Do you know this fun, energetic and innovative beverage magazine, The Mutineer? If you don’t, run to your local newsstand and get one. It’s the most relaxing, entertaining and informative magazine on all trends in the beverage industry. I’m not talking sodas, but spirits, cocktails, wines… “fine beverage…redefined”, as stated on the cover.

I heard of Alan Kropf, the young entrepreneur who started The Mutineer about two years ago. He was then launching his magazine mostly in .pdf format with a very reduced distribution. Two years later, his magazine is distributed nationwide and has a strong following. Alan is like his magazine: fun, innovative, creative. When we met him “in person”, he was traveling in France to taste wines on a press trip. We shared a nice evening talking about the wine and beverage industries, comparing notes on a few wines and exchanging ideas on the state of the Internet.

There is a big generational gap between Alan and myself but I didn’t feel I was in foreign territory. Alan is so open and learned about everything beverage related it is a real pleasure to talk to him. And I learned so much about cocktails in the last issue of The Mutineer. One of my favorite cities in the US is New Orleans, its heat, its music scene and its inhabitants. But I’m not much of a cocktail drinker, which is a problem in New Orleans. Try to drink a glass of wine in a bar! I managed but I had to insist heavily. I feel sorry for myself now: what a mistake! I should have visited the Museum of American Cocktail , tried the famous Sazerac cocktail or gone to Crescent City Brewery.

What does the success story of The Mutineer tell us about wine marketing and innovation?  There were so many wine and food magazines, so many lifestyle magazines available when Alan started that it seemed difficult to succeed. But his positioning, young, trendy and centered on beverages, was exactly what was needed by young and inexperienced consumers. Alan and his team found the right way to address this younger consumer who is not interested in the technical Wine Spectator, or in the  too food oriented Wine and Spirits or very serious and a litlle off putting Saveur. The impertinent but informative tone of the Mutineer went directly to the heart of the young consumer. Congratulations to a bright entrepreneur! And long live The Mutineer!

One of the most interesting challenges for a wine marketer is promoting a collective brand. Champagne was certainly the most successful example of such a strategy: it is now synonymous with party, special occasion and pleasure. Unfortunately we know it backfired: consumers don’t see Champagne as an everyday drink but more as the special drink open for a specific event. High prices, down economy and depressed consumers halted the trend.

The second side effect of this collective promotion was the emergence of a few internationally recognized brands and a lot of brands left in the shadow of the leaders. That’s at least what a lot of smaller Champagne producers complained about. It’s the case also in other areas where an umbrella brand is carried to the front. But is it really the case? Wasn’t there a missing step in the Champagne smaller producers’ strategy?

In every collective action, there are leaders. Those leaders can be compared to the oldest in a family of several children. The oldest has the privilege and the honor of being the one opening the road for his/her siblings: getting the authorization to go out at night, then getting the authorization to come back at 1:00 am instead of midnight and so on. When their turn comes to be teenagers , the youngest children will find the road paved and open to their own initiatives without having to discuss extensively with their parents to get what they want. And the oldest will be so frustrated to see how easy the life of his/her younger brother(s) and sister(s) are!

The position of oldest child is as uncomfortable as the position of leaders in the promotion of a collective brand. The leaders will open the road and pay for the eventual mistakes: the wrong store, the wrong market or the wrong price. The brands coming after them can learn a lot from the mistakes and the successes of their leaders: they’ll figure out faster and cheaper what is right for their own brand and will be able to position themselves more easily and with a better chance of succeeding.

Believe an oldest child in a family of several children: the next in line has it a lot easier!

Twitter and Crushpad winery partnered to create two wines to support Room to Read,
a San Francisco-based non-profit which aims to empower millions of children in the developing world through education.

This is the first Corporate Social Innovation initiative of Twitter. The label is dubbed Fledgling Wine. In addition to its Web site, the project has a Twitter page launched a few hours ago.

“As a company that’s only one percent into its journey, we’re always thinking about our long term impact on the world,” Twitter co-founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone wrote on Fledgling Wine’s home page. “The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter’s mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change.”

Crushpad is associated to the project as the winemaking facility. It will help create the two wines, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay recently harvested. According to Michael Brill, CEO of Crushpad, Crushpad’s “goal is to seriously over-deliver on both quality and experience.”

The Fledging Wine site will provide multimedia content documenting the wine’s development step by step, in-person events at the winery, tweet ups (of course!), and even chances to taste the wine as well as the news and updates.

The Fledging Project is significant to the social media development for several reasons:

- it’s initiated by a very young company, Twitter, that gave itself the best way to explain its mission. Indeed, for many people, Twitter is just this micro-chat where privileged and educated people with time on their hands tell the world they just had their capuccino or they’re depressed because it rains in their part of the world. Twitter is a lot more than just a micro-chat for over-spoiled people. It has a social value and can expand its benefits to developing countries. Indeed, without reading skills, no tweets and no access to the world. It also has a professional value that is very often overlooked by people.
- it shows that the technological world is not cold and heartless: two technological advanced companies – Twitter and Crushpad – partnered to help Room to Read and to extend their hand to the world. Their partnership gives an other dimension and meaning to the expression “social media”. Technology is not self serving: it is at the service of mankind.
- Wine is the best link between people. When wine is often diabolised, this project shows it also links people together from the US to Europe, to Africa and to Asia. Wine might not be a world language like music, but it carries positive values.

