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.
British boozing figures at odds with ‘stealthy’ drinking claims
Wednesday 2 September
Following the media’s outcry on rising alcohol levels and drinking by ‘stealth’ last week, the British Beer and Pub Association has published new figures showing alcohol consumption is actually falling.
The BBPA Statistical Handbook’s timing is impeccable with figures that are at odds with the claims of ever rising growth in UK. The figures show that alcohol consumption fell in 2008, and has fallen 6.1% since 2004.
The statistics are related to beer rather than wine but it’s good to see concrete facts challenging the Mintel report and its ‘stealthy’ claims.
British consumption of booze per head remains in the mid range compared with our European neighbours. Britons drink less than the French, Germans, and Spanish, with the Czechs drinking the most per head, at 12.4 litres of alcohol, compared to the UK’s 8.1 litres.
BBPA acting chief executive, David Long, said, “Our new Statistical Handbook will confound many of the myths surrounding trends in the UK drinks industry. Year on year, we are not drinking more. Nor is British beer getting stronger, with two thirds of our beer at or below 4.2%strength, compared to the continental standard of 5%.”
Unfortunately, it’s not as rock and roll as Mintel’s report, so don’t expect it to make the tabloid headlines. The public are unlikely to hear about this.
Other interesting facts from the Handbook
- Total expenditure on alcohol in the on-trade was at its lowest level since 1972 (oh dear)
- 27% of on-trade wine sales were in the London area compared to only 16% of beer sales
Mintel drinks report leads to press outcry
Friday 28 August
Every UK newspaper was filled with scaremongering headlines yesterday about the British drinking too much ‘by stealth’. A new report published by Mintel has brought the topic of alcohol levels to the public eye but as a member of the drinks industry it’s like claiming the world is round is a new revelation- and newsworthy.
The Telegraph reported along the same lines as every other broadsheet and tabloid: ‘Middle-class Britons are drinking too much “by stealth” because they consume alcohol more frequently than other groups and the wine they enjoy is getting stronger’.
The papers were taking their information from Jonny Forsyth, senior drinks analyst at Mintel who, said in a press release, ‘In the 1970s a bottle of wine may have been around 11% in ABV and now the same bottle is more likely to be around 13%.’ What a revelation. I think I’ll take up writing reports and charging.
Forsyth added, ‘It may be that the majority of consumers are not aware of ABV and don’t even notice. So despite a greater societal concern with being healthy leading to a decline in drinking penetration, by stealth we are drinking more pure alcohol than ever.’
Now what’s all this about stealth? I appreciate they probably mean unknowingly but the dictionary describes stealth as cunning or underhand procedure and if you do a search in the thesaurus you’ll find its synonyms are slyness, sneakiness or furtiveness. But who’s being sneaky here? The drinks industry? If it is the industry he’s pointing the finger at for producing drinks higher in alcohol and not being open about it, then I have to take issue with him.
Admittedly alcohol levels in wine have risen, as he describes, thanks in part to better techniques in the vineyard, more efficient yeasts in the winery, possibly global warming and a fashion to leave grapes on the vine for longer to get phenolic ripeness (meaning seed and skin ripeness as well as sugar ripeness). But it’s not like we’ve hidden it – read the label!
Lower alcohol wines are still low on the list of priorities for consumers if you look at Wine Intelligence research. The wine industry is innovating to create lower alcohol wines with earlier picking and alcohol removal technologies amongst other things but demand is still low – perhaps from a lack of awareness of how many units we’re drinking. The industry is getting together to consider the potential of the low alcohol category in October. The public will be a long way behind.
Good news at last!
Thursday 6 August
Good news doesn’t make the headlines; companies going under, buy outs and job cuts do - and there’s been plenty of that to write about in the past six months: Constellation and Diageo (among others) slashing the workforce; Foster’s selling off parts of its estate; Ehrmann’s and Playford Ros swallowed up by bigger outfits…I could go on but I won’t because there has been some good news reported in most of the major wine titles this week: The Sampler in Islington is opening two new branches.
Jamie Hutchinson and Dawn Mannis opened the store in 2006 and it has gone from strength to strength. Now, three investors have come on board, raising a cool £1 million to open two new stores in Kensington and Notting Hill.
The Sampler is not your average wine merchant. It has become legendary in wine circles for having 80 wines to taste on a charge card system. Buy some credit and away you go. The wines change daily and the last time I looked, they were sampling 1982 Penfolds Grange, 1942 Marqués de Murrietta Castillo Ygay and 1998 Ch. Latour.
Speaking to the pair for an article in decanter.com, they were both really excited about the prospects and hope to open the Kensington store before Christmas (for obvious reasons). They haven’t yet found a site in Notting Hill so it’s more likely the opening will come a little later. If things go well, they’d like to expand further.
It shows that if you do things right and think outside of the box, then you can succeed in hard times. As my dad always tells me, and reminded me when I decided to go freelance just as the markets crashed, ‘In adversity, comes opportunity’. He talks rubbish most of the time, but sometimes dads can be right.
Pieropan drops Classico status for screwcap
Wednesday 22 July
One of Soave’s best-known producers, Pieropan, is following in the footsteps of Venetian neighbour Allegrini, bottling its Classico level wine under screwcap and forsaking its ‘Classico’ status.
Under Italian law both Valpolicella producer Allegrini and Soave’s Pieropan were forbidden from bottling their Classico wines under screwcap.
However, the Pieropan family have decided to drop Classico so they can move to stelvin with the 2008 vintage.
“The UK, the US and Australia will take their entire allocation of 2008 under screwcap,” said Andrea Pieropan. “We’ve taken this step to improve the quality of the wine drunk by the final consumer. Our wine is unoaked, and its charm lies in its perfume and elegance, so we need a closure that captures these characters in the bottle.”
Liberty Wines imports both producers’ wines and managing director David Gleave MW has been a vocal proponent of bottling Italian wines under screwcap for some time. I’m sure his close relationship with these two Veneto producers and his views on dragging Italian wine law into the 21st century will have played a part in their decision.
He said: “In our opinion, Italy’s tardiness in adapting this new technology is having an adverse effect on the competitiveness of their wines in the U.K. market. Over the past 30 years the image of Italian wine has been transformed, largely due to the willingness of many producers to embrace new technology and techniques in response to market trends. Yet these same producers, who see the benefits of adopting screwcaps for their wines, are now being held back by the law.”
While these two renowned producers are likely to suffer from the loss of their Classico status, lesser-known Italian producers are unlikely to be abandon their Classico status readily. Classico and cork still mean quality in Italy. Consumers in the UK, Australia and New Zealand now readily accept screwcaps but other markets, including the US, still see screwcaps as fit only for lower quality wines. While the switch by these top producers and others including Laroche in Chablis will improve its image, it still has a long way to go.