Durban - For a select few who revere the processes for nosing and tasting wine; comparing notes and arguments on high-priced offerings, recent comments from UK wine guru Robert Joseph may depress.
However, he has spoken the sad truth when saying there were virtually no global wine brands that were not either fortified or bubbly.
“Apart from the top-selling champagnes, ports and sherries and a few illustrious collectibles, it is hard to think of a wine brand that would sell in duty-free shops in the same way as (branded) vodkas or gins,” he says.
In essence, wine is a commodity with most shoppers having a limited interest beyond it being a grape-based alcoholic beverage bought in the same way as beer. Even among luxury wines, Joseph believes consumers were less interested in the variety, vintage and winemaker than status, and attributed the lack of internationally recognised wine brands to a fragmented market and dense proliferation of small-scale producers lacking the marketing budgets to build and sustain brands.
The outcome was an inconsistent wine message and packaging; the failure for wineries to understand consumer demands and inability to do enough to make wine more accessible and desirable.
“It is crazy to package a R30 wine in the same 75cl (750ml) glass bottle as one selling for R3 000, especially as the only reason we use this bottle size is that it was the lung capacity of a 17th-century glass blower,” he says.
Rather, producers should take their cue from the perfume industry; market cellars as wine tourism spots as globally not enough was being done to draw visitors into winelands.
Some marketing tips would be highlighting websites on the labels and using the internet differently from the current way of advertising the winery, property and winemaker – especially as the latter were “not intrinsically interesting to consumers”.
Websites should rather include useful information like other local attractions and facilities, because tourists visited wineries to be entertained.
Any winery believing in charging for tastings was wrong since everyone walking through the door was paying with their time. Thus, charging for tastings meant the winery was not doing anyone any favours and it had to ensure it offered value for money.
Producers with cellar door facilities should cater for designated drivers, children and even pets. Offering visitors free wi-fi has the spin-off for real time discussions about the experience on social media. Enhanced experiences may include vintage or exclusive tastings or asking visitors about their opinions on new labels or wine styles.
These may seem radical concepts, but shaking up the wine industry and engaging with new consumers to grow this share of the beverage industry has massive economic spin-offs. South Africa’s wine industry supports thousands of people, while tourism globally has widely publicised statistics on its impact for growth and development.
Combining the two, especially where there are opportunities for small and medium-scale enterprise growth, pays handsome dividends. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth and when it is being done in real time, few marketing campaigns can beat its impact.
* The Beverly Hills is hosting a wine dinner with Delaire Graff on June 18. The cost is R425 a person.
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The Mercury