MEININGER'S WINE BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL

Volume X · Issue 6 · December 2015

20 €

AN INTERVIEW WITH CEO PAUL SCHAAFSMA

POWER LISTS: THE NETHERLANDS

WHEN WINE MEETS GEOPOLITICS

After building the McGuigan brand into one of the UK’s most successful, Paul Schaafsma moved to the recently-launched company called Accolade, now one of the world’s biggest Page 30 wine businesses.

The last in our popular Power List series for the year goes inside Holland, to uncover the independent retailers and the names behind them. Cees van Casteren MW reports.

Page 26

Felicity Carter goes to Crimea and looks at the profound impact its annexation has had on the wine markets of two countries in conflict, Russia and Ukraine.

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WHO IS WHO IN THE CITY OF MIAMI

COMMUNICATING INTERNATIONALLY

Miami, Florida, has always been known as a breezy beach holiday destination.

Scott Saunders discovers it’s hitting its stride as a wine market. He meets the people who are making it so. Page 42

Richard Siddle asks advertising experts how to run a global communications campaign and discovers some trends, tricks and pitfalls to be aware of in different markets.

Page 52

Follow us

EDITORIAL

ONE MAGAZINE.

BY FELICITY CARTER

THE WHOLE WORLD

W

ine is the drink most associated with hospitality, conviviality and the pleasures of the shared table. For the Russian government, however, it’s a lever of policy, to be pulled as necessary, as the Moldovans and Georgians know at first hand. In 2006, Russia’s Chief Sanitary Inspector claimed that heavy metals and pesticide residues had been found in the wines of both countries, and banned them. Both countries lost their main market in an instant.

5 cember 201 · Issue 6 · De Volume X The fallout from what happened then still reverberates through both industries: Western agencies swooped in with money and expertise, not only again, to try and help them reorient their winemaking towards but ed once palates, cognizWestern re Brand e b e in to ed W has definitely rilled countries. dmirGeorgia are th A also to create stronger political ties those t s Wewith o M entina´s as Aargwine begun to emerge internationally as country, and there are promising signs in Moldova as well. Still, at the time the sanctions hit hard. Last year when I was in Moldova, I listened to a winemaker explain to me how the sparkling wine bottles used be turned each day. Except that now the bottles the years Co nsistency over were draped in cobwebs.

Politics is again reshaping the wine industries of two neighbouring countries: Russia and Ukraine. When the Russians annexed Crimea in IEW WITH AN INTERVSCHAAFSMA 2014, they brought an important winemaking region into their orbit. The CEO PAUL consequences for the related wine industries have been huge: the Russian government has had to lift onerous bureaucracy from the necks of Russian winemakers, to ensure that Crimean wineries don’t buckle under the new administrative demands. Ukraine has had to scramble to produce famous brands in other wine regions. And Crimea? It’s lost any Western export markets it had, because of sanctions. When a consortium of new wave Russian wineries asked me to come and see what they were doing in Crimea, I jumped Wat e arethe as Arg thrilled entin to be re a´s M c chance to find out more. What I discovered begins on page 22. ost A ognized o dmir n ed W ce again ine B , Also in the magazine are some in-depth stories about different markets. rand Cees van Casteren MW looks at how the independent retail sector operates in the Netherlands, and names the most significant businesses; Treve Ring Consist discusses how a legislative change in Canada is affecting the wine market in ency over the year s British Columbia; and Scott Saunders has written a report on how the wine economy of Miami works.

And now, a question. Do you – or does your winery or brand – have an internationally important anniversary coming up in 2016? If so, get in contact.

Next year is the tenth anniversary of Meininger’s Wine Business International and we’ll be celebrating. If you will also be celebrating an important milestone, drop me a line and we may consider featuring it in the magazine.

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Six times a year. Available on the iPad. www.wine-business-international.com

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6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

CONTENTS

NEWS ANALYSIS 6 The wine market of Hong Kong

by Robert Joseph

The eighth HKTDC trade fair opens.

8 Spain’s green shoots

by Patricia Langton

Export efforts are paying off.

14

10 South Africa turns a corner

Abadia Retuerta sits just outside Ribera del Duero

by Michael Fridjhon

Critics rave about new wave wines.

MARKETWATCH 18 Bordeaux opens its doors Tourism offerings are increasing.

by Panos Kakaviatos

28 A new era in British Columbia

by Treve Ring

The government makes big changes.

58

Inside MUNDUS VINI

MARKETS

REGULARS

16 Bordeaux Index A conversation with the founder.

3 Editorial

WHO IS WHO

12 Perspectives 65 Masthead

42 Who’s Who in Miami The personalities who work in this important and growing US market.

by Scott Saunders

66 Column by Robert Joseph 66 Next issue

MARKETING

OUR WRITERS IN THIS ISSUE

52 Globally speaking Running an international campaign.

Treve Ring is a wine writer, editor and judge based on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. When not tasting wine at the Trevehouse, she'll be on a plane or in a vineyard.

by Richard Siddle

INTERVIEW 30 Accolade’s new leader An interview with Paul Schaafsma.

Wojciech Bońkowski Cees van Casteren MW Michael Fridjhon Robert Joseph Panos Kakaviatos Adam Lechmere Patricia Langton Elsebeth Lohfert Scott Saunders

by Adam Lechmere

Anne Serres Michéle Shah Richard Siddle Jeff Siegel Sascha Speicher Richard Woodard

by Robert Joseph

POWER LIST 26 Independents in the Netherlands There may be fewer than there were, but Holland still has many significant independents. by Cees van Casteren MW

4

Zonin Prosecco enjoy it with the people you love.

COMPANY PROFILE 14 A taste of Spanish luxury Everything about Abadía Retuerta is luxurious, from the wines to the butler service.

by Felicity Carter 6

44 The maverick ladybird

Biedronka, a Polish powerhouse. by Wojciech Bońkowski Debra Meiburg MW, Hong Kong

CONFERENCES 54 The DWCC 2015

by Robert Joseph

Speaking about wine in Plovdiv.

REGIONAL ANALYSIS 22 The conflict zone Putin’s adventures in Crimea turns wine on its head in two countries.

by Felicity Carter

34 Insolent and unruly

by Adam Lechmere

The very individual Corbières.

36 France’s giant awakes

42

Jennifer Wagoner,

by Anne Serres Miami

The Languedoc is leading the way.

39 Generational change in the Mosel An annual event shows that the guard is changing in this historic region.

by Sascha Speicher

56 Italy’s sparkling north A look at Trentino, home of sparkling wine. by Michèle Shah

TECHNOLOGY 46 The crowdfunding of dreams Randall Grahm is able to pursue a project thanks to an Internet funding site.

by Jeff Siegel

50 New wine cultures

by Elsebeth Lohfert

Chr. Hansen and their yeasts.

58

Christian Wolf, Meininger Verlag

SPECIAL

zoninprosecco.com

58 MUNDUS VINI A report from a year of international tasting, plus a look at the biggest winners. facebook.com/zoninprosecco

twitter.com/zoninprosecco

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N E W S A N A LY S I S HONG KONG

THE WINE MARKET OF HONG KONG The HKTDC trade fair in Hong Kong has become one of the highlights of the fair calendar in Asia.

Robert Joseph went to hear the latest news.

E

arly November is a busy time for most people in the wine industry. In the Northern hemisphere, producers are busy with wine produced from grapes harvested a few weeks earlier while, on the other side of the globe, their counterparts are preparing for the vintage that’s still hanging on the vines. In western markets, orders are being shipped for Christmas and Thanksgiving; in the east, the focus is on the lunar New Year.

However, for anyone interested in exporting their wines to China and Hong Kong, it’s also the moment to pack one’s bags and climb aboard an aeroplane heading eastwards to the HKTDC International Wine & Spirits Fair.

Eight years lucky This exhibition was first held in 2008, a few months after the Hong Kong government shocked the global industry by removing all taxes on wine. In that first year, several local importers questioned why the former British colony needed an annual wine trade fair, just four years after Vinexpo had hosted its first biannual event there. And did they really have to pour wine for the general public on the final day?

The explanation to both questions was that hosting a trade fair run by a government agency guaranteed continuity. Too many people remembered how Vinexpo’s French owners had launched and then cancelled events in Japan and the US. Since that first year, and despite the launch in 2013 of ProWine China, not to mention the recent slowdown in the Chinese market, the HKTDC event has grown steadily. The 2015 event boasted a record 1,060 exhibitors from 32 countries.

Hong Kong remains attractive for producers: Opening the fair, John Tsang, Hong Kong's financial secretary, announced that over HK$3.3bn ($425m) worth of wine had been imported into the city in the first nine months of 2015, 22% more than in the same period in the previous year. The growth in exports to $422m – principally to the Chinese mainland - was even more dramatic: a doubling of the 2014 figure.

Mr Tsang went on to talk Michaela Stander of Wines optimistically about new measures of South Africa, agreed. “The that would hopefully help to companies who are on our stand boost those export figures even today are much more realistic further: customs formalities with in their expectations,” she said, several mainland cities had been “but the whole market is more simplified to allow swift, easy entry realistic.” The days when Chinese for wines that had previously been sardine importers added wine to subject to bureaucratic delays. their inventory almost overnight Among the most numerous “The gold rush and ordered containers of wine would-be exporters were large that we’ve seen seemingly on a whim are over. contingents of French and Italian in recent years is Stander reckoned that there producers who jointly almost filled over.” were fewer mainland Chinese one of the exhibition’s two halls, visitors at the 2015 event, Debra Meiburg MW, Spanish and Portuguese. Portugal, attributing this to a clampdown publisher, Hong Kong the 2015 Partner Country, has on exit visas by the Chinese seen significant growth in its government; but the ones who sales to Hong Kong and China, said Nuno Vale, had made the journey, she said, were probably marketing director of ViniPortugal, emphasizing of a higher calibre than in previous years. that the focus had shifted significantly beyond Among the Chinese who did make the the traditional market of Macau. journey were some from cities a long way away France’s exhibitors were brought together from the familiar metropolitans of Shanghai and by publishers and exhibition organisers Beijing. Joseph Leung, CEO of the Hong Kong Bettane & Desseauve, and Michel Bettane said importer Major Cellar Company, which had a that they had seen potential customers from big stand at the fair, noted that he had seen new markets ranging from Japan and Thailand to clients from Sichuan in the west and Qingdao Indonesia and Singapore. Stevie Kim, president and Dalian in the northeast. of Vinitaly, who assembled no fewer than 222 Among the exhibitors were producers from Italian exhibitors, added that, “The extension of countries rarely seen at this kind of event. A large customs facilitation measures for wine entering Japanese pavilion, for example, included several China will attract more wineries to come to Hong producers of Koshu from Yamanashi Prefecture, Kong for business expansion into the Chinese while Australian-born Denis Gastin manned an mainland.”

Asian Wine Association stand on which wines from India, Thailand and Japan were poured.

Igor Serdyuk of Alma Valley proudly displayed Gold rush over the medals his recently launched Crimean winery had won at the Cathay Pacific Hong Kim’s comment illustrates the growing Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition, professionalism apparent among both sellers whose results are announced during the and buyers at the event. A speaker at one of the exhibition. Like Aigerim Ashimova, sales HKTDC conference sessions, Debra Meiburg, manager of another award-winner, Arba Wine the US-born Master of Wine based in Hong from Kazakhstan, Serdyuk said he was pleased Kong and publisher of annual studies of the with the interest that previously unfamiliar market, said that “the gold rush that we’ve seen countries were receiving. This was echoed by in recent years is over”. Today, she said, “anyone Javier Rascon, sales manager of Cavall 7, a new wanting to enter this market is much more ultra-premium Mexican wine, getting one of its serious than they were.” first moments of public exposure.

Another long-time observer of the market,

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While Mr Tsang was happy to focus on Hong Kong’s role as a portal to the mainland, a group of Ningxia wineries was showing off just how far the quality of this new Chinese region has come in recent years. This stand was among the most popular with the general public when they were allowed to visit the fair on the final day.

Alongside the exhibition, the HKTDC ran three strands of conferences and tastings. While many of these were both interesting and wellattended, there were complaints that some of the business-focused sessions (a minority of the total programme) were scheduled to run concurrently, and at times when many potential attendees might already have lunch meetings. Even so, there was much to learn.

Debra Meiburg, for example, revealed a number

of findings from research conducted for her Guide to the Hong Kong Wine Trade 2014. Small importers, she said, were more numerous than on the mainland; 76%, she said, had two or fewer sales employees. Would-be exporters looking for a UK importer will be interested to discover that few of Hong Kong’s supermarket chains are among their customers. These retailers tend to buy directly from the producer. On the other hand, a surprisingly large proportion – 37% – of the importers sell directly to consumers. A similar number claim to have a retail outlet but, as Meiburg wrily pointed out, in Hong Kong, that might mean a wine company allowing customers to shop in their 21st-floor offices.

While e-commerce sales in Shanghai are booming, buying wine online has apparently not taken off in Hong Kong. Distances are too small and delivery services too efficient for buyers

to have progressed beyond placing orders over the phone. Dedicated wine shops of one kind or another still attract a lot of business from consumers, Meiburg explained, according to the results of a survey conducted among 20,000 wine drinkers. Some of these bottles will be presented as gifts and, compared to other major cities, a surprising number will be taken by their buyers to restaurants. Unlike Australia, where a long-established BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) culture stems from the difficulty of securing alcohol licences, Hong Kong’s is apparently explained by the desire of wine enthusiasts to enjoy their best wine with friends. Hong Kong Chinese, Meiburg said, do not tend to invite guests into their own homes and are happy to pay often high corkage fees – as some of the visitors with whom they went to dinner will have discovered for themselves.

W

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VDP NATIONAL ASSOCIATION PRESENTS ... IN GERMANY 13 - 15 Mar 2016 ProWein Düsseldorf 24 - 25 Apr 2016 VDP.Weinbörse Mainz 21 Mai 2016 Ball des Weines Wiesbaden 11 Sept 2016 Auftakt VDP.GROSSE LAGE Berlin VDP PRESENTS ... ROADSHOW 26 Jan 2016 VDP in Moskow 22 Feb 2016 VDP.Baden in Stockholm February 2016 VDP in Oslo 04 -06 Jun 2016 Vievinum Wien

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6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

Small importers

N E W S A N A LY S I S S PA I N

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SPAIN’S GREEN SHOOTS The Spanish wine sector suffered a huge blow in 2007 and 2008, says Patricia Langton.

But it pushed the country to the export markets, and its efforts are paying off.

S

pain has tripled her wine exports in both value and volume over the last two decades and the performance of recent years has been particularly strong, partly due to the need to look beyond the home market when Spain’s economy nosedived.

The huge 2013 harvest also meant that Spain could sell record amounts of wine – even to France and Italy. The 2014 harvest yielded a more typical size (and 2015 is expected to follow suit), hopefully signalling the start of better prices.

At a glance In the year to March 2015, Spain was the largest exporter of wine by volume of the major wine producers. The country exported 2,321m L, exceeding Italy and France. In terms of value, however, Spain earned just €2.5bn ($2.7bn) compared to France’s €7.8bn and Italy’s €5.2bn, according to the OEMV. Since 2000, France and Italy have increased the value of their exports; Italy has reduced bulk wine sales from 48.7% in 2000 to around 27% currently. The country is no longer a major supplier of bulk wine to France, and Italian producers have succeeded in developing higher quality wines, with the notable success of sparkling.

Meanwhile Spain has filled Italy’s shoes in selling significant amounts of bulk wine to France, with Spain’s exports of bulk wine and lower priced wines (containers of 2L+) accounting for 47% of exports in the year to March 2015. The average price for exported wine has fallen since 2000 from €1.41/L to €1.02/L, a level far lower than her competitors. Furthermore Spain’s average price is low across all wine categories: must, bulk and bottled wines.

Looking at progress since 2007/08, when the Spanish economic crisis started, exports have grown steadily as producers increased their efforts to sell abroad. Bulk wine remains a significant part of the

business, accounting for €468m of the total The campaign began in the US earlier €2.5bn in 2014. The remainder is split this year and was extended to the UK this between DO wines, non-DO bottled wines autumn. The marketing push for the UK and Cava, with non-DO bottled wines having the Two R’s Roadshow – involves more than emerged as a new and significant category.

40 wineries from each DO showing their Rafael del Rey, managing wines at trade and consumer director of consultants OEMV, events in Edinburgh, Dublin believes that Spain is now and Manchester. firmly established in export.

Rueda’s generic spend He says: “Companies have a increases annually as its better knowledge of markets export business expands, and a better relationship with according to Arancha Zamácola importers.”

OEMV figures Feijoo at the region’s Consejo show that the regions showing Regulador. This year, Rueda the strongest growth in the undertook promotional activity period 2000 to 2015 are in Canada, Peru, Colombia, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia Chile and Australia, as well as and La Rioja. in established markets such Export growth for the first “Companies have as Germany, Switzerland and eight months of the year is a better knowledge Holland. Rueda and Ribera del encouraging, with increases of markets and a Duero each invested €1.5m to of 13% by volume and 5% by better relationship get their joint campaign off the value. The Spanish economy with importers.” ground for 2014/15. is also gradually emerging Rioja’s annual spend is from the extremely bleak around €9m, according to period from 2007, with Ricardo Aguiriano, marketing confidence returning to both director at the region’s Consejo. the trade and the consumer He says: “In the last couple and a greater willingness to of years we have extended Rafael del Rey, spend money once again. The marketing campaigns beyond managing director, situation could be even better our core markets to Canada, Observatorio Español del after the presidential elections Russia and Ireland, as we see Mercado del Vino scheduled for December, which these as important areas for (OEMV) should bring political stability. growth and investment.”

The focus of Rioja’s campaigns centres on gastronomy and New campaigns closely associates Rioja wines with tapas.

In the UK, the Tapas Fantásticas consumer Generic activity has been stepped up in event has been staged for seven years in a number of key markets. Indeed in one London and this year it took to the road interesting example two DOs – Rueda and with events in other cities across the UK Ribera del Duero – have joined forces to and Ireland. Cava’s Consejo Regulador promote their wines. Both DO regions are is also currently running promotional part of the Castilla y León autonomous campaigns in two of its key markets. The community and are arguably ideal Cava London Experience is running in the bedfellows, with Rueda being one of Spain’s UK and similar events have been held in major white wine regions and Ribera del Germany.

W Duero championing red Tempranillo wines.

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THE TASTE OF GIVING

A great wine is a gift that lasts forever.

Because good taste is never forgotten. www.austrianwine.com

N E W S A N A LY S I S SOUTH AFRICA

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SOUTH AFRICA TURNS A CORNER Critics have been raving about the quality of South African wines of late, and yet prices are still being affected by post-apartheid-era issues, says Michael Fridjhon.

N

eal Martin has called South Africa “the most dynamic and exciting New World country”. Tim Atkin MW is on record as saying that “it's time the best Cape wineries were recognised for what they are: world class.” Jancis Robinson MW, reporting on the New Wave South Africa wine tasting in London in September quotes Steve Daniel, the man who was the force behind Oddbins’ wine selection in its heyday, saying “I can't remember when I felt such energy at a trade tasting.” However, those whose job it is to sell meaningful volumes of South African wine in international markets are the first to admit that while demand is strong, the price points are only beginning to reflect this new, more upbeat message. Douglas Green Bellingham's (DGB) CEO Tim Hutchinson concedes that “South Africa’s mistakes of the past are now haunting us in many of our traditional markets – where the average selling price of our wine tends to be far lower than those from any other country.”

Time warp After the sanctions-driven 1980s era of isolation, South African wines became the focus of international attention on the news of Nelson Mandela's release in February 1990. Many countries waited for the outcome of the first democratic elections in 1994 before committing to serious purchases.