Web 2.0 is about sharing not only knowledge but also riches. I wish the best to the three partners of this beautiful adventure and I hope there will be a lot of pre-ordering those bottles of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, lovingly made by all contributors.

When I was working on Wine Brands, I happened to notice the launch of a new Spanish wine brand, Tapeña. At that time, I was mostly intrigued and seduced by the great label. Two years later, I had the opportunity to hold a bottle of their 2008 Tempranillo in my hands and taste the wine, giving me the opportunity to test some of their assertions.

The originality of the label is what attracted my eye to the bottle among the dozens lined up on the supermarket’s shelves: the fork design, the contrast of colors and the bright orange literally drove me to the bottle.

The web site brags about its food friendliness. I tasted the wine on a strong Italian dish and figured the assertion to be true. The mellowness as well as the very slight sugary taste (for my European palate) were very nice on the dish. It also gives a total meaning to the label and the name: a fork symbolizing the food with the name being a contraction of “tapas” and “peña”, a slang word for a group of friends.

Obviously this wine is designed for non European palates: on the sweet and fruity side it wouldn’t have so much appeal on European markets or maybe only on younger trendy consumers, like Millenials. The fact is the (very well done) site shows mostly young people having fun with a glass of wine in hand.

Tapeña, a success story? I hope so and I wish them well.

Wine marketing is a funny line of work. A recent Vinexpo study showed that women despise “women wines” – i.e. “pink” or “sweet wines” – specifically designed for them and favor red wines. On the other end, Michelle Locke from the San Francisco Chronicle cites Nelson Barber, an associate professor of hospitality management at Texas Tech University who has studied gender differences in marketing wine, who said: “”As a general rule, guys get together, they don’t want to be seen with a glass of wine”.

Locke is obviously talking about American men. European men don’t feel embarrassed to be shown a glass of wine in hand – quite the opposite. It is a flattering and glamorous image of a refined and elegant manhood. What’s wrong in drinking wine for an American man? Men drink more beer than wine – true. Is it because beer is a symbol of masculinity in the US?

We are touching now the delicate subject of cultural differences. In Europe, beer is not connected with any social values, such as elegance, culture or refinement. On the contrary, it is a “popular” drink – one for picnic or for the “café” before going home. It’s not young or trendy: it’s the drink of the middle-aged, very medium income male. Wine carries historical values going over gender differences: it is the drink of the well educated and refined people.

The wine drinking America doesn’t have yet this kind of cultural references. Wine is more recent in consumption history and doesn’t carry the same image of quality and style for men. But I’m sure men will come to recognize the values of wine as they recognize the importance of… cosmetics and colognes!

Technology is not always a dream. A few years ago, I opened an account on Facebook. It was moderately active as I was busy writing a book, consulting, teaching and interviewing people for articles. But it worked: I received invitations from friends, posted a couple of things on my wall and invited friends to join me. And suddenly the “bug”: I couldn’t accept any invitations sent to me through this account. I must confess I’m not the most patient person when technology fails me. I started “fuming” as my dear and much missed mother-in-law used to say, complaining and pestering my own personal technological wizard to get help. Even HE couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my account. I then started pestering younger friends, specialists of Facebook and other networks of Web 2.0, such as Myriam Ballarati, one of the very few European experts on virtual worlds.

What’s the solution? Myriam and my personal wizard told me to deactivate my account and open a new one. Great idea, in spite of the fact I had to start over all again. Here we go: new account open, I start inviting my friends to join it. It worked perfectly and I thought I was safe and on the road again! This morning, bad news: one of my contacts invited me to join him on Facebook. I clicked innocently on the link and… bingo! I went directly to my old account! I almost had a fit! Facebook left my account open and people could still send their invitation to me through it. I deactivated this account again and I hope it will be the last time. Did anybody go though such a nightmare? It’s already hard to build a good and strong network all over the world with trusted friends, partners and colleagues without being bothered by lapses in technology and know-how of the so-called providers! Am I still fuming? Yes, I’m even ranting! Sorry!

For once, I decided to “give up” on wine and try a cocktail. Why such an extravagant move? I’m in New York for a few days and happened to meet with a colleague, well learned on cognac and cocktails. He took me to a speakeasy in New York, called “Please don’t tell” – I won’t tell you where it is. The place is completely dark and secured from ousiders’ view. They have the most extravagant cocktails, based on gin, famous whiskeys and bourbons or cognac. I had a “Hawthorne rosé based on gin, red Lillet (I didn’t quite give up my wine culture) fruit and rose syrup. Believe me, it was strong and reinvigorating after the Paris-New York flight and the jet lag.

