Retailers accused of paying ‘lip service’ to the green issue
Sunday 25 October
I’ve just attended a debate, which asked whether the promotion of environment credentials is a marketing ploy. The room was half-full at best, which is a sad indication of the importance of the green issue in the UK wine industry. Or perhaps everyone had gone on half-term a day early? Compared to the full-house at the recent low alcohol forum, it was a poor showing – I didn’t spot one major retailer.
It appears many wine producers are going green for the right reasons but retailers were accused of using the green message to suit their own agendas – making a profit. Unfortunately the supermarkets weren’t there to defend themselves, but there were some damning comments.
Michael Cox, UK director for Wines of Chile, which is one of the main producing countries leading the sustainability drive along with South Africa and New Zealand, said, “Most multiple retailers will pay lip service to green initiatives.”
The main problem is consumers see wine as a natural product and that means the word sustainable or organic on a wine label has less meaning than organic on a bunch of carrots. It goes some way to explaining why sales of organic wine have not kept pace with the rest of the organic industry. Cox added, “Having a social conscience does not appear to sell more bottles. The consumer is not prepared to pay a premium for organic wine because they don’t understand the concept. ”
Retailers are clearly doing things to help the environment such as the plastic bag reuse scheme but a cynic would argue it is only because the authorities have ruled they must reduce their plastic bag use. Angela Mount implied retailers didn’t give a damn about saving the environment – it is all about saving money. If the changes didn’t save money, then they wouldn’t do them. She argued bulk shipping and lightweight bottles improved margins for retailers, adding “I don’t believe the green issue is driven by the consumer. It is often a convenient ploy to reduce costs.”
Peter Darbyshire, MD of UK importer and distributor PLB agreed, “The green solution is to move the point of packaging as close to the point of sale. It is moving to the UK but sadly driven by retailers’ price motivation rather than the green agenda.”
Following the launch of the new wine category vin de France, ANIVIT, the trade organisation for vins de pays and vins de table wines, has been renamed ANIVIN.
Regular readers of my blog will know that the new vin de France designation permits table wines to bear the vintage and variety on the label, making it a much more appealing for big brands including J.P.Chenet.
The organization will no longer by responsible for vin de pays wines and will focus entirely on developing the new category vin de France.
As an aside, I am still trying to find out what is going to happen to the high-profile top 100 vin de pays competition when the category becomes Indication Geographique Protegee (IGP). A competition for a category that no longer exists would be slightly eccentric.
If you’re not already sick to the back teeth of me harping on about the EU wine reform, here I am again with more updates.
Les Grand Chais de France group claims to be the largest exporter of wines from France, representing one in every five bottles of French wine sold abroad.
I’ve just spoken to Tim North, UK director of Les Grand Chais as part of my research for an article in Meiningers. Following the EU wine reform and the creation of vin de France, the white wines of France’s biggest brand JP Chenet, will be voluntarily downgraded from vin de pays to vin de France so it can blend across regions this year. North said, “At JP Chenet we think that there are big quality advantages of being able to blend from different regions especially for whites. For example Sauvignon Blanc is not aromatic in the Languedoc Roussillon; it is in the Loire but it can be a bit thin in cool years and we can also take some fruit from Gascony. We think that we can offer a great price to quality ratio by cross regional blending.”
While smaller producers oppose this sort of cross-regional blending, as it goes against all notions of terroir (or sense of place), this will enable the brand to compete with the New World’s big boys without previous restrictions.
“We were able to do this with vin de pays du vignobles de France previously but it was so complicated. We had to go through a bureaucratic process in each region before blending. We did this with our Kiwi Sauvignon in 2008 for the first time. We went through the whole rigmarole but we no longer have to get the ‘agrément’, we can please ourselves.”
“It’s what the Aussies had been doing for ages and we can do it now.”
The producer’s reds look likely to remain unchanged at least for this vintage, claiming there is little benefit in sourcing wines from outside the Languedoc with so many grape varieties and growers to choose from.
With increasing consumer demand for lower alcohol wines, the UK wine trade got together to debate the key issues involved. Unfortunately, consumer opinion of lower alcohol wines is pretty poor at the moment with Dan Jago, head wine honcho at Tesco, even saying they had ‘leper status’ (see my you tube wine channel for his speech.)
Clearly there is work to do. Currently consumers have a low quality expectation of lower alcohol wines and don’t have any real knowledge where they can be found on the shelves. More encouragingly, 42% of regular wine drinkers said they would be prepared to buy low alcohol wines if the wines on offer were of equal quality to wines at ‘normal’ alcohol levels, according to new research by major importer PLB.
Unfortunately the term ‘lower alcohol’ and ‘reduced alcohol’ wines are not defined so they’re not technically legal, so you could say lower alcohol wines is a category that doesn’t exist in the eyes of the law. This is an issue the wine industry admits it needs to work on – we need a term to be able to explain to the consumer what we are actually talking about. And in terms of lower alcohol, there’s no definition of what a lower alcohol wine is – is it a 9% German Kabinett of a 12% Australian Chardonnay? Jago added, ‘We need to clarify what we are allowed to say and clarify the language of lower alcohol.’
In terms of technical know-how, there are plenty of technologies you can use – from reverse osmosis to spinning cone (my you tube channel has an interview with Tony Dann on spinning cone technology). However, Jago added they were ‘Frankenstein’s monster to a lot of people. The idea you can technically alter wine - wine should be a completely natural product, totally uninterfered, is still for many people the way in which they view this product.’
However, the message was these wines need to be brought into the mainstream and marketed as a decent drink first and a low alcohol choice second. All the major buyers were keen to see the big powerful brands bringing out low alcohol wines rather than small producers on the periphery. Julian Dyer, senior buyer at Sainsbury’s added, Let’s see if we can work on the mainstream and get the brands to work on lower alcohol wines.’
France should leave ‘industrial’ wines to the New World - Mas
Tuesday 29 September
Making big volume wines and trying to compete with the New World at low prices is not the way forward for France.
Speaking to the ever-passionate Jean-Claude Mas today, it was clear that despite the creation of the new vin de France which allows inter-regional blending, wines aimed at the mass market are not what France needs.
He said, “You have to be realistic. For example, if you want to make cheap leather goods you make them in Korea or China. If you want to make industrial-scale wines you make them in Chile, Argentina or South Africa where the costs are much lower. This is not suitable for the Languedoc. We are unable to make good quality wines at high yields. It would only reinvent the bad days of 30 years ago.”
While we don’t want to go back to the past of insipid reds and an overflowing wine lake, many would disagree with this, saying France should compete and the rise of inter-regional blending could create much more powerful brands, which win back some of France’s dwindling market share.
Mas doesn’t see this as a winning strategy for France or the Languedoc. If it wants to be viewed as the best wine producer in the world, it should let the New World do what it excels at while France should aim at the £5.99 and above market and, concentrate on quality.
This is probably unrealistic. France can make good value wines at entry level and it should be allowed to do it. If people are introduced to decent French quaffers at the start of their wine drinking life, it is likely they would be happy to work their way up the price ladder within the French category. At the moment a £5 French wine usually disappoints. Hopefully the creation of vin de France might see them competing with the likes of Gallo?
As an aside Gina Gallo has finally married Jean-Claude Boisset. I’m looking forward to a white Zin/Pinot blend in tetra pak sometime soon.