Time to eat (and drink).
Tyler Florence is hoping
to replicate the success of
Food Network’s Entwine
with his own brand (which
passed with flying colors
in his restaurants).
particular are prone to reject marketing
that is too obvious. There is no magic for-
mula. It will also be interesting to watch
how some of these seemingly just-for-girls
wines fare over the coming year. Ditto
Diageo’s Stark Raving label—targeting
millennial men.
Another seemingly ripe wine concept
would be food. But perhaps it’s too
obvious, given that wine in general is
supposed to be aligned with food. Once
Wines—created in collaboration with
NYC sommeliers and named The Table,
The Fork, The Spoon, etc.—is no longer
around. Ditto Constellation’s Knife &
Fork label; Martha Stewart Vintage; and
Wine That Loves, an ultra-simplified line
designed to pair with roasted chicken,
pizza and so forth. On the other hand,
Freixenet’s Tapeña label, which plays to
Americans’ embrace of tapas, is still very
much at the table, having recently gone
screwtop and added a sweet red to the
line of under-$10 Spanish wines. And
Entwine, the collaboration between
Wente and Food Network launched late
in 2011, was an instant hit (even without
heavy Food Network promotion). Tyler
Florence has teamed up with the Michael
Mondavi family to create a line of bold
California bottlings that retail nationally
for $20 and up.
Selling Concepts
Concept wines have changed the
landscape of wine inAmerica, and it bodes
well for the future of the industry. Just as
the ascent of grape-labeled New World
bottlings made wine more accessible for
a generation of blossoming wine drink-
ers, the Next World of concept-based
wines is giving the green light to people
who like to connect with products with a
little extra emphasis on names, graphics
and ideas. (If you have any doubt about
the power of catchy labels, take a look
at the red-hot craft beer category; funky
names and graphics are the norm among
craft brewers.)
Perhaps even more important, con-
cept wines are providing a fresh edge of
marketability. After two decades of pas-
sively allowing wine ratings to infiltrate
the retail tier of the industry, sellers and
shoppers alike now have a new way to
think about the inherently fun, interest-
ing product that wine is.
Americans are more primed than ever
to respond to cues that appeal on a level
beyond the basic juice. There is not a
wine store in America that does not al-
ready have concept wines in stock, hail-
ing from every wine region and cutting
across styles and price points. The ques-
tion retailers should now be asking them-
selves is how best to present them. Trying
to group them all together would make for
a big mess, but tapping their playfulness
can enhance the shopping experience.
Don’t be afraid to embrace concept
wines. A wine doesn’t know what bottle
it’s in, and chances are excellent that
the wine itself is—just like tradition-
ally presented wines—well made.
Think of the concepts as points of
distinction—which in turn become
selling points. When considering
several comparable products, stock-
ing the one that has a story is a way
to potentially attract new shoppers
while not alienating traditional ones.
Take Gigondas, for example: Ogier’s
“
Oratorio” bottling, besides being an ex-
cellent example of this Rhône red, pays
homage to a local opera festival. And if
your Zinfandel section does not have at
least one or two offbeat bottles, you are
missing the chance to grab the attention
of browsers.
The key here, of course, is knowing
as much—if not more—about the
concept wines as you do about the
more straightforward wines on the
shelves; when a customer asks, you can
explain the wine’s story and describe the
wine’s style.
Play up the funny ones with hand-
made shelf talkers or other signage. Dress
up a window display with some eye-candy
bottles. Put a few near the register for im-
pulse buying. Recommend concept wines
as gifts that can reward on multiple levels.
Looking to expand your selection of local
or lesser-known wines? Stock ones with
catchy labels. In short, let concept wines
go to work for you, grabbing attention
and making your customers feel that wine
can be as much fun to shop for as it is
to drink.
n
CONCEPT WINES
Cult of cute.
Hazlitt 1852
Vineyards sweet
Catawba-based
Red Cat has a hip
mascot—and a huge
fan base in Upstate
New York.