wines.

The result of this policy is now obvious when you drink Cahors wines: they lost a lot of the “tannic” edge that was difficult for the average wine drinker. They are now more velvety, smooth while still powerful – the real expression of their sunny and dry terroir. This new generation of Cahors wines express deeply the land they come from: they’re food-friendly and enjoyable. Cahors people enjoy life, good food, friends, sports. They carry in their wines their life values. You can enjoy their rounder wines as a pre-dinner drink with some roasted vegetables or a cheese plate. Their wines also have a very good ageing potential, allowing the wine drinker to savour older wines. I tasted a Château Lamartine 1978 full of life and smooth as a baby skin!

Of course, when you travel to Cahors, you will experience their wines with black truffles (even in an oyster or in cheese), duck or lamb. But I also had some of their wines with fish cooked in Mediterranean vegetables and with soup. Don’t be shy! next time you see a Cahors wine on the shelf of your favorite wine store, grab it: you’re in for a nice surprise!

Photo Pont Valentré in Cahors by PhillipC