From that moment onwards however, worldwide interest swiftly emptied the Cape’s cellars. The statistics tell a staggering story of sudden and unprecedented demand. Total volume exported in 1991 was 23m L; in 1994 this rose to 50m L; in 1995, 73m L; in 1997, 110m L. Since then the purchasing pressure has never really eased. Allowing for seasonal fluctuation and the ebb and flow of the international trade, it's been pretty much an upward trajectory in volumes.

Devon Valley, South Africa

Exports now account for significantly more than domestic consumption and represent a twentyfold increase in as many years. In 1993 they amounted to 24m L. In 2013 they peaked at 525m L (almost 200m L more than was sold on the domestic market). South Africa has virtually no more wine to offer abroad: the only way it can improve on its export performance is to increase the value per litre of what it supplies.

From the outset, this has been the nub of the problem. When the international buyers descended on the Cape in the early 1990s they found an industry locked in a time warp.

Many of the so-called top wineries and top winemakers had lost touch with international trends and the expectations of a discriminating world market. Cut off by years of isolation from what had been happening in Europe, America and Australia, they had become complacent. Since their domestic customers had been left with little choice but to buy what was on offer, they confused their sales success in the local market with authoritative recognition of the quality of what they were producing.

The national vineyard was in an appalling condition. Planting material was the responsibility of a vine improvement board whose failure to address the problem of widespread vineyard virus had resulted in red wine harvests characterised by low yields of variable ripeness.

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The average quality and quantity of whites was generally better, but here the problem was a predominance of mainly undesirable cultivars. The supply of reds to whites was the inverse of the international demand. In 1994 over 65% of the country's vineyard was white and roughly half of this was Chenin Blanc.

Another 20% was made up of Sultana and Colombard. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Riesling together accounted for less than 10%. Of the (mainly virused) reds, Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Shiraz made up less than 9% of the total.

For overseas buyers the problem wasn't finding wine to buy: the difficulty lay in finding wine worth selling. As long as they had customers who were happy with nondescript whites and faintly herbal, slightly underripe reds with astringent tannins, there was business to be done. If, however, they wanted to offer wines to discriminating customers while meeting the obvious requirement of saleable varietal names on the label, the tanks were largely empty. Still, the world wanted Cape wines, and in the first few years of the Mandela-led Rainbow Nation, demand seemed insatiable and anything would have to do.

Curiosity and excitement over South Africa's peaceful transformation created the market, but sanity still prevailed. Supermarkets were obliged to offer a suitably optimistic selection, but they understood they still needed to satisfy (more or less) the quality expectations of their consumers. Their solution was to apply

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a reality check to what they were A palpable change prepared to pay the brokers and export agents who had sprung up Still, it does appear that this like wild flowers after a summer logjam is slowly breaking. An storm. In those early days of the increasingly upbeat international post-elections export trade ,Cape press has played an important wine was firmly in the sub-₤4.00 role, though their primary focus ($6.00) average price range, with has been the small boutique some bottlings landing up on the growers whose minuscule shelf at under under ₤3.00, with production is not sufficient to little over ₤4.50. influence the country's total wine “South Africa’s The producers were not mistakes of the exports in a meaningful way. unhappy with this arrangement. past are now haunKey to what has sparked their Firstly, in the isolation era, many ting us in many interest has been the change in had been selling a significant of our traditional the composition of the vineyards percentage of their crop at the markets – where and the proliferation of smallfloor price paid by the KWV (the the average selling production facilities. When buyer of last resort in a statutory price of our wine Mandela became president there surplus disposal scheme which tends to be far lowere fewer than 300 wineries in had been in place since 1918). wer than those from the country, and at least half of Almost anything was better than any other these crushed upwards of 500 the pittance they recovered once country.” tons. Today there are almost 600, the KWV had converted whatever and around 65% of them handle was surplus to the demands of less than 500 tons, with a clear Tim Hutchinson, the local market into alcohol, majority processing under 100 CEO, Douglas Green tons. In short, South Africa has grape juice concentrate, or wine Bellingham (DGB) of “Eastern European” origin for gone from a co-op wine culture sale through the international to a fine wine industry and those bulk wine trade. Secondly, notwithstanding the who have been fortunate enough to taste the optimism which accompanied the country's best examples of these low-volume, highfirst free and fair elections, the South African profile “rock star wines” have been unstinting rand continued on its downward slide even in their praise. They have also helped to create after Mandela's Government of National Unity a level of interest for which there is little or took office. This meant that low hard currency no wine to meet the demand. Suddenly the prices still translated into good returns in soft bigger-volume producers find themselves in rands. No one thought of the long-term image the unlikely but happy position of being the implications for Brand South Africa. only exporters with sufficient supplies to take This, more than anything, is what has the newly fashionable message of Cape wine to constrained South African wine in its the international markets. traditional markets since those now long Talk to any of the main players and they distant days: the consumers remember very will readily acknowledge the changes, and ordinary whites and reds selling in the lowest the benefits they have wrought. Distell's price brackets, and don't see the need to commercial director for international wines risk spending more money for the current Naas Erasmus is very clear about the value offerings. At the same time, supermarket this offers to the bigger players. “The attention buyers, acting as gatekeepers, recognise that that the New Wave and boutique producers are what is being supplied now massively overgenerating is definitely helping to lift the image delivers in terms of value, and are disinclined of the South African wine industry,” he says. to give way to higher price points. With the “Over the past 12 months we have seen strong rand now weaker than ever, producers can growth on a number of our key wine brands still do business at an average UK price point in major markets. I think there is a window of little over ₤4.25. With the local market of opportunity that we as an industry need largely stagnant, poor hard currency prices to capitalize on, especially in North America. which still translate into a reasonable rand The biggest challenge for South Africa is to income are not to be sniffed at. increase the average price per litre/bottle on

Farmworkers in the vineyards

the export market while growing volumes. To do that we need a few strong brands.”

Hutchinson sees “more opportunity and awareness around Brand South Africa than ever”. He says that the traditional northern European markets of Germany, Holland, the UK, Sweden and Denmark have “always had reasonably high recognition and it has been relatively easy to get business... if you are prepared to negotiate on price. For me what is encouraging about the newer ‘emerging' (for South Africa) markets where we don’t have as much recognition – China, USA and Russia – is that, because we don’t have a strong brand positioning, we are able to be more responsible in terms of our pricing. This is offering the bigger companies such as ourselves a massive opportunity to try and build premium brands at premium prices.”

The common thread from all the strong, export-oriented producers is that there has been a palpable change across a broad range of markets. It is becoming easier to sell Cape wines: for the first time since 1994 price is not the sole inducement to the purchaser. The way South African wine is perceived has changed, and whether this is the result of years of hard brand-building or the cumulative effect of more column inches in more publications is not clear. Despite resistance from supermarket buyers – mainly in European markets – the price thresholds are aligning to the new, more visible profile. Provenance is becoming more important to the consumer. This in turn means that South Africa is selling more packaged wine and less bulk.

In the world of wine, change is never instantaneous. No one should be surprised that it has taken 21 years – almost to the day – since Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first president of a democratic South Africa for the Cape wine industry to come of age as a wine producer with an international reputation. W

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PERSPECTIVES

San Francisco is something of a cultural beacon to the US, driving trends that impact the rest of the nation in all aspects, and its proximity to the North Coast American Viticultural Area gives the city’s influence on wine trends extra clout. Grapes on the rise, cellar management refinement, shifting retail demographics, and a winegrowing movement — Scott Saunders gives a glimpse of what’s going on in The City by the Bay.

LULU MCALLISTER Tapped by Wine & Spirits magazine as one of the nation’s best new sommeliers, Lulu McAllister oversees the wine programs of the highly acclaimed Nopa and Liholiho Yacht Club.

One thing that’s been hard to keep stocked, for at least two years now, is Jura red wines. The white wines are classic and those definitely move quickly enough, but the red grapes that are so food-friendly – like Trousseau and Poulsard, the lighter, fresher, low-tannin styles – seem to really fit with the more eclectic styles of food you get here.

Nopa’s menu is a dream to pair with. It tends to be fairly Mediterranean-influenced, just because of the fact that we use local seasonal produce, and we tend to have a very Mediterranean set of options here at the farmers market. But at many restaurants, including Liholiho Yacht Club, the menu there is definitely more dynamic, more exotic flavours that might intimidate most people who pair wine lists. I find low-alcohol, high-acid, fresher styles of wine are understandably popular for people who have a local palate, and who have such an interesting and diverse assortment of cuisines to choose from here.

The Loire Valley continues to be popular. It’s funny, because I’ll mention Chenin Blanc to my uncle or my parents and their friends, and they think I’m crazy that I’m excited about this grape, because apparently it was mostly schwag water to them when they were my age. But the versatility of Chenin Blanc can’t be expressed enough, and I think that’s something that a new generation of wine professionals and wine consumers is really latching on to.

The Cabernet Franc grape is a really interesting option for a sturdier red, at least in the example that I’ve selected, and many of the ones I’m finding around town. It’s not a big grape; it has that medium-bodied quality that many people are looking for when a guest asks for a Pinot Noir or a Cabernet Sauvignon, and this is kind of bridging that gap. It has the kind of spice you might get on a Cabernet Sauvignon; it definitely has something unique to it, but you can also treat it like you might a Pinot Noir. And there are definitely lighter examples, too.

BRIAN MCGONIGLE An experienced wine professional and collector, McGonigle is founder and president of the San Francisco Wine Center, a facility dedicated to wine storage, wine education and events, and the importing and distributing of fine wines.

One effect here of coming out of the recession, when creative restaurateurs like Chef Stuart Brioza at State Bird Provisions were scaling back inventory and getting rid of the three-inchthick wine list, was much tighter, more-focused wine lists, where they’re designed to pair with the menu but they don’t feel like they need to have everything for everybody on the wine list anymore. So you come in to experiment with the wine list and enjoy the food with the wines that the wine director has chosen, and the lists are tiny compared to what they were pre-recession in a lot of well-known restaurants in San Francisco.

There are a lot of great places like State Bird and Francis that operate with one- or two-page wine lists, which is pretty incredible, and a whole different challenge for the sommelier or wine

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director. To find really interesting wines and cycle them in and out as their allocations are depleted, and then find something new that also pairs just as well with their menu — it’s a lot of work. And it’s a different kind of work. You’re not in the cellar all the time maintaining this huge inventory, but you’re spending just as much time staying on top of the developments of what’s available and finding unique wines that aren’t over-exposed and that you can get enough of to pour them for a week or two and then find another one as soon as that one’s gone. It’s a totally different challenge, and an interesting one.

The same cutting-edge restaurateurs often leverage investors who are also collectors and access their collections for the restaurant’s list on an as-needed basis. So the wine director will rotate through offerings from these investor collectors’ cellars and doesn’t have to buy and

hold the inventory from that cellar. They pay the investor collector for bottles as the wine is transferred to the restaurant and sold. It’s a very creative way to have an interesting list of older wines without carrying inventory.

Raj Parr started this trend in earnest at RN74 and experienced wine directors like Jason Alexander at The Progress have continued with it as a way to offer a truly compelling wine list while still traveling relatively light in the cellar.

GARY MARCALETTI Marcaletti launched The San Francisco Wine Trading Company in 1976, lining his shelves with the work of small, (mostly) European producers, and educating his many customers with classes and tastings.

When we do tastings, it seems that the more esoteric the wine, or the more unique the wines are from an area, like from the Veneto, or Cinque Terra in the northwest of Italy, the more it draws the masses — 100 to 150 people every Saturday and Sunday. And they’re younger and younger all the time. They all try to learn about these wines from around the world. It’s easy to find out about Napa and Sonoma, because they’re in our backyard, but it’s difficult to find out about the rest of the world.

People in general, even the older crowds, are much more apprehensive about the $100.00-, $150.00-, $200.00-bottles of wine on the market today than they were ten years ago. And I think the real factor is that people learned how not to spend $100.00 on a good bottle of wine. And that’s something we’ve

been doing for a long time, teaching people that they don’t have to spend $100.00 to get a really great bottle of wine. We can take you to Châteauneufdu-Pape and you can find a wine that will interest you as much as any Cabernet or Pinot Noir from California, for $40.00, and it’s the same for virtually anywhere in the Rhône, or anywhere in Chablis or Burgundy, or northern Spain.

We find wines of interest, and people are very interested in finding these $20.00-, $30.00-, $40.00-wines that taste a lot like their more expensive counterparts. So I think the industry is changing in that sense.

People are more aware of what wine is, aware of the quality of the wine, and that you don’t need to spend $100.00-a-bottle-plus to get a good bottle of wine that will age in your cellar.

DAVID GLANCY Master Sommelier and Certified Wine Educator David Glancy has led wine courses at the Professional Culinary Institute and Le Cordon Bleu, and now heads the San Francisco Wine School, the new occupants of a 4,000-sq-ft wine education and event space near San Francisco International Airport.

San Francisco either leads the trends, or is at least an early adopter of trends, and that’s been going on for a while in both wine and food. A trend that I’m really excited about is an organisation born here in 2011, the same year San Francisco Wine School launched, called In

Pursuit of Balance, started by sommelier Rajat Parr and Jasmine Hirsch of Hirsch Vineyards, and that’s a trend that I think is fantastic. It’s swept from the Bay Area to Sonoma Coast and down to Santa Barbara on the producer side of things, and it’s been widely accepted. It’s become mainstream enough that their tasting wasn’t even in San Francisco this year; they moved it up to Marin County.

There are some fantastic wines coming out as a result of that, and I think some of their wines are inspiring winemakers to make different kinds of wines. Not under-ripe or over-ripe, not ridiculously low alcohol or extravagantly high alcohol, not unoaked or heavily oaked — just looking for balance, however that’s delivered.

I think that’s a fun movement. I don’t know how long the organisation itself will exist, but it’s been a trend led from San Francisco, and it means there’s more and more wine from California that I’ll want to drink.

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OPULENCE IN A BOTTLE Abadía Retuerta has recreated itself as a luxury offering, with the aim of becoming one of Spain’s most notable brands. Felicity Carter reports.

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he spa sommelier is going through the options. On the table, three bottles of Abadía Retuerta wines. Next to each, a bottle of massage oil. Each oil has been blended with scents that match the wines. I choose the Sauvignon Blanc and then have a massage which starts with a symbolic washing of the feet, done in memory of the monks who once lived and worked within these massive walls.

If the monks were somehow whistled up from the 12th century, they would easily recognise their monastery, restored to its original beauty and topped with stork nests.

But their jaws would drop at the opulence of Abadía Retuerta. Everything about this spa, the hotel it’s in, and the nearby winery, is luxurious, combining 21st century innovation with a back-to-nature ethos. It’s an approach that’s seen Abadía Retuerta’s wines gather awards and acclaim wherever they go.

Yet less than a decade ago, the company was a Spanish winery making well respected but not world-beating wines. There’s no doubt being backed by a wealthy company helped change things. But so did the business strategy.

Created to wow Enrique Valero Quintana, director general of Abadía Retuerta, stops the car in front of an oak tree. “This is one of our ‘wow’ moments,” he says.

The ancient tree is impressive. We’re doing a circuit of the property, which is organised into various trails. There are viewing points, wetlands, and an old lime oven to look at, along with 140 species of birds to watch. Quintana says the trails have been devised to give a ‘wow’ moment every 15 minutes, a principle he discovered in the Napa Valley. Quintana’s got a deep background in branding; he started at Diageo, moved to United Wineries, and then on to Gonzalez Byass. He came to Abadía Retuerta in September 2009, to implement a new strategy.

Abadía Retuerta is owned by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis; it was originally part of Syngenta, their crop division. By the late 1980s, Novartis no longer needed the land for seeds, so decided to develop it. They called in Pascal Delbeck from Château Ausone, who analysed the soils and made recommendations Abadía Retuerta’s historic property dates back to the 12th century. about what to plant. The winery was founded the other way, setting themselves the goal of in 1996, and began to produce a big range becoming one of Spain’s top-ten brands by of wines trying to be all things to all people.

2016, by “focusing on terroir, low yields and a “When you have a new vineyard, you just have wine range that’s not complicated”. to produce, to have something to sell,” says It was a risky thing to do, not least because Quintana. “We had up to 1m bottles per year the winery has to be profitable under its own and the portfolio focused on different price steam; it took from 2010 to 2013 to make the levels and wines. We were finding our model.” changes. Production dropped from 1m bottles Álvaro Pérez Navazo, director of marketing, to 550,000 and the change to a brand-oriented says the early days were about experimenting. approach required intensive education of “The vines were recently planted and we, the both staff and distributors and importers. team, were also young.” They did everything “All distributors love to have pallets of cheap from carbonic maceration to Joven Roble – wine,” says Quintana wryly. wines with three to six months in oak. But Marco Serra, a Swiss-Italian architect, as the vines matured, the viticulturalists was brought in to refurbish the abbey, a came to understand the terroir better and Romanesque building founded in 1146. The how it needed to be expressed. The carbonic €370.00-a-night Abadía Retuerta Le Domaine maceration was the first to go. hotel opened in 2012. It’s certainly luxurious, “You cannot be selling wines at €4.00 from the mobile phone every guest is given so ($4.24) and at €100.00, because the consumer they can summon their butler at any time, to associates your brand with one positioning,” the personalized newspaper in the morning. says Quintana. “We decided to analyse where “Swiss quality,” says Quintana proudly. we should be playing in the next 20 years.”

The hotel does more than simply The startling conclusion was to enter the accommodate tourists. Having a luxury super-premium end of the market. Startling, destination on tap has allowed Abadía because Spain was convulsing after the Retuerta to enter into partnerships with financial crisis. Quintana says the middle of other luxury companies, like Porsche and the market had become a dangerous place, Montblanc. “Wine, gastronomy and top hotels because there were no buyers there. Indeed, are very attractive for luxury brands,” says many other Spanish wineries came to the Quintana. Abadía Retuerta has also created a same conclusion, and headed for the cheap private club, whose members have access to a end of the market. But Abadía Retuerta went

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To Another Great Year

luxurious flat in central Madrid, where they can relax, work or host dinners and presentations, among other benefits.

The wines The grapes coming into the winery are harvested from 54 different sites, from vines that live on soils as varied as riverbank clay, pebbles and sand, gravel or limestone, from what is the coolest region of Spain, because the altitudes can reach 850 metres.

To make the winemaking process transparent, there are glass walls everywhere. One can easily watch the tanks being lifted and seamlessly filled with grapes; wine.com has named this one of Europe’s most modern wineries.

A tasting has been prepared: the Abadía Retuerta Selección Especial, a blend, is on the table, as are the single“Wine, gastronomy vineyard, or ‘Pago’, wines: Pago Negralada, and top hotels are Valdebellón, Garduña and Petit Verdot. very attractive for The wines, made under the supervision of luxury brands.” consultant Angel Anocíbar Beloqui, win consistently high scores from prestigious Enrique Valero magazines, including being named in the Quintana, top 100 wines of the world. director general, It is, of course, always nice to make Abadía Retuerta wines that the critics admire – but have these changes paid their own way?

“Yes,” says Pérez Navazo, who says the winery turnover had previously remained static at around €4m per year, but now reaches €6m per year.

One thing that Abadía Retuerta can’t buy is the name of a famous appellation, because they lie just outside the borders of the Ribera del Duero. When they tried to join the appellation, their application was “gently declined” as Pérez Navazo puts it. However, they have applied to Brussels for the appellation Vino de Pago Abadía Retuerta; a Pago is a single vineyard with a distinguishing characteristic of some kind, such as unique soil composition. Abadía is also a member of the Grandes Pagos de España (GPE), an association of 30 producers with high-quality Pagos, formed in 2000. To become a member, a winery has to demonstrate a track record of five years of recognition from international magazines and wine guides. Quintana says members come together to share knowledge and communicate in international markets. “It’s having a real difference at the premium end of Spanish wineries,” he says.

