Yammerin' About Wine Sales

   

You may not have noticed, but the wine industry is in a tizzy about shrinking wine sales and by extension, the desertion of wine drinkers for other  beverages.  Thing is, the uproar is hardly mentioned outside the trade, except for the occasional newspaper business article. 

Unless you follow wine trade news, you'd never know there's a problem.  But, is there  a problem, and if so, why is there a problem?  

Numbers bore me, so I don't keep up with wine sales, but I do read wine business articles and the occasional wine blog that often subject readers to "the sky is falling" posts.  Depending on who is writing, the yammering is either considerate or chaotic. 

Now, I am not saying that we shouldn't worry about falling wine sales , or that consumers, especially young ones, seem to prefer other beverages. What I am suggesting is the problem is complicated. 

Among those things that are complicating wine sales and causing confusion at the retail level, are: too many lists of "overrated" wines by writers and  sommeliers, who should know better; too many columns about inaccessible wines;  too much complaining about the three-tier system; too many new wines with names that have nothing to do with wine; and most egregious, too much bowing and scrapping before so-called "Influencers."

 -  I first became aware of influencers when I saw a piece by the "Wine Fashionista," a woman who displayed limited wine knowledge, attempted to show, while fawning for the camera and insinuating herself into every photo, how fashionable she, and  wine were. The Wine Fashionista is a glaring example of using wine for self promotion, while not promoting wine.

- Then, there are the headlines for wine articles that leave the reader with the impression that wine is a profane joke.  An example is this headline in the British publication "Punch," accompanying an interview with a young Scottish wine writer: "Meet Hannah Crosbie, the UK's Shitposting Anti 'Trad Wine Writer.'"  I read that headline again, and charitably thought , maybe I'm just an old  geezer trying to understand  how the use of profanity, in what claims  to be a piece about wine,  helps bring younger consumers, who reportedly are the ones not buying wine, into the fold.  

The interview is full of softball questions, but then I dug deeper and found that wine and the 27-year-old Crosbie are not full of s#@$.  Crosbie agrees that wine is not being marketed to young consumers correctly and that "trad" wine writers need to get up to speed.  Crosbie is  not the first person to make those claims.  

There's more to the interview, but my point is that while a profanity loaded headline may speak to the "anti trad" reader,  it fails to take wine seriously.

- Unless you're a tech millionaire, it's not likely you'll be attracted to wine by reading about wines costing hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.  "Wine-Searcher," the wine e-zine has a running series of "The World's Most Expensive" wines, and I wonder how many readers, new to wine, are drawn to their lists.  

Sommeliers share some of the blame for this blatant inflation, by flogging expensive wines.  Check the wine list of any upscale white tablecloth restaurant and the prices will make you gasp.  Wine is expensive, but there are plenty of moderately priced wines that may help bring more new customers into the wine fold.

(Full disclosure: In the Sept. 27 posting of this blog, my intent was to write about three excellent Super Tuscan wines, and not about expensive wine.  As it turns out, though, the Super Tuscans I chose cost $175, $250 and $300.) 

- The evils of the Three Tier system is a subject that gets too much attention, at least in the trade press.  The three tiers - importers or producers, distributors, retailers - frequently work together to determine wine pricing in the United States.  But the apparent collusion is what it is and endlessly yammering about it doesn't seem to be moving the needle, so maybe some of that energy should be channeled into a more positive way to promote wine.  

- Finally, I question if wine names like "Whiny Baby" encourage people  to think wine.  Really, do these names suggest clever marketing, or are young parents and expectant mothers the target audiences?  I don't know, but I do know that it is misguided marketing.  Craft brewers have used goofy names to market their beers for years, so I guess it was inevitable that wineries would say, why not?  But, if there's a wine connection, it's hard to see.  

   

Those are just a few of the reasons I think could be causing a drop in wine sales.  Here are three positive things I noticed recently that could give slumping sales a boost. 

+  Chris Sawyer, an energetic, unabashed disciple of wine, moderates "The Varietal Show," an on-going interview and tasting program, available on You-Tube.  Sawyer's approach is a casual tasting and chat with a winemaker, geared to bring out the personality of the interviewee and their wine.  "The Varietal Show" is a simple, non-stuffy way to promote any wine.  

+ "Harvest Stomp" is an annual, boisterous music-filled al fresco dinner and auction, to support the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation and Napa Valley Grapegrowers.  The short promotional video shows people having fun amidst what appears to be organized chaos.  An easy-going harvest dinner-auction is an effective way to show young people that wine need not be stuffy. 

+ Simplify wine is a no-brainer.  Presenting wine as elitist and complicated will turn novice wine drinkers away from wine.  Don't dumb down the bare basics, but keep it easy-to-understand and personal.  People like stories and want to know about the winemaker and other key winery and vineyard workers. 

+ Finally, "Come Over October," is a national campaign to get people to share friendship and community over a glass of wine.  It's an idea we can all get behind.  Find out more about Come Over October at www.comeoveroctober.com. 

The wine industry has been wandering around talking to itself, crowded by a lot of individual promotions, but little combined effort to tell the story of wine, like Come Over October.  It's time to stop yammerin' about falling sales and start thinking positive thoughts about all wine.

 

Next post: Sierra Foothills

Leave a comment, without signing in to Google, at boydvino707@gmail.com