Anyway the conversation was fascinating. I learned that cocktails are the new drink of the young generation – under 25, mostly. Those young people love the fun side of cocktails – experimenting with colors and tastes. Some cocktails are also based on wine: why not replace dry vermouth by Sauvignon blanc, for example?

Quite a new world and I’m afraid I got a taste for it. I’ll let you know my next discoveries!

The Wall Street Journal published lately a long article explaining why buying wine on the Net became a real headache for many shoppers and listed some problems: “phantom inventory”, slow delivery, cluttered sites, “tedious drill-down menus”, 20th Century web sites, etc. The author lists some solutions and recommends a few great sites.

I was a little surprised to see so many great online wine stores ignored: americanwinery.com, snooth.com, thewinespies.com and many others. All of those have a vibrant community and a good marketing strategy. They’re the Web 2.0 online wine stores and are fun, well done, efficient and trustworthy. They deserve to be considered as very professional and answer to all the prerequisites of an online store: good inventory, good structure of the web site and a contemporrary tone that make sthe experience fun and enjoyable. Thanks to all those young entrepreneurs for taking the irsk of creating something new and good!

Last week, Bordeaux was buzzing with journalists, importers and wine professionals tasting the 2008 vintage on the Left and the Right banks of the Garonne River. It is always an exciting and fun time: when getting to a tasting room, one usually runs in a friend or a colleague not seen since the previous Futures week or can chat with a winemaker whose wines are tasting wonderfully or so different from the 2007 vintage. What happened? Why is it so different? Conversations are lenghthy and make everybody late for the next stop.

This year I limited my tasting to the Right bank and the Graves: along with my colleague Jean-Louis Carbonnier of Carbonnier Communications in New York, I went from L’Envers du Décor in Saint-Emilion (page in French), owned by François des Ligneris, former owner of Chateau Soutard and current owner of a very interesting range of wines to the tasting of La Grappe organization to the Biodynamic Wines Fair. The afternoon was devoted to the Classified Growths of Saint-Emilion and Pomerol before joining Michèle Piron-Soulat in Bordeaux for a tasting of the white wines of the Graves. A busy but great day!

“La Grappe” (the clutter) is an association of winemakers and vintners from all over France. They take advantage of the Futures Week to present their new vintage to the press and the trade. I had the pleasure of tasting the 2007 and 2008 vintages of Chateau Chambert in Cahors. Philippe Lejeune, new owner of this beautiful estate, managed his two new vintages with the help of consultant Stephane Derenoncourt. The wines taste almost like Bordeaux wines: smooth and rich in red fruit aromas. In spite of an obvious ageing potential, they drink very weel, even as young as they were. If you want a taste of the new style of Chambert without waiting too long, get the little brother of Chateau Chambert, the second wine. Before moving on to the next tasting, I “cleaned” my palate with a few extra-ordinary white wines: the libanese Château Marsyas and the 2006 Bargylus white from Syria (site in French). And then back to France with a wonderfully balanced Savennières Domaine FL wine (site in French).

Then on to the biodynamic wines. I was very curious about them having almost no experience in this field. Thanks to Jean-Louis who knew a lot more than I do, I was introduced to some famous (and famously good) biodynamic wines. I started with the Champagne of Françoise Bedel with nos sugar added: a real delight, moved on to Josmeyer‘s wines, stopped at Zind-Humbrecht‘s table and spent a little time with La Tour Grise’s vineyard manager. La Tour Grise produces traditional Cabernet Franc and Chenin blanc of exquisite quality. And then… surprise! I was invited to taste two bubblies: a rosé Cabernet Franc and a white Chenin, both fresh, fun and very low in alcohol (around 7%). They’re delightful and I strongly recommend them: they are unusual and their label is so much fun! The manager told me men consider those two wines as “feminine” and disdain them when women just fall for them. I must confess I was one of those!

After a delightful lunch at L’Envers du Décor and a tasting of François des Ligneris’s new range of wines (don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything about them very soon), we drove to the Union des Grands Crus Classés various tastings. In St Emilion and Pomerol, we were in the elegant world of the Classified Growths. The wines are of high quality, smooth and very good for such a difficult year. We now have to wait for the prices to come out. Yesterday Angelus opened fire by offering the 2008 vintage at 50 euros, the same price as the 2004 vintage and 40% lower than the 2007 vintage. We’ll see soon how the other Classified growths and famous estates are going to position their price.

Last evening, I showed my students the movie Bottle Shock. My students are between 25 and 45, they’re wine and food professionals working on their MBA in Paris. Most of them are French, some with a multicultural and international background.

All of them were totally enthusiastic and appreciated the way the cultural differences were shown in the movie: the contrast between the stuffiness of the French wine establishment in the ’70s and the freedom of the Californian world, the efforts of the Californians to make wines as good as the French, the crusade of Stephen Spurrier for the American wines in spite of his love of French wines and the final toast of Spurrier to the “future”!

Finally a very interesting evening showing how young and unprejudiced people react to a movie I didn’t specially enjoy! A good lesson of tolerance and openmindness!