As for their own plans: “Our focus is now on developing international markets and strengthening our direct sales. We’re opening an online shop,” says Quintana. There’s also the biodiversity project. “We keep eagles and falcons to stop small birds from eating the grapes,” says Quintana. He pauses. “But then we needed rabbits to feed the eagles.”

Quintana says the more they plant and solve problems naturally, the more they find themselves recreating a version of what the monks did before them – though with the added appeal of massages, butlers and some of Spain’s most desirable wines.

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13 -15.03.2016 International Trade Fair for Wines and Spirits

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6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

MARKETS BORDEAUX INDEX

SHAKING UP THE PLACE After Gary Boom received bad service one too many times from wine merchants, he decided to shake up the market. Adam Lechmere speaks with the founder of the Bordeaux Index.

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managing director Adam Brett-Smith) for ary Boom is gearing up for a fight and being the first old-style merchant to set up one gets the impression it’s put him in a broking business. But what Boom has a very good mood. His opponents (you done is different. “I came out of the city can’t actually hear the Spaghetti Western and said you need dealing platforms, you score, nor see the flash of sun on spur, but need trading platforms, you need broking you can certainly imagine them) are the platforms and when you have all these negociants of Bordeaux, the descendants things, then you’re in business.” of an age-old system that Boom reckons Boom started Bordeaux Index in 1997. is moribund. “They’ve lost track of what He had moved to London from his native they’re doing,” he says, and “I’m going to South Africa in the early 1980s, began his cut them out – but they’re trying to cut me career on the capital markets desk with out as well.”

Fulton Prebon, and was instrumental in Boom, the founder and managing director the setting up of Intercapital, the broking of London wine merchant Bordeaux Index, company now known as ICAP. Wine was a has based his wine career of the last 20 personal passion, and he has spoken many years on being able to read the wind. “We times about the shoddy service he received were visionary without a doubt. Everything from wine merchants, in particular the we said would happen has pretty much time it took to actually take delivery of taken place. We are a very smart wine the wine you had your eyes merchant.” on. “People don’t want to wait Bordeaux Index – according three months while you source to Boom – not only foresaw, but this case of German Riesling instigated the opening up of the from Slovakia, or wherever. In wine markets in the mid-1990s. this day and age people want “In the 1980s the broker market things quicker.” didn’t really exist. You bought Bordeaux Index now has wine off your wine merchant four offices worldwide – in and you sold it back to him if London, Singapore, Hong Kong you wanted to,” he says. “Then and Los Angeles and turns a new breed came through, over some £65m ($98m) a who said you don’t have to buy year on a base of 6,500 clients it from us, and we’ll sell it for “I say to a Napa worldwide, the vast majority – you. Then we came through and producer, ‘When 85% – are private clients, which said, ‘That’s a decent way to do I’m sitting next Boom says is all he’s interested it but you need to take it a step to the mayor of further, and bring in much more Bejing and enjoying in. “I want to massively build up that side of the business”. transparency. You need to show a bottle of Pétrus, I The company is both buying as well as selling prices.’ don’t see your wine traditional merchant servicing You need to make the market.” on the table next to private clients with the crème it. If you want your de la crème of fine wine (top wine on the table, Making the trade Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, I can help you’.”

Italy, California) and a broker, Wine merchants acting as through its online trading brokers is nothing new. In 1992 Gary Boom, platform LiveTrade. Its unique Corney & Barrow had been founder, Bordeaux selling proposition, as Boom vilified as “bastards, renegades Index puts it, is the ability to make and traitors” (in the words of

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the market. “People ask, what is the difference between you guys and everyone else? Everything else is a market where you need two people to make a price, the buyer and the seller. If you don’t have those two you don’t have a trade. But we will make both sides of that trade.”

So whether you’re looking to buy or sell those five cases of Latour 1996, Bordeaux Index will make the other side of the trade.

“Within 20 seconds I’ll show you an offer. If you want to sell, I’ll show you a bid – and then I let other guys get involved with it, and I’ve made the market. Then I just pick and choose which side of the trade I want.”

Administering all this wheeling and dealing is a team of six programmers and a dozen salespeople in London, half a dozen in Hong Kong and a couple each in the LA and Singapore offices.

Seismic change BI’s London office in Hatton Garden – fittingly enough, the centre of the London jewel trade (in April this year the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company just up the road was the victim of the century’s most audacious jewel heist) hums with activity.

Jeans and smart shirts are the dress code, and Boom sits alongside his staff, all of them tapping away at their keyboards, “making the market”. There’s a lot of money changing hands. Boom estimates about £40m in trades take place on the system.

What is being traded is indicative of what Boom calls the “seismic change” that the wine industry is undergoing. “The next revolution is what is happening in Bordeaux with the distribution of wines, and what people are buying. It used to be Bordeaux, a bit of Burgundy, a bit of Rhône, Port; American Cabernet was something Americans bought, Italian was something you drank on holiday.”

This profile has changed radically.

“Ten years ago 85% of the business was

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his lunches at his favourite restaurant St John in London’s Smithfield are legendary for the rarity of the bottles he opens. Deals are sealed over rack of lamb and Lafite, not spring water and spreadsheets.

“I’ll say to Eduardo [Chadwick], ‘Come to my house for dinner, and by the way, can I have 100 extra cases of Seña?’”

He’s routinely castigated for encouraging speculation, treating wine as a mere commodity to be traded, boosting prices of the top wines so they become too valuable to drink. Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier probably speaks for a vast number of Bordeaux crus classés when he tells Meininger’s, “their reputation is excellent, even if I would like to find more of a wine lover’s approach in their presentation of business. They are a little bit too ‘financial’.”

Boom counters such comments with, “We turn our stock once every six weeks.

Is it being shifted around and not being drunk? It’s a lot less than you think. All the stuff that goes to the Far East and the US gets drunk – I see no sign of it coming back into the market.”

Besides, he loves his wine. His conversation is peppered with references to bottles opened and enjoyed. “A meal on the quayside in Paxos [the Greek island where he has a house], a bottle of Chave, how perfect is that?” One of his great pleasures he says, “is the relationship we have with our customers and friends. I am 100% the guy who likes a glass of wine.”

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Bordeaux. Now it’s 63%”. The company is changing its name to BI Wines & Spirits to reflect the fact that almost a third of its business is non-Bordeaux. It’s not only wine merchants who have been hit – Boom is finding that his traditional suppliers, the Bordeaux negociants, are suddenly in competition with him as they frantically search out new trade. “The negociants want to distribute everything they can, whether it’s Vega Sicilia or Grange or whatever, and they are going after the end client, which is my client.”

He recounts a “surreal” conversation he recently had with a negociant from whom he was buying the Super Tuscan Masseto, in which the negociant told him his allocation was being cut because he wasn’t buying Bordeaux Index in London enough Opus One. “So I couldn’t ahead of the game. He opened in Singapore get my Italian wine because I didn’t take simply because the person he wanted to my American wine. From Bordeaux. They work in Hong Kong refused to move. “Then have gone after global distribution. It makes they all followed me out there – Justerini sense. If you can’t sell enough Bordeaux & Brooks, Fine & Rare, Corney & Barrow. I then what can you sell? American and didn’t want to be there – I said they could Italian and so on.” have my office.” But no one followed him Boom’s answer to this is to position BI as out to Los Angeles, where he opened in the pre-eminent First Growth merchant – 2013? “Well, that’s because they’ve seen that is, the five great left bank wines as well how much effort it is to open there.” as Cheval Blanc, Montrose, Lynch-Bages, Again, he is counting on the personal Petrus, Cos d’Estournel and their peers. He touch – and some judicious name-dropping reckons this sector is worth “a billion a year – to seduce the American market. “I say to - and I want to dominate it”. To do this he has a Napa producer, ‘When I’m sitting next to to go straight to the châteaux to secure his the mayor of Beijing and enjoying a bottle allocations. I can offer them control, he says, of Petrus, I don’t see your wine on the table the one thing the negociants can’t. “I sit next to it. If you want your wine on the table, down with [Jacques Thienpont at] Le Pin and I can help you’.” He won’t say, on the record, I can tell him, ‘Jacques, your wine is going to how much the LA office is making, but says Mr A, Mr B and Mr C.” Negociants can’t track “we’re encouraged by the progress we see it as efficiently. “All they can say is, ‘Some of out there,” adding that the West Coast is a it’s going here and some there’.” preliminary to opening a New York office.

It’s “a two-pronged attack”, Boom says.

Where the traditional margins are 10% on broking, “we will happily trade on 5% or 6% Financialisation for First Growths. If you’ve got a parcel to sell, you come to BI. If you want to buy a Boom radiates confidence; he talks fast parcel, we’ll cut you the best price. We will and fluently, delighting in the language not lose a deal on price.” of parry and thrust, attacking here If some of his business decisions raise and undercutting there. He prides eyebrows, that’s because (he claims) he’s himself on his ability to schmooze;

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M A R K E T W AT C H BORDEAUX

BORDEAUX OPENS ITS DOORS Bordeaux’s city administration is bent on promoting the region as a wine tourism destination.

But while chateaux are renovating facilities and opening their doors, there’s still a way to go, finds Panos Kakaviatos.

Bordeaux, the city of wine

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hen he was 20 years old back in 1999, Basile Tesseron of Château Lafon-Rochet, a classified growth in Saint-Estèphe, decided to leave: “Bordeaux was boring, conservative and unfashionable,” he said. Instead of taking over from his father, Michel Tesseron, he travelled across the US and South America, working in restaurants and other jobs.

Now in his mid 30s, with three children, Basile Tesseron directs Lafon-Rochet with pride. Lafon-Rochet will open a new boutique in January 2016 to welcome the general public, seven days a week – quite rare for Bordeaux. Just as neighbour Montrose had done amid much fanfare (and expense), LafonRochet is modernizing its cellar. Tesseron explained how 22 stainless steel vats have been replaced with 18 new stainless steel and 18 new temperature-controlled concrete vats in a wider variety of sizes and shapes that enable parcel-by-parcel vinification. “All this goes together,” he said. “We improve winemaking and share this with people who love wine in a welcoming setting.”

The old Bordeaux image dies hard. Forbes reported in October this year on “What to know before you go to Bordeaux”. Most wineries do not have dedicated tasting rooms like those in Napa or Australia, and appointments are mandatory or you risk showing up to find no one, according to the article. Forget about weekends.

Changing times This year, premier grand cru classé Château La Gaffelière in Saint-Émilion this year began €20.00 ($21.30) per-person wine tours. Not just on Sundays, but also on bank holidays – in English, French and Spanish.

In nearby Lalande-de-Pomerol, Paul Goldschmidt of Château Siaurac launched a wine tourism program in September, including Sunday brunches at his 12-hectare garden, with a Jardin Remarquable rating from the French ministry of culture. Guests can stay overnight and enjoy gourmet dinners. “We must open our doors to the public,” Goldschmidt said.

That has been the message from Bordeaux’s tourism office since 2005, when Sophie Gaillard was hired to encourage châteaux to be more open to the public. Now, she says, there are some 2,500 rooms available for tourists at châteaux in Bordeaux – including the five at Siaurac. “There were far less when I started,” she says.

The tourism office has worked with Bordeaux wine associations like the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855 to set up wine tours. The tourism office proposed only four wine tours to châteaux when Gaillard arrived. Today 60 exist. Conseil director Sylvain Boivert sent Meininger’s a list of 25 estates with boutiques when this article went to press, but many more are being planned.

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“Ten years ago, I would have counted at best ten,” says Boivert.

Bordeaux deputy mayor Stéphan Delaux tells Meiningers: “We have become a tourism capital; that was not the case ten years ago.”

To encourage châteaux to be more open year-round for tourism, the mayor’s office touts a study – Evaluation de l’impact économique du tourisme sur l’agglomération de Bordeaux – that surveyed 1,320 tourists in Bordeaux from May 2014 to April 2015. Over half named wine tourism as their second choice for visiting.

One in four tasted wine in the city. Non-French tourists spent the most money on gastronomy and wine tourism: on average a non-French tourist spent €91.00 per day as opposed to €63.00 for French tourists. British tourists spent the most, at €109.00. In the study period, nearly 6m people visited Bordeaux.

Pioneers set stage Gaillard praises wine tourism pioneers such as Philippe de Rothschild of Mouton Rothschild, the Cazes family at Château Lynch-Bages and, later on, the Cathiards at Château Smith Haut Lafitte. “Early on the Cathiards set up a restaurant, lodgings and spa for tourists for the Graves region,” she says. “They blazed a trail.”

When Florence and husband Daniel Cathiard arrived at Smith Haut Lafitte in 1990, Florence recalls: “At that time none of our neighbours were ready to open estate doors even on weekends.” Today, Florence Cathiard is president of the Oenotourisme French Council, where she initiates projects nationwide – and she is “very happy” with how Bordeaux has improved its wine tourism.

The Bordeaux tourism website has a new section called the top 10 restaurants of Bordeaux châteaux, which includes Le Manège, a recently opened restaurant of Château Léognan in Pessac-Léognan.

Taking a lead from such top estates as Montrose and Margaux, which had earlier

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M A R K E T W AT C H BORDEAUX

unveiled new cellars in spectacular fashion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion in Pessac hired world famous designer Philippe Starck and architect Luc Arsène-Henry to create a sleek, new cellar that resembles a moored boat. The €10m project extends over 2,000 square metres, with a barrel cellar and grape harvest reception room, a tasting room and panoramic terrace overlooking the entire estate. Representative Stephanie Libreau said that a boutique for tours and tastings for the public should be operational at the beginning of 2016.

Another example is the opening this summer of a luxurious bed and breakfast within a renovated château by Robert G Wilmers, owner of the famous Château Haut Bailly. After purchasing Château Le Pape in Léognan back in 2012, he hired 15 local craftsmen, among others, to renovate the gorgeous 18th-century Chartreuse, including the painstaking recreation of a second tower.

A landscape artist redesigned the grounds with an elaborate garden and swimming pool. Greeting guests and managing the estate is Hervé Audibert, trained chef and culinary director, who had managed the personal kitchen staff of Château Margaux and worked at Michelin-rated restaurants in France. It is like a five-star hotel in a pastoral vineyard, but very close to both the Bordeaux airport and central train station.

Libreau and Anne-Sophie Brieux, communications director at Haut-Bailly and Le Pape, agree that plans by the French national railway to shorten the train ride from Paris to Bordeaux will benefit wine tourism – and increase visits to their respective estates.

When opened in 2017, the Bordeaux-Paris route is expected to take 50 minutes less, down to 2 hours and 24 minutes from 3 hours and 14 minutes.

Renovation transforms quality and image Much has been said in the media about spectacular unveilings of new cellars at Château Margaux, designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster, and some €60m spent by the tycoon owners of Château Montrose to transform the cellar space into a massive model of environmental sustainability. Both estates celebrated these changes over elaborate dinners at Vinexpo this year. A Keeping Up With The Joneses mentality permeates Bordeaux estates,

LA CITÉ DU VIN To make itself a world wine tourism region, Bordeaux is opening an €81m non-profit centre, La Cité du Vin, in June 2016. Shaped like a giant carafe, the building will have a light golden colour to echo Bordeaux’s famous limestone façades. Director Philippe Massol says that the centre will welcome tourists in eight languages – English, German, Italian, Japanese, French, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese – and a wine bar will feature wines from 80 countries and wine regions throughout the world.

An accredited charitable organization since December 2014, the centre’s primary purpose will celebrate and transmit the cultural, historical and intellectual dimensions of wine, Massol explains. Some 25% of funding comes from charitable donations that are tax deductible up to 60% of the amount donated. “It is the first time that a cultural centre in France will be supported by so many private company donations,” Massol said.

He is confident that the initiative will survive where others – like Copia in the Napa Valley – failed because “we are going to be in the very centre of Bordeaux, just on the bank of the Garonne River.” Copia “may have been a bit too high-brow” too, he said. The Cité du Vin will attract general tourists as well as more wine savvy audiences. The €20.00 per adult admission will include a wine tasting at the top of the building and a general tour, with animations, decorations, documentaries and dioramas of wine past and present.

as similar renovations – if not always on such grand scales – grow like so many autumnal mushrooms.

For many years Château Pédesclaux in Pauillac was dubbed Château Pedestrian.

Real estate mogul Jacky Lorenzetti bought it in 2009, determined to improve quality and image.

The château is now covered in glass with a new cellar built to showcase more precision in winemaking, with different-sized vats to mirror parcel selections. Over lunch at the château during Vinexpo this year, professionals felt that the 2012 was better than the 2009 and 2010 vintages, because of better winemaking.

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Bordeaux’s restaurants offer plenty for tourists.

Shortly afterwards, a widely read article in The Washington Post dubbed Pédesclaux “the most underrated Bordeaux château”.

At Château Beychevelle in Saint-Julien, work started for a 1,600-square-metre cellar space in February 2015 and should be ready for the 2016 harvest, says director Philippe Blanc.

Cranes and excavations greet drivers entering Saint-Julien on the D2. “A practical measure,” says Blanc. “Our previous installation was good, but with concrete vats dating 50-years old and stainless steel between 15 and 30, the owners [Suntory and Groupe Castel] wanted to bring a breath of fresh air.”

Blanc does not use the word “competition” with neighbours, but says visitors, journalists, professionals and “just worldly people” are coming to Bordeaux more often: “They see how some estates look more advanced than others, so it is difficult to give the impression of being behind the times. In addition to the technical aspect of renovation, there is also a communication dimension.”

That dimension includes a new welcoming area (the estate welcomes up to 20,000 people per year, albeit only six days a week), a boutique and a tour of the grounds, with regular art exhibits. In 2012, the estate hired a hotel professional, Christine Pinault, who had worked for the Le Méridien hotel in New Orleans, and managed the nearby landmark property, Madewood Plantation, to manage 13 renovated rooms with for guests who want to experience a stay at the château.

But much work remains, visitors say. When Brussels-based Euronews talk show host and Bordeaux fan Chris Burns arrived this past August with his family, the city of Bordeaux was “great” but almost every château was closed for tastings, let alone visits. “It was not welcoming,” he says. “We came at the drop of a hat, so it may have been better to have called in advance,” he added. “But people take holidays in August, so you would think that estates would have staff to welcome visitors.”

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R E G I O N A L A N A LY S I S CRIMEA

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THE GAME OF WINES Wine has played an integral role in Crimea for more than 120 years.

But now it’s caught in the crossfire of great power politics, finds Felicity Carter.

Crimean coast

Alma Valley The helicopter lands at the Alma Valley winery, near the site of the Crimean War’s first battle. Founded in 2006, this is a good place for wine: Western Crimea offers a combination of brown loam and calcareous soils, on an underlying bed of limestone.

Breezes from the Black Sea keep everything well ventilated; in winter temperatures can fall below -27C, so the vines have to be plowed under.

Alma Valley is the flagship of the small ‘new wave’ wineries, mostly Russian owned, that have opened in Crimea over the past decade. The ownership of Alma Valley is somewhat opaque – winery executives won’t

reveal who it belongs to, although the Russian media have speculated it’s the president of one of Russia’s major banks. Whoever he is, he has powerful friends; fledging vines planted by President Vladimir Putin and other notables are out the front. It’s a state-of-the-art winery built in 2013 by Swiss experts, with a German winemaker, Thomas Doll. Its first manager, a local, was less expert, however.

