Archive for the 'Wine Retail' Category

Many women (and some men) already know about the members-only designer and luxury flash sale site appropriately called Gilt. I confess I was a huge fan of the concept, especially when it was launched in 2007, but my obsession slightly dwindled when I finally came to the realization that my closet was bursting with garments and I couldn’t possibly fit another pair of shoes under my bed. Kinda like my wine cellar… although I always somehow manage to find room for more in that.

But then they threw me a curve ball.

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Every year, the CIVL (The Conseil Interprofessionel des Vins du Languedoc) organizes the Languedoc Ambassador Wine Tour, a trade and media tasting designed to promote the great diversity and superb quality of AOC wines found in the Languedoc wine region. This year is no exception, with fantastic wines announced today as the official CIVL Ambassador Wines of 2011.

It’s fantastic exposure for an oft-overlooked region.

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There are not many negatives commonly associated with the job of wine reviewer. Sure, we often walk around with red wine-stained teeth, may develop terrible manners like spitting in front of just about anyone while tasting and perhaps could be a bit of a wine snob on occasion (you’re all thinking, “Me? A wine snob? Never!”… but you know deep down I’m right). But truthfully, the less-than-awesome aspects of the occupation are frequently far outweighed by the delicious, creative and immensely pleasurable task of tasting.

However, while receiving shipments of samples last week, I realized one significant downside that I have never noticed before… I fear that I have lost touch with being a wine consumer. Don’t get me wrong, I do my fair share of consuming, but I don’t buy wine the way that I used to out of sheer lack of necessity for it. Sure, I still buy the special bottle for cellaring here or there, and purchase specific labels for folks as gifts, but I don’t really shop the way that I used to. And I think, for me personally, I might be better off this way.

Wine marketing is something that never really made complete sense to me. It made me feel awkward inside, like a good episode of House or Twin Peaks or the concept of imaginary numbers in math (really… imaginary numbers??? How is that allowed in something as solid and fact-based as math!?!?!). Wine marketing, including packaging and labels, was something that always perplexed me and left me feeling confused and unsettled.

I mean, I get it, people are trying to sell specific products to a certain group of people, but whenever I looked at the products that I assumed I should be interested in, or were clearly directed at my demographic, it just turned me off more. It all just seemed so artificially forced. Take for instance Little Black Dress; the wine is absolutely solid and has even garnered some Best Buy awards from us, but the second I see the fem-centric label and dare to read the back blurb of women-centric verbiage, I can’t help but want to slam the bottle on the ground.

I know I’m not the only one who feels like this, but I also know that there are others who don’t share my nausea in such kitschy marketing. The wine still exists and sells well, right, so obviously people are buying it. But why? I wonder what turns people on to buying products like these; solely because the label says little black dress do women see it and think, “I own a little black dress, so I should like this wine”? Like the Sopranos wines, do people just purchase them because it bears the name of a show they liked? Or are they all just gangster wannabes, trying to get one step closer to being a part of the family and somehow this fulfilled that fantasy for them?

I also know sometimes clever works, because I have purchased those bottles before as well. Arrogant Frog totally makes me laugh at myself for any time even the smallest part of me was behaving like a wine-snob, and at every other stuck-up wino out there too who wouldn’t even dream of drinking such a silly wine with an upright frog in a beret on it (too bad for them – an excellent value wine perfect for company and large dinners). There’s also the Goats do Roam Wine Co, whose adorable plays on words (like Goat-Rotie as opposed to Côte-Rotie and Bored Doe for Bordeaux) are just so fun and clever they make a great choice for gifts or hanging out with friends.

What do you think? What attracts you to purchasing one bottle over another when shopping for wine? Do you like those directed marketing campaigns, or does it more often than not leave you unsettled like me?

I was befuddled this morning when I read a blog post about “shelf talkers”, the printed marketing material associated with bottles of wine at the retail store. Shelf talkers typically contain the name of the wine, a description, and associated ratings. You’ll often find our ratings on these shelf talkers, which are created to aid buyers in their decision making process.

Wine accessory guru Robert Dwyer, accuses Costco of using deceptive marketing by selectively listing higher scores on shelf talkers and also listing scores for previous vintages. Though I respect Robert and consider him a friend, I have to respectfully disagree with his points. Given that his piece received 30+ comments, it seems like an issue with legs.

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I read with great interest, the recent announcement that The New York Times will be starting a wine club on the heels of the Wall Street Journal and San Francisco Chronicle wine clubs, which have already been launched. This did not come as a surprise to me; the motivation was obvious: the piece went on to say that the paper was “seeking new revenue” and that their 2nd quarter results showed a decline in sales of 21.2%.  All three newspapers cover, rate and review wine and all three newspapers are now selling wine.

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I went into a wine shop this past weekend for the first time in a couple of months. I was out in the Hamptons (Long Island, New York) for a little rest and relaxation, and was thinking that the most appropriate purchase I could make would be a nice Long Island rosé. I’m always a big fan of Wölffer’s rosé, and to me nothing says Montauk more than relaxing by the beach with an immensely refreshing local wine from a vineyard that you pass on the way out to the end of the south fork.

While in the wine shop, like any curious wine lover and consumer, I browsed the aisles to see if anything new or interesting caught my eye.

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