He ordered equipment at random from various catalogues, leaving the winery with micro-oxygenation tanks they don’t need, and fermentation tanks installed in such a way that they can’t be used. The owner finally brought in a team of well-known Russian wine experts: Andrey Grigoryev, general director, and his deputy, Igor Serdyuk, Russia’s most respected wine journalist.

Alma Valley winery

Igor conducts a tasting of wines in the panoramic tasting room. Made from young vines, it’s going to take time before these wines really show their form – although they’ve just won bronze in Hong Kong – but already they’re quality wines. The Black Sea moderates the temperatures and there is relatively little diurnal variation, leading to wines that are soft and easy to drink.

The ‘upper line’ offers a varietal range of Tempranillo, Cabernet, Shiraz and Merlot, and Pinot Noir, while the barrel sample of Petite Arvine is a pleasant surprise.

When we leave, we pass a broken-down building I’m told is a winery. Through the windows I can see some new-looking steel tanks but the place is silent and bolted, although it’s Monday. The village we pass

SNAPSHOT OF CRIMEA Total production capacity: 264,000 tons of grapes Total enterprises on the peninsula: 2,500 People involved: 200,000 Crimea’s population: 1,960,541 Total winegrowing area: 70,000 ha

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SOURCE: TASS, FROM UKRAINIAN FIGURES

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he helicopter speeds over azure waters, white beaches and a vast, multi-coloured salt lake.

And then come the ruins. Broken roads snake across a landscape that seems abandoned.

Factories lie exposed to the elements, with roofs fallen in and storage tanks eaten by rust. Rural villages have gaps like missing teeth, where houses used to be. And there are vineyards stretching to the horizon, many choked with overgrown grass and dead vines.

Welcome to Crimea.

The conflict On 27 February 2014, Russian troops entered Crimea and declared it independent from Ukraine. Such action is business as usual for the peninsula. Located on the Black Sea between Russia and Ukraine, Crimea’s been bitterly contested since antiquity; this is where both modern warfare and modern nursing began. The current conflict has soured Russia’s relations with the West, bringing down economic sanctions against Russia and its products.

Wine plays a significant role in Crimea.

According to Ukrainian statistics from 2013, there are 200,000 Crimeans involved in wine enterprises, or nearly 10% of the population.

Initially the Russian government promised to invest in the wine sector – up to $800m. But that promise was made before the oil price collapsed in mid-2014. Oil and gas account for up to 70% of Russia’s export income, and government coffers emptied fast. In December 2014, the ruble collapsed and now it will be hard for the government to honour its pledges.

If investment is to come, it must come from private citizens, like Pavel Shvets. Born here in the romantic harbour city of Sevastopol, he trained as a sommelier in Moscow and then created Uppa Winery. He was the first of the new-wave wine producers, planting his vineyard in 2006. He and other wine professionals, including Vitaly Marinchuk, co-founder of distributor Crimea Cost, have come to pour their wines. They say that Pinot Noir does well here. Shvets has biodynamic wines on the table: an impressive Riesling and Chardonnay. “We use preparation 500 and 501 and the moon, all those things,” says Shvets. “We have ten hectares, and only seven hectares produce grapes for wine, because they’re still very young. Our vineyard is almost 400 metres above the sea.”

After the annexation, Shvets thought the time was ideal to set out a development

program for the local industry. “The main idea was to create more than 200 small wineries, but not very big,” he said. “A preliminary area of 20 ha each, but working from grape to bottle.” He said the Russians who have come to invest in wineries in Crimea are typical of wine investors elsewhere. “They’re people who live in St Petersburg or Moscow, who work in banking or consulting. They’re aged 45 or 50 and they’re starting to invest,” he says. “They’re thinking – maybe in ten years I will get my first bottle, and then I will retire to Crimea and live by the sea.” Unfortunately, unlike the Ukrainian authorities, the Russian government simply doesn’t understand wine, and their bureaucratic demands are Kafkaesque. “We tried to count how many different Russian documents we have to use,” said Shvets. “There were 850.”

Some Crimean wineries reportedly closed after the annexation, simply because they couldn’t cope with the paperwork. The Russian government, not wanting the bad press, lifted some of the demands on the wine industry – giving mainland wineries cause to celebrate. But there are still problems. Most Russian wineries rely on imported bulk wine, so there’s no will to create an appellation system. “People from these wineries have good friendships with people in government, and when we tried to give advice about good wine regulation for Russia, these people were not happy,” says Shvets. What he’s pushing for are appellation regulations in accordance with the rest of the world, so that they “will have table wines and upper-class wines. But in Russia, not even winemakers understand these realities. The Ministry of Agriculture wants to be boss.”

Perhaps it’s dawning on them just how important wine is to Crimea. As we’re speaking, Shvets gets a text from the Ministry, asking for information on how to double the vineyard area. And the difficulties haven’t stopped the ‘new wave’ pursuing their passions. There are 13 wineries in Sevastopol, only one of which doesn’t have a vineyard, and people talk terroir and wine, just like anywhere else. Marinchuk has brought a delicious Kokur from his negociant brand, Yayla. It hails from the stony soils of Sunny Valley, where the sun shines 300 days a year, and there are indigenous varieties that Marinchuk wants to bring to export markets.

The group around the table are hoping that

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through on our way to Sevastopol in the southwest is poor, the fences collapsed and the cars rusty.

I ask the driver to stop, so I can photograph the vineyards. It’s hard to get through the vines, because the grass between them is tough and overgrown. “This is what the Ukrainian government did in the post-Soviet era.” says Igor. “Nothing.”

An abandoned Crimean vineyard

more wine lovers will come along to invest in the near future, because they see lots of potential in the terroir. A freeze has been imposed on agricultural land sales, making investing an unattractive proposition right now, but the moratorium expires on 1 January 2016. It’s not yet clear whether land will be only be available for purchase – probably around $5,000.00/ha right now – or whether some may be given away to anyone who can develop it and bring jobs to the region.

What about Ukraine?

Marina Mayevska, managing editor of Ukraine’s Drinks+ magazine, agrees that, with the right investments, Crimea has the terroir to produce high quality wine. “What we would like the world to know about this wine is that it is produced on Ukrainian land,” she says, adding that Crimea can’t exist without water from Ukrainian rivers – not to mention Ukrainian electricity. “And we really hope that soon it will win the hearts around the world among other Ukrainian wines.”

The loss of Crimea has forced the Ukrainians to reorient their wine industry in a hurry. Famous brands from Crimea – like Novyi Svit sparkling wine – have quickly been trademarked in Kiev. Ukrainian wine producers are now making them using grapes grown in Odessa – even though the Crimean Novyi Svit is now being sold in Russia. Other brands are in a similar position.

Through a translator, I wrote to Sergei Mihaylechko, director of the Winegrowers and Winemakers of Ukraine, and asked him how the brand swaps were working. He replied it’s going well. “Several Crimean brands are available in the territory of Ukraine,” he said, adding that whether this solution will be effective long term is hard to say. The loss

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R E G I O N A L A N A LY S I S CRIMEA

THE ‘NEW WAVE’ WINERIES Alma Valley (2006) Uppa Winery (2006) Satera (2008) Oleg Repin (2008)

of Crimea is a major blow: “Undoubtedly, Crimean wines are allotted a place of honour,” he wrote. “Firstly, Crimea is an important part of the history of Ukrainian winemaking and represents the knowledge of several generations of winemakers.” Not only that, but he said Crimean wines also accounted for around 55% of Ukrainian production.

Mihaylechko wanted to emphasise that the annexation of Crimea “does not mean the death of Ukrainian wine production. We have serious manufacturers in Odessa, Kherson, Mykolaiv and the Transcarpathian regions,” he wrote. “The vineyard area of Odessa exceeds the area in Crimea. We have the raw materials and experts.” What is missing, he said, was state support.

As to why Crimea’s vineyards are in such a bad way: “Negative trends in viticulture and winemaking of Crimea was part of the processes that took place in the wine industry in Ukraine as a whole.” He added that the entire sector benefited from financial support until 2010, when the program was abolished and excise taxes increased. “In Ukrainian wine, there is no long-term planning. This is due to the deteriorating economic climate in the country.”

Historic Crimea Yelena Batrak, chief of Massandra’s collection department, clutches a striking gold shawl around her as she heads into the tunnels.

Massandra, two long buildings under the shadow of the Ai-Petri mountains, was built by Prince Golitsyn, the most significant figure in Russian wine history. He studied winemaking in France, set up the sparkling facilities at Abrau-Durso, established a winemaking school, and established Novyi Svit on the south coast of Crimea. Massandra, founded in 1894 in the Yalta area to supply the nearby palace of Tsar Nicholas II, is Crimea’s most famous winery. Batrak shows us old photos of the massive engineering work it took to bore seven

tunnels through the mountains. These are used for wine storage.

The ‘Massandra Collection’ – essentially the Tsar’s private cellar, along with other great wines assembled until the 1940s – became internationally famous in 1990 when bottles of fortified wine from years such as 1914 and 1886 were auctioned in London. Old bottles from the Collection are still sold today, often at very high prices.

The region’s sub-tropical climate makes it ideal for fortified wines. Only 10% to 15% of Massandra’s production is table wines, though the rate is increasing to meet market demand.

The winery’s vineyards run 180 km along the south and east coasts, covering 4,000 ha. The grapes are diverse: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Bastardo, Saperavi and others in the reds, and Kokur, Aligoté, Chardonnay, Rkatseteli, Verdelho and Sercial in the whites. And exports? “Before the sanctions, we sold 55% of production to the US, UK, Poland, Europe and Russia,” says the translator. And now? “We’re planning to sell our wines to China.”

Such a loss sounds catastrophic. No, says Batrak, who mimics someone laden with shopping. Apparently Russian tourists have been buying as much wine as they can carry, now that they don’t have to pay duty. Plus, Russian orthodox priests are flooding them with orders.

We walk through Prince Golitsyn’s collection, the Hermitage Museum of fortified wines. In pride of place are several bottles of 1775 Jerez de la Frontera. They’ve survived the Russian revolution and two world wars, but didn’t quite make it past Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin, who did this same tour in September. Berlusconi asked to drink one, and Masssandra’s new pro-Russian director, Yanina Pavlenko, is accused of removing a bottle, worth up to $90,000, for him. Batrak just smiles when I ask her about it.

Ukrainian authorities are now trying to prosecute Pavlenko. They probably have as much chance of nabbing her as the Russians do of laying their hands on former director Nikolay Boyko, now a fugitive in Ukraine. Massandra is missing thousands of bottles of rare vintages, which Boyko stands accused of selling for his own personal gain.

The tasting room is new and elegant: damask walls, a chandelier, cut crystal and fine china on the table. Russian money refurbished the room and more money is promised for upgrades. It

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Massandra Winery

will be expensive: as well as the vineyards, there are eight other winemaking facilities, some of which are still using Soviet-style equipment, and 2,600 staff.

No spitting allowed, says Batrak, as it’s disrespectful. The still wines – Moscato, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet – are indifferent.

The ‘Madeira’, of which there are four levels, is a different matter. “Madeira is the glory of Massandra,” says Batrak, adding that in markets where the name Madeira can’t be used, it’s called Etalita instead. Normally Massandra produces 12m bottles of fortified wines a year, but production currently runs at 10m, which is the amount the Russian market can absorb.

End game The Crimea that I saw is a beautiful, wild place, with a spectacular coastline. And good terroir — the ‘new wave’ wineries demonstrate how a small amount of investment in Crimea has produced commercially sound to excellent wines in a short time. But if Crimea is really to show what it can do, it needs investment and, for the moment, the only source of that money is a small group of wealthy Russians.

Politics aside, it’s clear some of that Russian cash is already producing some excellent wines, not to mention bringing much-needed economic activity to the region.

But, of course, politics can’t be thrust aside.

As a result of military action, wine in this part of the world has been turned inside out, from Kiev to Moscow. There’s only one thing that’s absolutely clear about the situation: it may be some time before Westerners can sample Crimean wines for themselves.

Felicity Carter travelled to Crimea as a guest of the new wave wineries. With thanks to Eugene Gerden and Anton Moiseenko for help with Russian translations.

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POWER LIST NETHERLANDS

RETAILERS IN THE NETHERLANDS Holland is a country so full of independent merchants, it can be hard to make sense of the market. Fortunately, Cees van Casteren MW is on hand to show the way.

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he vast majority of wines – some 85% – are sold in the off-trade in the Netherlands, (including 5% online) and only 15% on premise. Whether this is because “Dutch men don’t take their wives out for dinner”, as a member of the international trade used to joke, is hard to say, but the fact is that Holland is a model ‘take home market’.

Currently, some 70% of all wines sold in the off-trade go through multiple grocers, with less than 20% going through independents.

According to the SlijtersUnie, the main body representing Dutch independents, there are about 450 members and 1,050 independents, “amongst them many mom and pop stores”, according to Ron Andes, chairman of the association and sole Dutch certified appraiser and broker in wines.

‘Slijters’ are independents holding a liquor license, a category created in 1882 to curb the abuse of alcohol. In the association’s definition, if you run less than five wine stores you are regarded as an independent; run five or more and you are deemed part of the multiple grocer category. Following this logic, it means that some 700 bigger multiple specialists, including Mitra, owned

by Royal Dirkzwager Group, 172 stores; Dirck III, owned by multiple grocer Dirk van den Broek, 48 stores; and Gall & Gall, owned by Royal Ahold, 480 stores, as well as 1,000 so-called ‘borrelshops’ – take-away shops within multiples like Emté and Plus without permanent employees – are not within the scope of this article.

However, if you would add them to the estimated 1,000 existing independents you get an idea of how many slijters Holland still has, even though less than it used to. Fifty years ago there were almost 4,000, down to 2,800 in 2005 and now down to 2,600 today.

When supermarkets began selling beer and wine in the 1970s, many of the slijters were forced out of business. But from the ashes of the fallen independents have arisen small clusters of new enterprises, mostly franchises and partnerships, which join the ranks of a

handful of high street merchants who also survived the advance of the multiple grocers.

In order to build a picture of the Dutch independents scene, I took at look at ten of these. Some have been around for centuries, while others sprung up in the past thirty years; some have built their business around a single location, yet others are spread over the country. It is also worth noting that few of them entirely relies on pure retail; most of them also supply the (local or regional) HoReCa.

Traditional high street merchants The high street import themselves and sell directly to the final consumer. Some of them have set up a franchise of independents to increase coverage and points of sale.

Okhuysen Established in Haarlem in 1867 and now owned and run by the Kat family. Okhuysen’s portfolio is about 1,000 wines with an average price of €30.00 ($32.00) per wine. Expected turnover this year is €9.5m with 26 employees. They specialise in Rhône, Bordeaux and Burgundy, although Xavier Kat is quick to add that “the wines may come from anywhere as long as the quality is outstanding.” Okhuysen have 13 qualified vinologists to assist their customers and deliver directly to their homes. “It is about three things at Okhuysen: care for the wine, care for the supplier and care for the customer,” says Kat. Long-term brands include J.L. Chave, Graillot, Lucien Le Moine and Rostaing.

De Bruijn Wijnkopers Established in 1772 and now run by the seventh generation brothers Eric and Joost de Bruijn and their 18 employees. “Our portfolio is some 450 wines with a focus on price points of €7.00 to €3,500.00,” says Eric. “Our specialty is France.”

De Bruijn is built around 125 French suppliers; with the exception of Bernardus from California they have resisted taking on board any wines from the New World. De Bruijn also services

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the top gastronomy establishments with brands such as Leflaive, Comtes Lafon, Bonneau du Martray and Tardieu-Laurent.

Robbers & van den Hoogen From their one-hectare-large cellars with museum and events facilities, 173-year-old Robbers & van den Hoogen sell wines that are mainly between €7.00 and €20.00. Turnover is €3m with 15 employees. The business, owned by the Donders family, is in transition from a traditional high street merchant to a wine experience centre concept and direct mail offering.

Heeren van Heusden Although only established in 1983, managing director and co-owner Jan Janssen built this company around the wines of Maison Louis Latour. In the meantime his portfolio has grown to 300 wines with an emphasis on the €7.00 to €13.50 price point. Turnover is €5m, with 10 employees. They only do European wines and have been successful in aligning with ‘top five’ brands (quality wise) from their respective regions. They sell directly to consumers, via direct mailing and Internet, and service the top gastronomy establishments.

Wijnhandel B.J. de Logie A family business in Amsterdam since 1848, specialising in classic European wines. From a small but monumental building in Beethoven Street, a small crew of six employees sells 250 wines to winelovers, Amsterdam restaurants, and the urban region called the Randstad. Price points are from €10.00 to €40.00 and turnover is €3m. This is a fine wine business where the majority of wines are own imports (95%), with a clear house style characterised by elegance and finesse.

Verbunt (Franchise: De Wijnkring) Established in 1844 as a family business, fifth-generation Frans Verbunt, sold the company in 2010 to Salentein Holding. De Wijnkring, a group of 108 independents

Les Généreux

Partnerships with a portfolio of 450 wines, is a Verbunt initiative begun in 1982. Members buy outside Verbunt too, albeit at all times it must be visible that Verbunt is the dominant supplier. De Wijnkring mostly sells wines between €6.00 and €20.00, though they do offer more expensive wines too. Verbunt has 26 employees. Peter van Houtert, the iconic commercial director of Verbunt and chairman of the KVNW (the Royal Association of Wine Merchants), proudly claims: “We are the number one supplier of branded wines in Holland, and the Wijnkring is the biggest association between an importer and independents!”

Résidence (Franchise: De Gouden Ton) The franchise of Résidence is called De Gouden Ton (the golden barrel), 10 of which are in Holland, and one of which is in Willemstad on Curacao. Résidence carries some 600 wines, along with 100 other drinks and 45 oil and vinegar products, as well as distributing Coravin and Riedel glassware. The focus is on on-trade and the Gouden Ton franchise. Turnover is €18.5m with 23 employees. Fonger Kranenburg, general manager of Résidence says: “The depth of our portfolio is our strength as well as the core of our brands such as Enate, Alois Lageder, Gosset, Artadi and Billecart-Salmon.” He adds, “In the on-trade we tend to focus on family business and with De Gouden Ton we work with people with passion for wine. True specialists with identity, service and expertise.”

Wijntransport: (Franchise: De Wijnproevers) This was established in 1978 by Leen Diterwich, an independent retailer who was (and is) convinced that “good wine doesn’t need to cost a fortune”. Having developed an impressive network of independents throughout Holland, Germany and Belgium, the franchise is now 40

Independents from across Holland sometimes join forces. These are two of the best known.

Wine club De Wijnbeurs A direct mail membership business owned by Baarsma with approximately 800 wines. Prices range from €6.00 to €30.00, with a turnover of €26m. Wijnbeurs select wines from regions based on scores in their blind tastings. They offer collective barrel buying, wine subscriptions and cellar service.

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OTHER NOTABLE INDEPENDENTS Wijnhandel Jean Berger, Roermond www.jeanbergerwijn.nl

Les Généreux This partnership of 38 independents control 40 stores (two partners own two shops). They carry 800 wines from over 150 suppliers, 95% of which are own imports. The strength of the portfolio lies in wines between €8.00 and €12.00, but the focus is on wines up to €15.00, which is half the range. The annual turnover is more than €20m, with five employees in the main office. Ton Schaapveld, owner of the Zutphen store, says: “Our USP is strong entrepreneurship of the independent shops in combination with co-ownership of the association, which benefits individual partners (healthy profit margin through price uniformity, regional exclusivity, focus on sales and service) and the group as a whole.” Les Généreux do not carry big brands but specialise in handpicked, high-quality producers from around the globe.

Chabrol Wines, Amsterdam www.chabrolwines.com

Henri Bloem’s Wijnkoperijen The group currently has 19 Dutch stores. The portfolio is huge with 1,100 wines, although the business model is focused on offering high quality for affordable prices; the main strength is in wines between €5.00 and €10.00, although they offer wines from around the globe in all price categories. The idea is to stimulate sales, even if it has to be bottles rather than boxes, at prices to bridge the gap between the supermarket and the specialist; they claim lower margins than most of their competitors. All franchise members are independent entrepreneurs; the organization is decentralized and flat, with just three employees at the main office. Brands include Avignonesi, Alain Brumont, De Martino and Domaine de Vogüe.

Sauter Wijnen, Maastricht www.sauterwijnen.nl

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Léon Colaris, Weert www.colaris.nl Grapedistrict, Amsterdam www.grapedistrict.nl Wijnhandel Herman, Axel www.hermanwines.com Overmars, Amsterdam www.tonovermars.nl Pasteuning, Amsterdam www.pasteuning.nl Wijnhandel Peeters, Rotterdam www.wijnhandel-peeters.com Schermer, Hoorn www.schermerwijn.nl

ijnkopers Alex Storms Mertens, W Heythuysen www.storms.nl Thiessen, Maastricht www.thiessen.nl Úw topSlijters, Nijkerk www.uwtopslijter.nl Vojacek Wijnen, Maastricht www.vojacek.nl Wijn Verlinden, Den Bosch www.wijnverlinden.nl

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stores wide, with a portfolio of approximately 500 wines. The strength and focus is on everyday wines priced between €2.99 and €9.99. Turnover is €35m with 15 employees.

The portfolio has brands like Caliterra, Jean Bousquet, Paul Mas and Oude Kaap, but they also specialise in beers and spirits, all competitively priced. Slogan of the partners is: “Take care of yourself, benefit from the synergies, and never forget that slim margins on many bottles also generate good profits.”

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M A R K E T W AT C H CANADA

NEW ERA IN BRITISH COLUMBIA The way alcohol is sold in Canada’s British Columbia province was overhauled, beginning in April this year. Treve Ring looks at what this means for everybody throughout the supply chain.

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pril Fools’ Day. It would have been easy to think that British Columbia’s main beverage alcohol retailer – the government-owned and operated BC Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) – was playing a joke, by fundamentally shifting the way liquor was purchased, sold and priced in the province.

As of April 1, 2015, no one, not importers, agents, private wine store owners, restaurateurs or consumers, knew what to expect with alcohol prices. That day marked the division of the BCLDB’s wholesale and retail operations, the largest transformation in the organization’s 95-year history, and a move which was designed to put all liquor retailers, including the government-owned and operated BC Liquor Stores, on equal footing. “Levelling the playing field” became the government’s rallying cry throughout the process, one that began publically in 2014 with the Liquor Policy Review. Concluding in November 2014 and after consultation from the public, the report contained 70 recommendations to modernize liquor sales in BC. Some of these changes have been implemented relatively easily and positively, including allowing local wine and spirits to be sold at farmers’ markets.

The second phase of the process has not been so smooth. As of April 1, 2015, all shelf prices in the BCLDB were moved to pre-tax pricing,

with the majority of private retailers forced to follow. Under the new wholesale pricing model, the retail division of the LDB now purchases product at the common wholesale price from the wholesale arm of the LDB, exactly as privately owned stores must. The wholesale arm sets the markup, using a sliding scale that is not released.

This means that wineries and importers selling product to BC cannot calculate exactly what the after-tax (post mark up) price of the product will be. Government-owned LDB retail stores must now devise their own profitability decisions based on the same baseline cost of goods as a private retailer. Private liquor st ores, owned and operated by citizens of BC, have become direct competitors to the retail division of the LDB. And though the LDB’s Retail Division and Wholesale Division are now separate, both report to the same general manager, Blain Lawson.

Wine is booming For many years, wine sales have been strong in British Columbia. Canada’s westernmost province has long enjoyed strong Pacific ties to California, and has supported its own Okanagan Valley-centred wine industry. The city of Vancouver is also the golden gateway to

2014 WINE MARKET SHARE BY COUNTRY All Channels and Customer Types OTHER CANADA: 0.7% SOUTH AFRICA: 1.3%

BC NON VQA*: 23.0%

SPAIN: 2.8% OTHERS: 3.3% NEW ZEALAND: 3.5% CHILE: 4.1% ARGENTINA: 4.4%

BC VQA*: 20.9%

FRANCE: 7.2%

ITALY: 7.8% AUSTRALIA: 7.9%

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 13.0% *VQA is Vintners Quality Alliance

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the Pacific Rim, where an influx of investment money from Asia is fuelling development.

The province’s liquor system is overseen by two governmental bodies. The Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) is responsible for regulating and monitoring the industry. The BCLDB, on the other hand, is responsible for purchasing, importing and distributing alcoholic beverages through the province, through their 195 government liquor stores, operating under the name BC Liquor Stores. The buying power of the LDB is undeniable, with four category managers responsible for product selection for millions of people. The organization oversees two types of sales operations: the retail channel handles sales from the BC Liquor Stores to retail customers directly, while the wholesale channel handles sales to resellers of liquor – the private liquor stores, restaurants, pubs and duty-free stores.

In addition to the government-owned BC Liquor Stores, there are approximately 670 private liquor stores operating throughout the province. A fixed number of licenses creates a high-stakes buying and selling game for their resale (going for anywhere from C$450,000 to C$750,000 ([$338,000 to $564,000) per license). The private liquor stores have been instrumental in growing the wine culture of the province, especially in Vancouver, where the sommelier and wine trade community thrives through education and collaboration.

Unlike the unionized government stores, the independently operated private liquor stores have the opportunity to hire who they want (interested, engaged sales force) and are able to select the products from the BCLDB and via local agencies that suit their goals and clientele.

One benefit of the government overseeing all liquor sales has been the reporting mechanisms available. It remains to be seen what will be made public knowledge post April 1, 2015, but the transparency of sales and quarterly market reviews up to that point were useful tools in tracking liquor sales in the province. Provincial liquor sales were C$3.1bn in 2014/15, which was C$120.5m or 4.1% percent higher than

Looking ahead Though much has been said about “levelling the playing field”, the slope is still steeply slanted to benefit the BCLDB. The government stores remain the only outlet that can sell to restaurants and other members of the hospitality industry. Prior to April 1, 2015, government stores paid BCLDB’s wholesale price, which was less than half of the final shelf price. Under the new system, government liquor stores will pay the same as private liquor stores, a sliding scale that approximates to roughly 16% less than the final shelf price. If shelf prices are kept the same, these stores will be operating on margins that are very close to their operating expenses, reported at 17.5% of actual sales in the 2014/2015 Annual Service Plan Report. How the government liquor stores are planning to be sustainable in the long run, and how private stores are expected to follow suit and thrive with these margins is unclear.

As part of the Liquor Policy Review recommendations revealed in November 2014

was the announcement that qualifying grocery stores will be permitted to sell alcohol as of April 2015. To date, that still remains a cloudy, contentious area, with the number of grocery stores in the province able to meet the set regulatory requirements limited to nearly zero.

In addition to the moratorium on new liquor licenses in the province, geographical and store size restrictions and a surprise decision to restrict liquor sales to solely BC-produced wine, the restraints appear ready to burst open at any time according to Mark Hicken, a Vancouver lawyer specializing in wine law. Hicken points out that “a preferential treatment to BCproduced wines does not appear to be trade compliant with Canada’s obligations under both NAFTA and GATT.” There have already been letters from both the California Wine Institute and Wine Australia expressing their concerns to the BC government and urging a swift reversal to the BC wine-only model in grocery stores.

According to Hicken, “in similar markets and models (to ours) in the United States, up to 70% of all alcohol sales take place in grocery stores.

It will be difficult to maintain these types of restraints for the long-term, legally. They are bound to collapse.” He predicts open grocery shelves to all international products in BC within a few years’ time, changing the liquor retail map dramatically.

For Anthony Gismondi, one of Canada’s most respected wine journalists, the changes since April 1 signal “a race to the bottom”. “There’s an abundance of caution by people in the industry right now across the board – from wineries to agents to importers to private liquor store owners. When people get nervous, they are constrictive.” His fears echo that of many private wine store owners interviewed for this article, who wished to remain anonymous. “With such slim operating margins, the BCLDB seem bent on destroying private-sector shops,” Gismondi muses. Stores, including the government’s own BC Liquor Stores, will have to look at creative methods for making profits, including private-label branding, a tactic long favoured by supermarkets outside of Canada. “Big companies and large brands will benefit, the ones with the budget to bring in exclusive container loads of cheaply priced juice, repackage and sell for a large profit,” he predicts. For him, as for many, the potential loss of wine culture in a province that has built one of the strongest food and wine communities in North America is a case to consider.

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BCLDB BUYERS Since April 1, 2015, the four category managers are no longer responsible for product registration in BC, but still responsible for listing the products in BC Liquor Stores. If an agent or manufacturer is interested in registering a new wine product in BC, the Liquor Distribution Branch has a general inbox: ldbagentinfo@bcldb.com Barbara Philip MW, European wines Philip has a long history working as a sommelier and wine educator and in 2007 became the first Western Canadian and first Canadian woman to achieve the Master of Wine designation. Barbara also works as a freelance lecturer, radio columnist and wine judge with her company Barbariain Wine Consulting.

Kim Giesbrecht, New Zealand and Australia, beer and refreshment beverages Giesbrecht has achieved the WSET Level 4 Diploma, and has been working in the industry for over 25 years, managing BC Liquor Stores as well as time as marketing visual presentation and events manager.

Stephen Schiedel, wines of the Americas Schiedel started as a store clerk at the flagship Vancouver BC Liquor Store in 1979 and worked his way up through all the ranks to Category Manager.

Adele Shaw, spirits, fortified, fruit, South African and Asian wines Shaw began her career with BCLS in 1988, working up through the ranks, and was responsible for launching the BC Liquor Stores’ annual Premium Spirits Release.

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budgeted and C$148.8m or 5.1% higher than the prior year. Of this C$3.1bn in total sales, C$1.03bn were wine (an increase of 7.1% or $68m); $1.1bn were beer; C$772m were spirits, and C$168m were refreshment beverages.

The rise of wine sales is relatively recent; BC consumers traditionally preferred spirits and beer to wine. But wine sales are growing to the point where they now eclipse spirits and are approaching beer. There are currently 24,465 wine listings in the BCLDB’s wholesale system. Over the last year, 17,911 have had sales transactions, meaning they are actively being sold.

During the fiscal 2014/2015 year, the customer count at the government-operated BC Liquor Stores increased to 36.4m from 36.2m customers and the average retail customer transaction value increased to C$33.46 from C$32.90.

From March 2014 through March 2015, almost all of the import wine categories grew, except for sparkling wine which saw a 15.02% decrease in retail dollar sales. White wine was the strongest category leader, growing by 5.99%, followed by rosé at 4.03%, red with 2.02% growth, and the aperitif, dessert and fortified category growing by 0.24%. As in past years, the US leads the import category by market share, followed by Australia, Italy and France.

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ACCOLADE’S NEW LEADER AN INT E RV IE W W I T H PA U L S C H A A F S M A

BY RO BERT JOSEPH

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projects are created out of issues identified by people on the production line. One of those was as simple as when a flexi tank is emptied, the typical wastage is 110 litres of wine. When you ship 6,000 to 7,000 containers per year, that adds up. I’m not going to go into the details but they’ve reduced the wastage to five litres.

aul Schaafsma joined the wine industry after graduating with a degree in manufacturing management from his native Australia. He was responsible for managing the UK and Irish businesses of Australian Vintage, building its McGuigan brand into one of the biggest in the UK, before taking on the same responsibilty at a recently-launched company called Accolade.

Formed from the Australian, South African and US brands plus UK distribution business that Constellation sold in 2011, Accolade was purchased by the Australian firm, Champ Private Equity. Over the past five years, considerable investment has gone into enhancing the prestige of Hardy’s, the company’s major asset, along with making strategic acquisitions in other countries and building relationships with distributors and key retail partners. These efforts, along with some skilful management, have contributed to Accolade becoming one of the world’s biggest wine producers.

Schaafsma, who grew the company’s UK market share by 70%, became CEO in October 2015 and now divides his time between Australia and the UK.

MEININGER’S: When Accolade Park was opened some people thought it too big. How close is it to working at capacity?

SCHAAFSMA: In fact, it wasn’t big enough. We now need capacity of 26m 9-L cases, so we had to put in a third bottling line which, if we run 365 days a year, allows us to do something like 29m to 30m 9-L cases. So, with wine coming across in 25-ft containers and flexi tanks and a variety of wines available both at the rail head and at the site, we can work as if we were bottling at the winery. This gives us a huge commercial advantage. We provide something like 22% to 23% of Tesco’s total wine supply, but we only take up 4% of their working capital.

MEININGER’S: You have described Accolade as a full service provider, offering both branded and own-label wines. How do you feel about producing stuff that’s competing with your own branded product?

SCHAAFSMA: In the 11 years in the UK, I’ve learned that you can’t be dictatorial about what you want to give your customers. You need to listen and understand what they and their consumers need. The reality is that own-label is here to stay and it’s something they need to find a solution for and people they can rely on to do it.

MEININGER’S: Looking back at Accolade’s inception, it basically consisted of the brands Constellation didn’t want.

SCHAAFSMA: Yes, from Australia and South Africa, but don’t forget Echo Falls from the US, which was the third-largest brand in the UK. MEININGER’S: Apart from rebuilding those brands and acquiring new ones, what were the biggest managerial challenges?

SCHAAFSMA: There were some structural changes needed for the business to function appropriately. We’ve restructured to be consumerand customer-friendly and not only to be reactive but also to be innovative in the way that we can take new products to market and to improve the speed of response.

MEININGER’S: But you’ve got brands that have been built on a half-price promotional model, which is changing.

SCHAAFSMA: Yes, I think the Every-Day-Low-Price – EDLP - move that Tesco have taken, is already showing some very positive signs.

It’s showing that brands will prevail. Hardy’s is the number one brand in the UK, with sales of over 7.5m cases. It is the most trusted by UK consumers and that’s going to be even more important now that we’re going to see less half-price promotions.

MEININGER’S: The fact that your company and Treasury Wine Estates – one of your biggest competitors – bottle wine for each other seems more typical of the way the motor industry works than wine.

SCHAAFSMA: The one forward-thinking legacy that Constellation gave us was the Accolade Park bottling facility, that allowed us to own and control our own destiny. There are synergies there that help both of our businesses in terms of us packing for them in the UK and them packing for us in Australia. There’s a Chinese wall between what goes on in Accolade Park for Treasury and for Accolade, and our customers recognise that having a full truck delivering own-label that we produce for them, as well as branded Accolade product, and branded Treasury product makes a lot of sense.

MEININGER’S: How has your retail price evolved over the last three years?

SCHAAFSMA: We recognised that Hardy’s was the jewel in the crown, with 160 years of heritage. Consumers trusted and even loved the brand, but there was a similarity of our products. So we worked through all the styles and packaging to be sure there was a different proposition at every level, from VR stamp all the way up to Eileen Hardy, to give everyone a reason to drink a different wine, and to better evoke the quality cues and the history of the brand. The average price of Hardy’s three years ago was well below £5.00 ($7.60) and now it’s well above £5.30, and a move like that in a number one brand is significant.

MEININGER’S: The term ‘lean manufacturing policy’ that’s associated with Accolade is also an unusual concept for the wine industry.

SCHAAFSMA: Richard Lloyd, who runs Accolade Park, regularly visits companies like Toyota to keep up to speed. There’s a ‘Lean Room’ where

MEININGER’S: You famously created the first three-year partnership with Tesco and you talk about a partnership with Hillebrand in terms of shipping. Are these formal relationships the way forward?

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“I’ve learned that you can’t be dictatorial about what you want to give your customers.

You need to listen and understand what they and their consumers need.”

SCHAAFSMA: Mud House was a fantastic acquisition. We’ve grown UK sales from 10,000 cases to nearly 400,000 cases in 12 months. We’re now the fourth-largest New Zealand brand and we think we’ll take that even further, internationally. With Anakena, we’re offering an appropriate alternative to Concha y Toro, and I see huge potential for the brand in Japan.

SCHAAFSMA: Strategic partnerships with customers are something we’ve rolled out around the globe, and we’re constantly being asked to extend them beyond 12 months to three years, which is brilliant because it gives everyone certainty. We have a fantastic three year JBP – Joint Business Plan - with Smurfit Kappa [packaging group], who service all of our packaging, and they’ve actually built a facility largely focused on delivering solutions for us. If you tell people what you’re trying to do and you commit to them, it’s incredibly valuable.

MEININGER’S: How is UK distribution affected by your sale of leading UK wholesaler Matthew Clark.

SCHAAFSMA: We wouldn’t have sold the business without a 10-year strategic agreement that gives us the certainty that we will maintain and grow our share of the portfolio.

MEININGER’S: How big a part of the business is represented by the UK? SCHAAFSMA: I’m not going to apologise for the size of our UK business which represents well over 50% of our turnover. There isn’t a better company placed in the UK with our packing facilities, with our ability to source from every New World wine country and provide a matrix solution for the larger customers that they are absolutely screaming out for. We’re also looking at some very bullish growth in Australia - our second-largest market - in the next 12 to 18 months, because of our relevance both to the supermarkets and the independents with the portfolio we have now. Europe is also significant for us. It’s performing well. So if you looked at those three components they would be anywhere from 80% to 85% of our total business.

MEININGER’S: But in mainland Europe, Constellation is no longer your distributor.

SCHAAFSMA: We now have our own team of around 30 people in Europe, headed up by Ted Popov, with offices in Russia and Poland and good local in-country managers. Ted has got tremendous amounts of experience in Eastern Europe and he has created some fantastic business. We’ve also got great partners in Russia, so we wanted to recognise that that area needed to be serviced appropriately. And from a Western European point of view, while Scandinavia, Benelux and Germany are being serviced out of Poland, some of the team are based here in the UK.

MEININGER’S: Australia and the UK are both dominated by a small number of big supermarkets. How do you handle more fragmented markets?

SCHAAFSMA: Whatever the market, the issue that needs to be addressed [in a lot of them] is the way you work with distributors.

You need to make sure that you have clarity around the world in terms of your hierarchy of products. In Asia there has been a challenge of knowing exactly who your end customers are. Grant Viney [who runs our Asian business] is doing a fantastic job finding the right partners and we’re now seeing some lovely growth and consistency. In the US, there’s some nice growth in more premium Australian brands, but we also need to look at opportunities from other countries. Sauvignon Blanc is doing very well so we moved our Mud House general manager, M.J. Loza, across to the US. We think there’s a real opportunity for us there.

MEININGER’S: We’ve spoken a lot about Australia and New Zealand wines. The South African brand Kumala was not particularly profitable when you took over the business.

SCHAAFSMA: There was a lot of competition and behaviour that drove South African prices down. But consumers are now recognising that South Africa makes fantastic wine. So, Kumala is the largest number one South African brand in the UK and has very nice growth and improved price points, and we now sell over 40,000 cases of Flagstone, our premium wine just through Matthew Clark.

MEININGER’S: Presumably there’s an opportunity for your South African wines in places like Holland and Germany. How is that doing?

SCHAAFSMA: South African wine is doing very well in Holland, as you’d expect, and we’ve got good distribution there, and we’re very pleased with what’s happening.

MEININGER’S: How much has the business been changed by the acquisition of New Zealand’s Mud House and Chile’s Anakena?

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MEININGER’S: The Matthew Clark sale [for £200m in September 2015 to UK retail chain-operator Conviviality] must have been something of a windfall.

SCHAAFSMA: The opportunity to sell Matthew Clark was a good fit because of the strategic partnership we had. The decision on acquisitions or disposals is completely at Champ’s discretion and this was one that just made sense.

MEININGER’S: You’ve worked for privately and publically owned companies. How different is it working for a private equity business?

SCHAAFSMA: There is less constraint with a PE company because you can make decisions and you have people that are willing to invest and support you and have more of a long-term vision for where they’d like to see the business. The guys have been incredibly supportive. The Anakena, Mud House, Grant Burge and Geyser Peak acquisitions have provided us with the tools to be relevant and appropriate in particular markets, and to grow the business. I’m extraordinarily privileged to follow on from John Ratcliffe, and my plans for what I want to achieve are over three to five years.

MEININGER’S: So you think there’s enough on the table for the next buyer – but who might that be? Another big producer? Another PE company? Or a Chinese investor?

SCHAAFSMA: At some point, the business will be sold - Champ is a PE company - but to be honest, I’m not worried because whoever acquires the business will be looking at the potential and the opportunity that it offers and I see only really positive things in terms of where we can take Accolade.

MEININGER’S: Last year you launched fruit-flavoured vesions of your Californian brand Echo Falls. How has that worked?

SCHAAFSMA: I’ve been in the industry for just under 20 years and this has been the most phenomenally successful New Product Development I’ve seen. We’ve taken Echo Falls Fruits from zero to a million cases in 10 months. Fifty per cent of those consumers are new to wine. The challenge that the wine industry faces is that 18-, 19- and 20-year olds don’t know what Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tastes like and whether they are going to like it. They’ve grown up with soft drinks and cordial or fruit juice and they know what peach and mango

taste like. Let’s start with that. There are 130,000 Facebook followers now for Echo Falls. And the success has gone from the UK around the world with Walmart listing in the US, and Woolworths and Coles in Australia under different brands. So this is probably the biggest thing in wine innovation in the last 10 or 15 years.

MEININGER’S: You have put a lot of effort and money into sponsorship of English and Australian cricket. How do you quantify its success?

SCHAAFSMA: Over the summer we sold 1.5m more bottles of Hardy’s than we did the year before. We’ve got growth of 7% year on year. In Australia it’s more like 15% to 20% and the brand now has the highest unprompted awareness anywhere in the UK at 82%. In 2017, Mud House will sponsor the Six Nations Rugby tournament in all six countries and Anakena will be sponsor of the Queen’s Club lawn tennis tournament.

MEININGER’S: Rugby and cricket are less effective in the US and countries that don’t play those sports. What are you going to do for those markets?

SCHAAFSMA: We’ve got to be realistic about the size of our US business, so we’re not going to go and sponsor the Super Bowl. We’ve got to do cleverer and more grass-roots-level things, getting people to taste the wine, doing wine dinners, getting winemakers over there.

MEININGER’S: And in the US, social media is obviously hugely effective.

What are you doing with it now?

SCHAAFSMA: If you look at our Twitter and Facebook following, it’s significant and working extremely well. The 1853 Club is our virtual online and real club for our loyal brand followers. So in our Weybridge offices we’ll have an 1853 club house with back vintages of wines, wines to taste, the chance to meet winemakers... we want to really look after top-end customers that are interested in our brand and in our wines. We’ll have Hardy’s but there will also be Mud House and Anakena and Banrock Station.

MEININGER’S: Finally, where do you see Accolade in five years?

SCHAAFSMA: I think there will be significant consolidation and I can see a world where Accolade provides at least 20% of all wine in the UK. With the right partnerships, the right brands, and the right awareness we can only look to grow.

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“I can see a world where Accolade provides at least 20% of all wine in the UK. With the right partnerships, the right brands, and the right awareness we can only look to grow.”

R E G I O N A L A N A LY S I S CORBIÈRES

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INSOLENT AND UNRULY Corbières, in the Languedoc-Rousillon, has been described as a wild beauty, emanating natural power. But how will it sort out the issue of appellation? Adam Lechmere reports.

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orbières is the most rugged and beautiful of the southern French appellations. The landscape makes you draw breath; barren hillsides punctuated by the magnificent ruins of Cathar castles, the fertile valley floors ringed by mountains, endless switchback roads walled in by craggy rock faces on one side and vertiginous drops on the other. Such beauty has inspired generations of winemakers. Gerard Bertrand, whose €60m ($63m) empire stretches the length and breadth of Languedoc-Roussillon, grew up here and owns several Corbières domaines, including the family estate of Villemajou in Boutenac. “This is my origin, the place where I was born. I love the story of Corbières; it’s one of the most exciting places in the world,” he says. “It’s alchemy, to get such juice from such a hard landscape.”

Corbières has other high-profile admirers.

Eric de Rothschild of Château Lafite saw the “exceptional potential” of the cool, maritime-influenced Fontfroide region, close to Narbonne, and snapped up the 550-ha Aussières estate there in 1999. Then there are the many small, independent producers

Abbaye de Frontfroide

coming out from under the protective wings of the big caves cooperatives which have traditionally dominated the area, crafting small-batch wines from ancient vines that are sought-after by southern French cognoscenti; English couples like Jon and Elizabeth Bowen at Domaine Sainte Croix in Haut-Corbières, who consider it their “unique geology and ‘climat’ …an area of immense potential”.

Southern powerhouse The word “potential” comes up again and again in Corbières. This sprawling appellation, the fourth-biggest in France, covers a great swathe of the Languedoc, from the salty flatlands of the Mediterranean coast to the mountainous interior close by Carcassonne, 60 km to the west. Corbières is a powerhouse in the south of France, its 13,500 ha producing half the region’s total output of wine. There are over 2,000 producers churning out 70m bottles of wine a year, 60% of these bottles from cooperatives.

AOC rules, decreed in 1985, stipulate which grapes can be grown and how they can be used. Carignan, Syrah and Grenache, Mourvèdre and Cinsault make up the bulk of the reds (as well the more arcane varieties such as Terret and Lladoner Pelut); for the whites, Bourboulenc – here called Malvoisie – Grenache Blanc, Maccabeu, Marsanne, Roussanne, Vermentino and one or two others. Cinsault may only make up 20% of a blend, while 50% of Carignan can be used.

There have been attempts to delineate the different terroirs of Corbières, most notably in the creation, in 2005, of a sub-appellation,

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Corbières-Boutenac. This is the so-called ‘golden triangle’ in the geographical centre of the appellation, 173 ha of rocky, garriguecovered limestone, sandstone and shale, poor in nutrients and with excellent drainage. It’s prime Carignan country – many plantings are more than 100 years old – and the 26 producers here are proud of their terroir. “It’s a wonderful climate for Carignan,” Pierre Bories at Ollieux Romanis, one of Boutenac’s most renowned producers, told Meininger’s.

“Humidity from the Mediterranean cools the vineyards, and we get winds from the north and south.” Ringed as it is by mountains, Boutenac gets a good deal more rain – up to 500 mm a year – than the rest of the region.

“We have good terroir and we want to show it,” Bories adds.

Louis Fabre of Famille Fabre, whose Château Fabre Gasparets is within Boutenac, sees a great future for the appellation. “We’re proud to be in at the beginning of the story,” he says. An appellation, he adds, “is contagious”.

It is in the interests of everyone within its borders to improve their land and the quality of their wine. But it is also highly political.

The government appellations body, the INAO (southern winemakers darkly mutter), does not care to have too many high-quality “village” designations in the south, for fear it will undermine the primacy of the grands crus of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Witness the 20-year-battle the producers of Minervois to the north had in pushing through their La Livinière sub-region.

While many down here are keen on the idea of a quality pyramid – Fabre believes “we need to reach the level of Corbières villages” – there is a good deal of impatience with the INAO’s Terroirs de Corbières designation.

A complex system The French – especially in the south – sometimes seem inclined to make their appellation system as perversely complicated as they can. Possibly there is more than a

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Domaines Auriol, a major producer in Ribaute in the west of the appellation. The UK is just too much effort, she maintains – “Sweden requires one-fifth of the investment of the UK”. But it’s not a problem confined to the UK. “The Dutch are just as difficult,” Boersma says. “They say, ‘This is a really nice wine but it’s quite expensive for Corbières’.”

Unruly and insolent Once a wine region acquires a reputation, it can be impossible to shake. But if Corbières has been known for decades as a producer of bottom-shelf reds, it is also known as wonderfully diverse. There are canny, large producers like Château de Lastours who produce appellation wines at the top end and mass-market Vins de Pays, all made by the highly-regarded Bordeaux consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt, there are renowned “village” cooperatives like Castelmaure, whose growers describe themselves as insoumis, insolents, indépendants (“unruly, insolent, independent”), and there are the independent growers wresting a living from their stony terroir, producing wines that are the epitome of modern southern French winemaking: fresh, structured, tannic Carignan, Syrah, Mourvèdre and a dozen other blends.

For many, this diversity is its strength.

“If there wasn’t this sense of individuality it would be monolithic,” Marcel OrfordWilliams, the Wine Society’s south of France buyer, says. “Boutenac is completely different to Montlaur, and both areas are different to Corbières-Maritime.”

Corbières has another great advantage.

Fresh and structured, artisanal reds are the vins du jour amongst those who buy their wines in independent merchants rather than supermarkets. Orford-Williams reckons they will never be as popular as, say, the rounder and sweeter southern Rhône reds – “Corbières wines are not always easy to drink or understand” – but then again, popular acclaim has never been the best guarantor of quality.

When Eric de Rothschild first saw the stark landscape of Fontfroide, he called it “a place of wild, natural beauty, emanating tremendous power”. Corbières will never be easy, either to understand or to sell or drink, but it will never cease to fascinate.

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Corbières very well,” Doug Wregg hint of Gallic hauteur in this, of importer Les Caves de Pyrene, the implication being that great which specialises in artisanal wines should be as inaccessible producers, tells Meininger’s. as great poetry. The idea behind “The styles of the wines are very the creation of the 11 Terroirs agreeable – carbonic or partial in 1991 was that they would be carbonic maceration for the neophyte “AOC Communales”. reds, softening the rough edges In practice, the only one that has of the tannins but still allowing been granted AOC status so far the wine to express some sort of is Boutenac. rusticity.”

The Terroirs have particularities “Humidity from Interestingly enough, Wregg of climate and soil. Fontfroide, for the Mediterranean example, is both drier and cooler cools the vineyards, reckons the tide is turning in favour of Corbières over the than neighbouring regions and and we get winds traditionally more fashionable is known as great Syrah country; from the north and Minervois. “I would say that Corbières-Mediterranée, with south.”

Corbières has a little bit more more humidity from its proximity recognition than Minervois. At to the sea, has a long growing Pierre Bories, one time it seemed the other Ollieux Romanis season ideal for Mourvèdre; way round.”

Montagne d’Alaric (which some From the point of view of a consider should be the next subproducer like Frédérique Olivié at Château le region) is high, over 100 metres above sea Bouis, a short stroll from the sea at Gruissan, level, and reckoned to be best for Syrah and Corbières is one thing, and their own terroir Grenache. But terroirs have no legal status, another. Olivié’s land is “at the very edge of the boundaries are blurred, and inclusion on a Corbières” (she could almost throw a bunch label means little to the wine-drinking public. of grapes from her terrace straight into the “We have so many appellations down renowned AOC La Clape to the north). “We here already,” Ingrid Boersma of Domaine de are a Mediterranean terroir. We have nothing l’Evêque at Gruissan told Meininger’s. “It’s in common with the rest of Corbières.” She too complicated for the end consumer.” Wine agrees that consumers need a geographical lovers, she says, will be able to separate the reference point, but “we have our own terroirs anyway, but too much information for personality”. the amateur is counterproductive.

Château le Bouis might be a (beautifully Even those who are lucky enough to restored) 300-year-old farmhouse, but Olivié’s have a terroir named after their estate are attitude is determinedly modern and outwardambivalent. Nicolas de Chevron Villette, looking. Her two top wines, €36.00-cuvées whose family owns and farms the ancient called Romeo and Juliette, are a Corbières Abbaye de Fontfroide near Narbonne, Syrah-Carignan, and a Cabernet Sauvignon, recognises that the Terroir de Fontfroide has the latter a Pays d’Oc IGP. Juliette is beautifully its singular characteristics but says of the made, bright and international. If you were to 25 or so producers here, “we have very little taste it blind you might place it in the South of connection. It’s difficult enough to understand France or northeastern Spain, but it has little the appellations in the Languedoc-Roussillon regional character. This does not worry Olivié – it’s better to be under one identity rather – she has a range of “terroir” wines, but the than splitting, and diluting the message.”

Juliette is a wine of “cepage” aimed squarely The size of Corbières makes it both easy and at a global market. difficult to comprehend. From one angle – that She’s not alone in this: Corbières is of the wine buyer for a mid-range UK restaurant not short of export markets. The Benelux chain, say – it’s perfectly simple: Corbières countries, Germany and Switzerland, Sweden means cheap, cheerful southern French reds. and Norway are thirsty importers of Corbières Try to talk to him or her about the varied wines, with Russia and Canada also keen. The terroirs, or the intense freshness and structure US and the UK are different. “The only problem of old-vine Carignan from Boutenac, and you’ll we have is with the Anglo-Saxon countries,” be met with polite indifference. Go up a gear, says Claude Vialade of Château Cicéron and however, and recognition improves. “We sell

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THE SOUTHERN FRENCH GIANT AWAKES While France struggles with low yields and inflated prices, Languedoc-Roussillon is overperforming, thanks to a quality transformation. Anne Serres reports.

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SOURCE: DIRECTION INTERRÉGONALE DES DOUANES ET DROITS INDIRECTS (DIDDI)

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t is a cold October day in London (from a Languedoc-Roussillon vineyard area Languedocian point of view, at least) and ha a dozen Saint-Chinian producers have gathered in Vintner’s Hall. Tim Atkin MW 421,200 is hosting the tasting of the Vins Virtuoses, an innovative competition that singles 343,000 out Saint-Chinian cuvées based on their 299,000 296,000 consistency in style over three vintages. “It 246,000 245,000 is a difficult exercise for the juries, and quite an unusual one,” says Jérôme Villaret, head of the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Languedoc (CIVL), “but we like to challenge our producers as well as international tasters.

And they seem to like it!”

The first edition of the Vins Virtuoses tasting 1980 1990 2000 2005 2010 2015 took place in Saint-Chinian. Last year, it was held should amount to 13.5m hL of the entire 43.5m in Paris, and this year, in London. “Languedoc hL French crop. export sales are booming. We have gained In a prospective study lead by the agronomic the interest of the British press and trade and school of Montpellier in 2013, economists and we wanted to hear their feedback directly, by viticulturists recommended that the region take playing the game on their pitch,” said Villaret. control of its production model, but also of its At the lunch table, Rosemary George MW marketing and image. Promotional bodies and confirms: “anyone who was here today will professional organisations wanted that shift and confirm the terroir effect that shows in Saintworked hard to implement it.

Chinian wines. The next step is to convince the trade, and that is what we are here for.”

From biggest producer After decades of being the to actual leader passive purveyor of massive volumes of wine, with no control “In 2013, we got together, on its range and markets, willing to define the Languedoc Languedoc-Roussillon is now wine offer. It was a real first,” turning into an actual leader says Jérôme Villaret. ‘We’ stands with a vision and a plan for its for the four organisations in appellations. charge of promotion of the wines Languedoc-Roussillon is one “It was crucial for of Languedoc-Roussillon: InterOc French wine region, bigger in size us to convince (for the Pays d'Oc IGP), CIVL than many wine countries. Since new generations to (for the Languedoc AOP wines), 1975, it has grubbed up 45% of see their future in AIRSUD (for the IGP outside of the its vineyards, with the decisive wine.”

Pays d'Oc IGP; AIRSUD merged support of EU subsidies. Now, into the CIVL in 2013) and Jérôme Villaret, with an estimated vineyard areaof the Conseil Interprofessionnel head, CIVL 244,500 ha, its 2015 harvest des Vins du Roussillon (CIVR,

for the AOP wines from the Roussillon). The four organisations working together seemed impossible only 10 years ago. But times became so dire that differences were put aside and the groups formed a task force in order to define and make the best of a complementary offer of AOP and IGP wines within the region.

“It was crucial that we did it together, considering how tied our categories are in terms of quality and consumer target,” says Villaret, who goes on to say that because they are geographically linked to a territory and a history, AOP and IGP wines are cultural products, relevant to occasional consumers, which is a growing segment. Wines without a geographical indication – that is, the former table wines, now known as Vin de France – mainly appeal to a category of everyday consumer that has been declining since the '70s – very much like the Languedoc mass production itself, in fact. According to Agreste, France’s statistics body, only 6% of the region’s crop is now produced as Vin de France. “With such a vast majority of its production under AOP or IGP, Languedoc-Roussillon can offer the best of both categories,” says Villaret, “tradition, on the one hand, with the AOP wines, but also innovation, through the IGP wines and their more open choice of varietals. No other French wine-producing region can offer such a diversity of expression.”

The region has two other advantages: it is the leader in the production of organic wines, as well as of rosé wines (AOP and IGP combined) and both segments are rising. “Our next challenge,” says Villaret, “is to encourage producers to declare more volumes in AOP. Some AOPs are still less valued on the bulk market than some IGPs, especially for such sought-after varietals as Pinot Noir. We must build on the success of our appellations to build up a fairer balance between both categories.”

In terms of volume produced, 73% of the

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R E G I O N A L A N A LY S I S LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON

Florence Barthès, director, InterOc

wines are declared under the IGP category (the IGP Oc alone accounts steadily just over half of the regional production), while only 59% of the region’s vineyards are in the IGP zone. The gap is not just the result of higher yields being allowed for IGP wines.

This challenge will have to be addressed in a new regional context. The administrative region of Languedoc-Roussillon will merge with the region Midi-Pyrénées as of 1st January, 2016. Villaret does not seem worried by the development: “Being based in Narbonne, the CIVL is halfway between Montpellier and Toulouse anyway. The Interprofession des Vins du Sud-Ouest (IFSO) also promotes wines of both AOPs and IGPs. We have a lot in common.

We are not talking about a merger yet, nor will we haste such a process in order to comply with what is going on on the administrative side, but we have started exploring synergies.”

While promotional bodies did their job in defining the range and promoting it, Languedoc companies were key to put the transition into motion.

A trade revolution As vineyards were being grubbed up, the prices of land plummeted and production declined sharply. Since the mid-2000s, the trade has been buying up vineyards in order to secure its supplies of wine and control the vinegrowing and winemaking more closely than it had in the earlier era, when quality control was not quite as crucial as it is today. As a result, a new model has emerged in the wine trade, based on a general rule of 30% of the volumes and 70% of the value being estate-produced.

Even the cooperatives, which still account for 70% of the region’s production, adhered to the movement and now proudly present a selection of labels from self-owned estates. Val d’Orbieu-Uccoar, now known as Vinadeis, is the

leader of the production and trade within the region, aiming to generate a turnover of €500m ($529m) within five years.

“There is a new culture coming up in the trade,” says Villaret. “The négociants do buy land and build up partnerships with producers to secure their supplies and have control over their range, from the vineyard.” He says the trade is shifting from being very “downstreamoriented” back in the '80’s, to being involved in what is going on upstream of the supply chain, “which is the condition for the trade to be maximizing its added value to the regional industry as a whole.”

While the lack of visible leaders and brands is France’s main weakness, Languedoc owes its transition towards quality and leadership to its co-ops and private companies. “It shows on export sale,” comments Florence Barthès, the director of InterOc. “We need driving forces to support our promotion plans, which are so much more efficient when we can rely on a significant presence from our leaders in the markets we invest in.”

Export champion Among French export sales of still wines (€3.7bn in 2014 for AOP wines; €0.8bn for IGP wines) Languedoc overperforms in both categories: +10.4% for AOP wines and 8.7% for IGP wines; the IGP produces 95% of the French varietal IGP wines and accounts for 67% of French IGP export sales.

Unlike most French regions, Languedoc has not been suffering from lack of availabilities, and sales in volume are up too: while French export sales in volumes declined by 6.4% for still wines in AOP and remained stable for still wines in Pays d'Oc IGP, Languedoc sales of AOP still wines grew by 3.9% and IGP by 6.8%.

Over the first half of 2015, France caught up with a progressing trend in value (+7 %), much to the advantage of Languedoc, which was not affected by the decline of French sales in volume (-3%).

“The average price is still rising,” notes Villaret, “but at a regular rate that

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bodes well for the future.”

Languedoc companies that are leading export sales have all invested in moving upmarket. “Three years ago, we implemented a strategic change, moving out of the entryrange and private labels into the premium and ultra-premium segments,“ says Heidi van de Akker for the Domaines de Lorgeril, a familyowned business which sells 3m bottles a year, 50% of which go abroad. Van den Akker says, “We positioned ourselves as ambassadors of a premium image of Languedoc appellations.

When Miren de Lorgeril started exporting her wines 10 years ago, she would hear that her Château de Pennautier in the Cabardès AOP, alone, would never sell, as the appellation was unknown to most. Now, we sell appellations from the whole region, through wines produced in our six estates, together with our high-end varietal wines.” Van den Akker says that it’s coming up with a complete premium range that’s changed everything, and the €10m-plus turnover the company makes is reinvested into hospitality. “Wine tourism facilities generate their own revenue and allow us to host our clients in a way that retains their loyalty.”

Jean-Claude Mas of Domaines Paul Mas, which sells 95% of its wines to the export markets, says: “We have invested in markets that are into hedonism and not just labels.

However, promoting Languedoc wines based on their value, even if it is undoubtedly the best in the world, did not guarantee our maintaining our sales in case of an economic slump, as we have seen lately. We still need to confirm our position on pleasure by maintaining a premium quality and investing in our image.”

There is still work to be done, but Languedoc has restored the interest of individuals in careers in wine. Villaret says that bulk wine prices are now at the levels they were in 1999 and 2000, when a 25% inflation rate is accounted for. “It was crucial for us to convince new generations to see their future in wine, and for the first time in years, classes of viticulture, enology and/or wine marketing and sales are at full strength,” he says.

W Jean-Claude Mas, Domaines Paul Mas

THE NEW MOSEL GENERATION Sascha Speicher went along to Mythos Mosel, the annual event that showcases what’s happening in Germany's Mosel, Saar and Ruwer regions.

He discovered a generational shift underway.

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look after the barrels. You can ythos Mosel (‘Mosel buy these barrels for €50.00 myth’) is a great name ($53.00)”. for a first-class annual None of Haart’s wines are event that, at the end of classed as dry – “The residual May, seeks to illustrate what sugar can vary, depending is happening in the Mosel, on vintage” – but his wines Saar and Ruwer regions. Top are gaining a big following. “I producers along a 20 km produced 35,000 bottles of 2014 section of river open their and had demand for 70,000. My doors and are joined by Goldtröpfchen is actually rather guest winemakers from other atypical, and I am happy about parts of this long, thin wine that. Usually, the wines have region. In a spirit of openness an intense blackcurrant aroma, that is rapidly attracting a Harvest on the Saar: these steep slopes at the Lauer winery demand plenty whereas mine are rather spicy new audience, ambitious of hand work. and mineral." new projects are showcased alongside revitalised family businesses and Black Saturday classic estates that remain unswervingly Newcomers and true to their traditions.

Like many of his neighbours in the established players Of course, all that glitters on the shiny Mosel, Barth found the 2014 harvest highly slate soils of the steep slopes is not neceschallenging, thanks to ‘Black Saturday’, when Haart is just one of a number of younger 100 L of rainfall and some hail fell in the space producers who have revitalised wine estates sarily gold. This is particularly evident in of 24 hours. That day is vitally important in in the Mosel. Some are family members like the Lower Mosel. Apart from superstars order to understand the vintage – because it Adolph Huesgen at Villa Huesgen, Philipp Heymann-Löwenstein and Knebel in Windid not rain everywhere. For example, it did Kettern at Lothar Kettern, and Tobias Treis at ningen, and Andreas Barth’s Lubentiushof not rain in the Saar or in Piesport. Former Julius Treis; others are outsiders like Simon Trös estate in Niederfell, few producers are (yet) chef Julian Haart of Weingut Johann Haart, at Weingut Richard Böcking in Traben-Trarbach; causing a stir with exciting wines. The next in the latter village, recalls that his vines got top Sommelier Jürgen Fendt and his wife Maren top winemaker, Clemens Busch, is located 180 L less rain than the Fritz Haag estate in who have added Mosel vines to their ones in quite a few kilometres upstream.

Brauneberg, 10k further up the river.

Baden; Ivan Giovanett, of Castelfeder Winery in One of the rising stars, Barth, a law and Haart, who believes that “the challenge the South Tyrol, who works with Treis; and Dirk music graduate-turned-winemaker, divides involved in fine gastronomy is far greater" van der Niepoort of the Douro, who produces a his time between managing the historic than winemaking, manages 12 relatively range of wines with Kettern.

Othegraven estate two-hours-drive away on large parcels of land, including a hectare in Among the other foreigners who have been the Saar, and Lubentiushof, which he runs Ohligsberg, 2.8 ha in Goldtröpfchen with the attracted to the region are Daniel Vollenweider with his wife, interior designer, Susanne.

Schubertslay monopole, and some 100-yearfrom Switzerland, who set up a vineyard at The Barths started out in 1994 with 2.5 old, ungrafted vines. Before taking over Traben-Trarbach 15 years ago and Polish-born ha and now have 4 ha of steep, terraced the family business in 2013, he worked for Andrzej Greszta in Kroev. No one has travelled slopes, including Gäns, one of the five top over three years at top estates Heymannfurther, however, than Australian Martin Cooper, vineyards in the Lower Mosel, in his view.

Löwenstein, Emrich-Schönleber, Egon Müller, who took up a 25-year lease at Kloster Ebernach, Since 1995, Barth, who focuses mainly on and with Klaus-Peter Keller, who probably the Franciscan order's monastic vineyard in dry wines – “When I say dry, I mean reinfluenced him most and with whom he still Cochem, where he is producing an innovative ally dry” – has eschewed cultured yeasts. has a close friendship. When he started, he cuvée from different parts of the estate.

"That can sometimes be painful,“ he says, “only bought three old barrels; new barrels It would be wrong to ascribe the emerging acknowledging that his 2014 wines were are not suitable for the Mosel. There are 2,000 renaissance of the Mosel exclusively to these not yet ready for bottling in mid-July of the companies in Piesport and the old people still one-off characters, climbers and newcomers. following year.

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Established names such as J.J. Prüm, Egon Müller, Fritz Haag, Markus Molitor, Roman Niewodniczanski with van Volxem, and Thomas Haag with Schloss Lieser, are still among the biggest stars of the German wine scene. The interesting thing is that they all maintain their own style, whether full-bodied or lean, crystal clear or spicy, dry or fruity to sweet. This diversity makes the Mosel an unusually complex winegrowing region for wine enthusiasts.

Another historic company that should not be forgotten is Maximin Grünhaus Schlosskellerei C. von Schubert, which, together with Karthäuserhof and Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, is one of the leading companies in the Ruwer Valley. The estate is managed by Dr Carl von Schubert, who has been assisted since 2004 by cellar master Stefan Kraml, Barth's predecessor at Othegraven. The estate is situated in a side valley of the Ruwer Valley across the river from vineyards include a hectare of Bruderberg, 14 ha of steep, mostly grey-blue slate Abtsberg, which yields mineral, structured wines and 17 ha of reddish slate Herrenberg, whose wines are somewhat fruitier.

Apart from the seven differently styled wines C. von Schubert produces from Abtsberg and Herrenberg in a normal year, there is also the Abtsberg Fusion, one of Germany’s most spectacular Rieslings. More like a big white Burgundy than a Mosel Riesling, this wine is aged for two years on its lees in nearly new barrels made from the estate's own oak. The estate’s appreciation for Burgundy is also apparent in an exceptionally delicately fruity, slatey Pinot Noir. But the estate’s focus is of course on the Riesling. While preparations are slowly being made for the next generation, in the shape of Maximin von Schubert, to take over the business, his father remains a believer in classic off-dry Kabinett.

Things look slightly different at von Hövel on the Saar, where, as Maximilian von Kunow explains: “We are currently producing 10% dry, but this proportion is expected to rise to 20%.

There will then be approximately 30% off dry and 50% delicately fruity to sweet.”

All of these terms need to be treated with caution in the Mosel. Wines with residual sugar at J.J. Prüm, for example, are not described as ‘sweet’; ‘fruity-sweet’ is the term used there.

‘Off-dry’ can be used to describe wines with a surprisingly wide range of styles.

The first vintage made by Maximilian von Kunow as the owner of the eponymous Saar

is broken down into Stirn, Kern, Unterstenberg and Neuenberg. Lauer has also made a name for himself with his Ayler Riesling Fass 2, which is spontaneously fermented and very dry.

Moseljünger

Vintage in the vineyards above Piesport

estate was 2011. The Geisenheim graduate is a classic example of the younger generation – well-connected and happy to experiment and cooperate with others. Evidence of this is provided by his Wurzelwerk & Winzers project with Gunderloch in Rheinhessen and Jurtschitsch in Austria; the Crossmosel project with award-winning Luxembourg chef Lea Linster; and an ambitious crémant from Burgundy varieties grown on the limestone soil of the Upper Mosel.

Von Kunow’s 22 ha of vineyards are all on the Saar, of which three are in Scharzhofberg and five in Oberemmeler Hütte. He also has Höherecker, a prime site in Kanzemer Altenberg. The soils include Devonian slate and, in Oberemmel, some quartzite. “There is a real boom in delicately fruity Kabinett,” which von Kunow believes to be ideal for the conditions on the Saar. Other factors have roles to play, however. “The cellar yeast has a big impact.

The yeasts from the vineyard are involved up to between 2% and 3% of the alcohol, after which the cellar yeasts take over. They are the product of the history of the estate, the people, the climate, and are a very important part of our terroir,” he explains.

Florian Lauer at Weingut Peter Lauer, the region’s newest VdP member, is similarly “passionate about controlling the exposure” of his vines because of his belief that the region’s microclimates may be slightly more varied than in the rest of the Mosel. He sub-divides his vineyards, including the Ayler Kupp, which

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Lauer is the best-known of the 14 members of the Moseljünger (Mosel youth), several of whom – most notably Matthias Meierer, Thomas Ludwig and Raphael Ianniello, of Weingut Clusserath-Weiler, along with Axel Pauly and Christopher Loewen – launched and helped to grow the Mythos Mosel weekend.

What distinguishes the group is their individuality. As Axel Pauly, who took over the Pauly family estate in Lieser in 2009 says, “I want to make puristic, mineral wines, that encourage you to drink them.” The Pauly Rieslings, including those from the top vineyard of Niederberg Helden, are fermented in steel.

Sebastian Oberbillig from Deutschherrenhof in Trier, however, prefers new oak to produce a crystal clear, delicately fruity style.

Oberbillig’s wines are ideal for Mosel newcomers. The barrels are first used for the Burgundy varieties and then for Riesling. The Clüsserath-Weiler wines taste similarly fruity, with a delicate natural sweetness, but somewhat more marked slaty minerality.

The top vineyard of Weingut Gebr. Ludwig is Thörnicher Ritsch. Although Thomas Ludwig produces 80% Riesling on his 10 ha, he also makes an oak-fermented Riesling and a first-class Sauvignon Blanc from a 10-year-old vineyard on gravel soil.

Former Young Winemaker of the Year, Matthias Meierer worked for three days a week at Weingut Fritz Haag for seven years before taking over the family business in Kesten with nearly 7 ha of Riesling. Among the wines he produces today is an ‘orange wine’ called WTF. “We try to buy additional parcels of land on steep slopes every year, which can also include fallow plots, because I want my wines to really taste of the Mosel," says Meierer.

With a range of wines and winemakers like these on show, it is hardly surprising that Mythos Mosel has become an essential date on the calendar of anyone with an interest in the rapidly evolving picture of German wine.

This article first appeared in Sommelier magazine, published by Meininger Verlag. The English translation was edited by Robert Joseph. W

13-15 March 2016

MEININGER’S WINE BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL meets ProWein …because audience matters

The preparations for PROWEIN 2016, the world’s most important wine fair, are now in full swing. From 13 to 15 March 2016, the eyes of the wine business world will be focused on Düsseldorf, Germany, making it an occasion not to be missed.

Meininger Publications is a vital partner with ProWein, and will be communicating all the essential facts about the fair to trade visitors via MEININGER’S WINE BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL. The MWBI ProWein issue will be launched on 26 February, 2016.

Don’t let the opportunity pass to use Meininger’s Wine Business International to speak to the international decision makers coming to Düsseldorf.

A presence in the magazine can announce your presence at ProWein 2016, present your wines, and let people know where to find you.

Meininger’s Wine Business International is read by the wine world’s decision makers, including traders, importers, wholesalers, retailers and buyers, with a press run of more than 10,000 copies that’s read in more than 30 countries.

MWBI ProWein issue 2016 Publication date: 26 February, 2016 Ask for our 2016 Rate Card, and then talk to us about how we can make ProWein a success for you.

I look forward to hearing from you...

Jörg Sievers, Sales Manager Phone +49 63 21-89 08 67 sievers@meininger.de

WHO IS WHO MIAMI

6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

WHO’S WHO IN MIAMI Miami, one of the largest cities in Florida, sits by the Atlantic Ocean, making it a prime holiday destination. Scott Saunders takes its wine pulse.

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metro area of 6m people, the “cruise capital of the world”, and the legendary nightlife of South Beach — it’s no surprise that Miami is one of the top wine markets in the US. What is surprising, however, is that its wine industry practitioners are only now getting up to speed.

“Miami is in the top three markets when we’re speaking with clients,” says Natasja Mallory of Gregory White PR, a firm focussed on premium wine, spirits and lifestyle marketing.

“It’s New York, San Francisco and Miami.” But Miami’s food and beverage programmes have historically not lived up to such top billing.

“When we’re organising events in Miami, the first thing we’re anxious about is getting that high level of service,” says Mallory. “We’ve worried about things like glassware, attention to detail, the temperature of the wine. It has sometimes been a struggle.”

But things have changed dramatically over the past decade, and it appears the quality and professionalism of the wine scene as a whole is on an upward trajectory.

Michael Bittel, proprietor of retail institution Sunset Corners Fine Wines & Spirits, attributes the wine scene’s maturation to the rise of the city’s culinary scene. “Many young restaurateurs and somms moved here from other markets that, at the time, to be frank, were much more sophisticated,” says Bittel. “They helped take Miami by the hand and make it a much more sophisticated market by creating a vehicle by which a host of small wholesalers could open and bring in more exotic wines because they had an outlet through which they could sell the

Brian Grandison, sommlier at Hakkasan - Fontainebleau

wines. It was really restaurant-driven.”

Two standouts of this influence are in fact restaurant groups: John Kunkel’s 50 Eggs, and Michael Schwartz’s The Genuine Hospitality Group. The two groups feature small portfolios of restaurants that express craft culture through locally sourced products and refined beverage programmes.

Tastemakers Eric Larkee, beverage director for The Genuine Hospitality Group, and Daniel Toral, wine director for 50 Eggs, are widely considered the leaders in Miami’s sommelier scene.

Larkee in particular has seen the maturation of Miami’s wine scene first-hand. Visiting from New York (where he was at Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner’s Wallsé) six-and-a-half years ago, he lunched at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, and recalls thinking, “If I could work at a place like this I could be happy here — not realizing it was the only place that was like that in Miami. Luckily, I think now it’s a better representation of what’s going on here.” What’s going on at Michael’s Genuine (and on the other lists in the group) is constant tinkering, perpetual refinement. “There’s something I really like about conciseness of lists,” says Larkee. “The longer I do this professionally the more simple I want things to be, from an operational perspective, from a guest comfort and decision-making perspective, and just visually, looking at a list that doesn’t have so much stuff crammed in.”

An affable mentor to some of Miami’s top sommeliers — a statement that belies his youth — Daniel Toral has been an unmistakable positive force. A self-confessed voracious reader of everything wine, he possesses the sensory skills as well, evidenced in his StarChefs’ national Somm Slam victory earlier this year.

As wine director for 50 Eggs, his duties include managing the wine programmes of the group, including Miami’s award-winning Yardbird Table & Bar, and its second iteration at The Venetian in Las Vegas.

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Erik Larkee, The Genuine Hospitality Group

Fontainebleau Miami Beach has become a wine destination, with the wine programmes of Hakkasan, StripSteak by Michael Mina, Michael Mina 74 and Scarpetta being managed by some of Miami’s top sommeliers. “If you see us on the phone in the restaurant, we’re not talking to a friend,” says Brian Grandison, sommelier at Hakkasan. “We’re trying to pick wines off each other’s lists. And then there’s The Vault.”

“The Vault,” explains Jennifer Wagoner, sommelier at StripSteak and MM 74, “is our shared cellar. It’s space allocated to First Growths, aged Barolos, and more, that we can put on our lists, and then we can pull from that during service.” There’s a single gentlemen assigned to that task, however, as the value of wine in the vault is $1m.

Other notable names include Chris Zarcadoolas at Scarpetta, Todd Phillips at Mandarin Oriental, Alan Feldman at db Bistro, and Kirsta Grauberger at Market 17 in Fort Lauderdale. Virginia Philip MS of The Breakers Palm Beach, and Eric Hemer MW MS, director of wine education at Southern Wine and Spirits, are also influential from a wine education standpoint.

Destinations Two wine-drinking destinations rise above the others: Uvaggio and Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink. Coral Gables’ Uvaggio is only a year-and-a-half old, but Heath Porter has created a wine list and atmosphere that has injected energy into the scene. “There’s just really not a lot of places like Uvaggio,” says Mallory. “You’ve

got a very idiosyncratic, well-curated list of wines, and no apologies for it.”

Porter, who calls himself the “Head Wine-O”, doesn’t pull any punches. The advanced sommelier knew there was an uphill battle to be fought in Miami when he arrived not long ago.

“God forbid if you actually poured something other than Malbec, Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio,” he says. “The fear of God would set in. Luckily I’m not really a God-fearing man, so I said to hell with it, let’s do it.”

Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink is Chef Michael Schwartz’s flagship restaurant in Miami’s Design District. Known for its refined wine list and great food, it is somewhat of an institution for those in the industry. Amanda Fraga, sommelier at Michael’s Genuine, credits their success to the freedom they have with the wine list. “We’re not forced by corporate or by general managers to make sure that we have a Pinot Grigio by the glass,” she says. “We’re able to pour Grüner Veltliner instead.”

Commendable wine lists can also be found at the restaurants at Fontainebleau, Bourbon Steak, Basil Park and Zuma, a programme previously overseen by Wagoner.

Retailers The wine retail landscape looks much different today than it did just 15 years ago, when many small independent shops existed.

Now, Total Wine & More operates a dozen stores on the Gold Coast, and Mega Discount Wine & Spirits operates eight. Wine can also be bought at grocery stores, such as Publix, which even has a wine club. Three names, however, stand out: Sunset Corners, Wolfe’s Wine Shoppe, and Wine Watch.

“We’re actually proud of the fact that sometimes we’re fighting against current trends,” says Bittel, who owns 61-year-old Sunset Corners with his cousin. “Part of the attraction of coming here is that you’re going to have the opportunity to experience something that you don’t know.” A third of Sunset’s business is actually conducted with people outside the state

Distributors/wholesalers/ importers Miami is home base for Southern Wine & Spirits, the largest distributor in the US. Republic National (the second-largest distributor) and Premier Beverage Company (a member of the Charmer Sunbelt Group) also enjoy massive presence.

Some other well-regarded distributors and importers include Vinecraft (vinecraft.com), Vineyard Brands (vineyardbrands.com), United Cellars (unitedcellars.us), and Opici Family Distributing (opici.com).

Communicators “Normally I would say the best way to get the pulse of what the market is doing is to talk to three or four wine writers,” says Lyn Farmer, a James Beard Award-winning wine and food writer. “Well, we don’t have three or four wine writers.”

Fred Tasker, the long-time wine columnist for the Miami Herald, now submits his columns from Michigan. “Fred is still tremendously influential,” says Mallory, “but he’s not going to come to your winemaker dinner down in Miami.

But everybody wants to be published in Fred

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Amanda Fraga, sommelier at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink

Tasker’s column — he’s still the gold standard for the Miami scene.”

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (particularly popular with sommeliers) are relied upon, as is CellarTracker (for shoppers). Farmer manages an active blog (lynfarmer.com) and maintains an extensive network. Other notable new-media writers include Dinkinish O’Connor and Carol López-Bethel.

Other references include the wine columns of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Tong Magazine (tongmagazine.com), Noble Rot (noblerot.co.uk), Punch (punchdrink. com), the Guild of Sommeliers (guildsomm. com), Dr Vino (drvino.com), Burghound (burghound.com), and even online shops and clubs with robust news feeds, such as Chambers Street Wines (chambersstwines.com) and Crush Wine & Spirits (crushwineco.com).

Events The South Beach Wine and Food Festival is probably the most well-known of Miami’s countless events, but it, like many of Miami’s wine events, are linked to a single distributor (in this case, Southern Wine & Spirits). One notable exception is VeritageMiami (previously known as the Miami Wine & Food Festival). Directed

by Lyn Farmer, the event raises $750,000 each year for the United Way of Miami-Dade.

Welcome to Miami “As big a city as Miami is, with all the food and wine outlets there are,” says Porter, “the somm world, the wine world — the real wine world — is a super small community, and pretty tight.” This small group deserves a lot of credit, and their efforts are paying off with a wine scene that is building momentum. “The wine lists are getting more exciting, more creative, and there are more places, and people that are driving the scene,” says Toral. “But there’s still a lot of room to grow. There are a lot of opportunities for people to come and work here.” If history is any indication, it would be mutually beneficial. W

6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

Jennifer Wagoner, StripSteak by Michael Mina

of Florida. “Our website is full of exotic things, small-production things,” says Bittel. “You’re not going to be able to find it wherever you are locally, no matter how good a wine store you shop in, simply because those kinds of wines aren’t in national distribution.”

Wolfe’s Wine Shoppe in Coral Gables offers a selection of small-production wines from true farmers. “His shop reminds me of our list,” says Fraga, sommelier at Michael’s Genuine.

“Smaller producers, he buys what he likes.

Maybe you’ll only find one bottle of Argentinian Malbec, but that’s just not what he drinks. If you go in looking for Malbec he’ll offer you a Cahors from France.”

Andrew Lampasone, owner of Fort Lauderdale’s Wine Watch, credits his “once-in-alifetime” (read, quite frequent) tastings and his YouTube channel, “What I Drank Yesterday”, for his recognition. “We do a lot of tastings,” says Lampasone. “Tonight it’s a Pauillac versus Margaux tasting, a comparative tasting between those two appellations going all the way back to the 1959 vintage, one of my favourite vintages of all time from Bordeaux.”

C O M PA N Y P R O F I L E BIEDRONKA

6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

THE MAVERICK GIANT How did a Portuguese ladybird conquer the Polish wine market?

Wojciech Bońkowski tells the story of a hard discounter that found success using its own formula – but not without controversy.

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edro Pereira da Silva had a reason to smile. On 28 July it was announced that he would be awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit, Poland’s third-highest order of honour. The Polish Home Office wrote in a statement it acknowledged Pereira da Silva’s “contribution to Polish economic growth and employment, the company’s engagement in charity and social work, and its outstanding contribution to the development of trade between Poland and Portugal.”

Pereira da Silva is the CEO of Jeronimo Martins Group which operates Biedronka, Poland’s leading retail chain with over 2,650 shops. One of the largest companies in the country, Biedronka (meaning “ladybird”) employs over 58,000 people and has invested in excess of $2.8bn over 20 years. An estimated 4m people shop at Biedronka every day. From a turnover of $8bn in 2013, the company was also Poland’s fourth-largest corporate income tax payer at $138m.

The outrage that followed the award announcement was emblematic of Poland’s love–hate relationship with Biedronka. Rightwing media were eager to quote the Stop Abuse association of former employees that sued Biedronka for $82m in allegedly unpaid wages (the case continues; it follows a series of labour rights lawsuits in 2007-9 that Biedronka lost). The discount chain has also grown at the expense of small independent grocery shops, it was argued.

Eventually, the Polish Home Office gave in to the pressure and Pereira da Silva’s order was postponed and handed over with no official ceremony.

growth came after 2005 thanks to a clever strategy of expanding to Poland’s smaller provincial towns, and a steady growth in the country’s purchasing power.

Biedronka started a low-key importation of wine in the early 2000s. Initially, it also sourced a large part of its portfolio from Polish distributors specialising in low-end wines, such as Bartex and TiM, as was then customary for all supermarket chains. It was when it gradually moved towards own imports and introduced monthly “wine festivals” that the category really took off. Three-time Polish sommelier champion Tomasz Kolecki-Majewicz was hired to firm Biedronka’s illustrated wine catalogue, which introduced educational features and food pairing suggestions, a novelty at that time in Poland. The wine range, which had mostly explored the sub-15 PLN ($3.75) category, was extended upwards, and capitalising on its privileged access to Portuguese producers – Biedronka’s sister chain, Pingo Doce, is one of the major players on that market – Biedronka put renowned brands on its shelves, including João Portugal Ramos, Lavradores de Feitoria, or Bacalhôa.

The investment paid off: by 2010, hard discounters were estimated to control 20% of the Polish wine market. Given that Biedronka

Twenty years of success

had by then (and continues to have) three times as many shops as its nearest competitor, Lidl, its wine market share grew from zero to 15% in a decade. But this was merely the beginning. In the last five years, discounters were the fastestgrowing sales channel in Poland, with year-toyear growth reaching 40%. The market’s global compound annual growth rate of 4% to 6% was almost exclusively achieved by discounters, whose market share in 2013 exceeded 46% (KPMG data). Biedronka never discloses figures about their wine sales in Poland but these can be estimated at 650m PLN ($163m), or 35% of the still wine market.

This success was also made possible by Biedronka’s proactive approach to marketing.

Glossy catalogues were only one aspect, and a restricted, easily navigable wine offer was another. The media also played a part. Biedronka was the very first supermarket to actively engage journalists and bloggers, sending samples and organising press tastings, at a time when Tesco or Auchan couldn’t even care to return emails.

More controversially, it appointed Tomasz Prange-Barczyński, editor-in-chief of Poland’s only independent wine magazine, Wino, to write editorials in the company catalogue (in 2015, Wino has also edited and published the catalogue itself), and has been sending bloggers on vineyard tours to suppliers in France and Portugal. By giving amateur and professional wine writers easy access to its wines, Biedronka has warranted continuous coverage of its monthly “wine festivals” and gained yet another competitive advantage; a similar strategy was later adopted by Lidl.

The range

Biedronka was founded in 1995 by entrepreneur Mariusz Świtalski.

In 1998, the chain of 240 shops was sold to Jerónimo Martins, who earlier bought Eurocash, a grocery wholesale, also from Świtalski. The chain’s major Biedronka is Poland’s leading retail chain

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So what can be typically found on a Biedronka wine shelf? The retailer has a small core of references it stocks throughout the year, predominantly very inexpensive wines including semi-dry and semi-sweet, which

upped the game considerably with a multimillion promotional campaign centred on food, and later by convenience shop chain Żabka (who hired sommelier champion Andrzej Strzelczyk) and franchise network Eurocash (glossy magazine).

During its golden years of wine retail, Biedronka has made a lot of money. The company refuses to disclose any figures, but the markups may exceed 50%. A wine retailing at 14.99 PLN ($3.72, of which $1.04 is tax) is usually purchased for €1.50 to €1.65; for 19.99 PLN retail ($5.20), some brands were sold by wineries as low as €2.25. Biedronka’s buying department is a notoriously tough negotiator and a supplier’s initial price might be pressured to go down 15%. But prices might move even after they contracted. Several wineries (who prefer not to be named) said they were asked

by Biedronka to further discount wines that for some reason failed to sell within the one- or two-month “festival” window; the Biedronka explanation of why the latter happened could even include the wine being in a Burgundy rather than Bordeaux bottle.

Those who win this tender of sorts can expect to move considerable amounts of wines (by Polish standards). The minimum order for a “festival” is 30,000 bottles, and one 19.99 PLN brand that was retained for Biedronka’s permanent catalogue sold over 100,000 bottles in a year. A very inexpensive Eastern European semi-sweet wine is said to sell over 1m bottles per year.

After years of buoyancy, 2014 saw a slight stagnation of Biedronka’s wine offering. This mirrored the company’s slowdown in the overall market, where its like-to-like sales fell by 0.8% (global sales rising 9.1% thanks to new openings). Analysts argued Biedronka’s growth model expired as smaller towns became saturated and the company had no strategy to attract metropolitan shoppers. Suppliers have also voiced discontent. “In 2011, contact with Biedronka’s buying department was excellent; now employees keep rotating, and negotiations have become a nightmare,” said a French winery. On the back of underwhelming results, part of the managing board was replaced in July 2014 and Pedro Pereira da Silva, who had been CEO until 2010, was reappointed. He notably revised plans to open 100 instead of 300 new shops per year, and introduced new formats. Figures for the first half of 2015 are optimistic at +2.6% like-for-like.

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still account for over half of Poland’s global consumption. But the interest is with the fast-moving “wine festivals”, themed offers of 20 to 30 wines from a single country or, occasionally, linked by the same theme (such as dessert, New World, or Eastern European wines). Depending on the season there might be a majority of whites or reds, with four to five wines at the bottom end of the price spectrum of 9.99 to 12.99 PLN ($2.57–3.35) and most oscillating between 14.99 and 19.99 PLN. Occasionally two to three more expensive wines will also appear: Chablis, Barbaresco, a mid-range Douro or Ribera del Duero, costing up to 29.99 PLN, although these are slower movers and are often discounted by 30% to 40% after the “festival” ends; there are bin-end crates in every Biedronka shop where bottles are discounted when the new offer enters the shelves.

Biedronka does not sell wine under an “own label” although many producers create special brands for the retailer: Portugal’s Vallado did so with Quadrifolia and Paço do Monsul, for example, positioned below their flagship Vallado Tinto. For many years Biedronka has only sourced wine from Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France, giving those countries a major boost in the overall market. Recently it has experimented with single “festivals” of Central European and New World wines, but the core has remained stable. Another activity is a biweekly “Sommelier’s Choice” wine that often tests a new supplier or label; if successful, the wine can later reappear within a “festival” or even stay on the shelf for longer.

Biedronka’s success has been based on three key elements: simplification of the wine range, targeting the consumer sweet spot of 14.99 PLN ($3.72); and marketing.

Abandoning the obsolete “wine wall” system of hyper- and supermarkets in favour of a narrow range of themed wines has resulted in less confusion and more curiosity from consumers. Lower price points have been fundamental not only in driving sales but also attracting new consumers, a crucial aspect in a country where cheap beer and spirits are still the drinks of choice. Advertising of alcohol is illegal in Poland but Biedronka has cleverly exploited the legal grey area with its trendsetting magazine, shelf talkers, posters, and email newsletter. This approach has been copied by Lidl, who entered the market later and has a smaller market share, but which has

Well-known sommelier Tomasz KoleckiMajewicz works on Biedronka’s illustrated wine catalogue.

The critics As the novelty effect wore off, some critics have also grown disillusioned with Biedronka’s wine offer: it “is limited to industrial wines that all taste the same”, wrote one blogger, and “Biedronka is killing normal wine retail by listing the same wines as independents at half the price”. Poland’s leading wine website Winicjatywa (of which I am the editor) has consistently criticised Biedronka’s higherpriced brands and argued that only a few handpicked items were qualitatively competitive; in contrast, Lidl was held to have “better buying”.

In 2013, following reports of above-average bottle variation across the Biedronka range, Winicjatywa disclosed that a red wine from northern Italy included vastly different batches under the same label and lot number. The story was widely quoted in the general press, again reflecting the public’s love–hate relationship with Biedronka. Another reflection is a supermarket tax planned by the newly elected Law and Justice right-wing government that could severely affect the company’s finances as early as 2016.

Biedronka has reacted to criticism and slowing growth by consolidating its wine range around the pivotal price points of 14.99 and 19.99 PLN. It has also consistently reworked its image from hard discounter to deli chain, and is now communicating wine jointly with food, including ethnic-themed “festivals” and a glossy magazine full of recipes. With its sheer number of shops, Biedronka will remain Poland’s leading wine retailer in the short- and medium-term, but its future growth will depend on a number of factors: the overall condition of the retail environment; more consistent quality wine buying; and foreseeing consumer trends rather than merely interpreting them.

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TECHNOLOGY RANDALL GRAHM

THE CROWDFUNDING OF DREAMS Sites like Kickstarter are allowing innovators to connect with micro-investors, says Jeff Siegel.

And Randall Grahm, a wine industry maverick, has used it to pursue his grape-breeding dream.

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and determined. If the California weather andall Grahm's reputation has preceded doesn’t defeat him, nothing will,” says Judith him for 32 years as the owner and Fried of New York City, who contributed to winemaker at California's Bonny Doon the campaign. “Feasible? I have to think so. I Vineyard. He held a public funeral, complete guess, to be honest, I gave to the crowdfunding with coffin, for the cork when he put his wines not because I love wine so much but because under screwcap; engaged in decades-long I love Randall.” public feuds with two of the most important wine critics in the US; and pioneered the non-traditional wine label, paving the way Facts and figures for today's critters, Little Black Dresses, and tasteless puns. But this time, with his plan to Crossing grapes is not necessarily breed 10,000 new wine grapes as part of his complicated as long as you have a jeweller’s career-long quest for a New World terroir – loupe, tweezers, and lots of paper bags. It is and to use crowdfunding to seed the project painstaking and time consuming, though, – Grahm may have surpassed even himself. and it involves removing the grape flower's “The project is not really justifiable in any calyptra and anthers so only the pistil way, shape, or form from a strictly financial remains, transferring pollen from another model,” he says. “The amount of effort and varietal to the pistil, and covering the pistil expense required to produce an utterly with the paper bag to prevent contamination unknown and possibly trivial from other pollen in the air. The result is sheer folly from a new fruit should set in about a business perspective. But I trust week or so. that it will be a lot of fun, and The other catch? That it takes potentially will leave something many plant generations to tell useful to the world.” whether the crossed grape is This time, though, Grahm isn't what you're looking for, and the only one tilting at windmills. you'll probably have to cross the His friends and colleagues, as new varieties with more grapes well as ordinary wine drinkers yet again. In Popelouchum's and total strangers, contributed case, says Grahm, it’s at least $169,700.00 for the project on “The amount of a decade to see any significant the Indiegogo crowdfunding effort and expense results. site. That was not only 8% more required to produce And this assumes that you than the $150,000 goal – a an utterly unknown know what you're looking success that's rare for a crowd- and possibly trivial for when you start, such as funding effort that isn't tech- result is sheer folly cold-hardiness or disease related – but came with the from a business resistance, and you have an encouragement that comes from perspective. But I idea about which varietals to almost 1,200 contributors. get the desired result. In fact, trust that it will be In the end, it’s the start of a lot of fun, and says Ed Hellman, a professor what will hopefully become potentially will leave of viticulture at Texas Tech a non-profit vineyard at something useful to University in Lubbock, natural Popelouchum Estate in San Juan the world.” selection has been doing this for Bautista in northern California, thousands of years (minus the about 30 minutes east of paper bags), and it’s probably Randall Grahm, Monterey Bay. how today's vinifera evolved.

Bonnydoon “Randall is brilliant, creative On the other hand, if you

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don't know what you want, and Grahm isn’t so much looking for specific results from the crossings as he is for grapes that will show off terroir, the process becomes that much more complicated. “Because whatever variety or varieties we choose for a given site will almost certainly be less congruent than an extant Old World example of that variety, why not take a totally different approach and not focus on working out the ‘best’ variety for the site, since you won’t?” he wrote in an email interview. “Instead, focus on the idea of creating a methodology that will optimize the likelihood of creating a wine that will have a clear expression of soil characteristics, and simply think of the grape or grapes as a conduit for the transmission of terroir.”

In other words, using the jeweler’s loupe, tweezers, and paper bags to bend the grapes to the terroir instead of planting grapes and hoping for the best. Which raises two more questions: Can it be done successfully, and even if it can, does it need to be done?

What’s wrong with the grapes we have now?

Haven’t Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, and their vinifera colleagues done the job well for centuries?

The answer, says Grahm, is not whether there is anything wrong with vinifera – “Vinifera is a pretty cool species,” he says – but whether another approach is worthwhile.

“My belief is that creating a vineyard planted to a vast multitude of varieties (all from common ancestors), and by suppressing varietal characteristics,” it will be possible to open up a clearer expression of soil characteristics and, potentially, “a viable way to create real complexity and originality at the same time,” Grahm says. “I do hope to create and identify some new varieties that indeed might have larger applicability to California growing conditions, like greater degrees of drought tolerance, but conferring drought tolerance to a vineyard is also a function of a lot of other factors – choice of rootstock, vine-spacing, training system, and so forth.”

All those grapes

Indiegogo is one of the best-known crowdfunding sites.

Money from the crowd If this approach to grape-growing is far from conventional, then it makes perfect sense to use crowdfunding to pay for it. Sort of.

“Never had any experience with crowdfunding prior to this,” says Grahm.

“Ultimately, the amount that we were able to raise via crowdfunding is but a small fraction of the amount needed to fully fund the project, but it was an opportunity to get things started a bit sooner than later, and ultimately begin to create a community of people who will take an ongoing interest in the project. We still have a very long way to go.”

In this, crowdfunding combines 21stcentury technology with 20th century activism. Have a cause you want to raise money for, be it a new tech gadget or to help a family whose parents died in an auto accident? Then use a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter, GoFundMe, or Indiegogo to ask for the money, offering premiums based on the amount of the donation. Grahm, for instance, gave away three Bonny Doon posters for a $35.00 payment; for $100.00, you got to name one of the new grape varieties.

Crowdfunding, through the reach of the the Internet, allows fund-raising to go worldwide, and it's faster, easier, and potentially much more effective than something as conventional as direct mail – and carries with it the cachet of 21st-century cool. How many times has someone boasted, “I raised my money on Kickstarter”? The catch is that crowdfunding works best for tech-related projects and those aimed at younger, more

tech-savvy audiences. And grape breeding, says Grahm, is hardly either.

“I was initially somewhat disappointed with the results,” he says, “because after a very dramatic start, interest rapidly seemed to die off, and it did not seem even remotely possible for us to achieve our goal. They were much older and significantly less digitally wired than the typical crowdfunding individual. In other words, many of them did not immediately go hog-wild on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc, with exhortations to others to participate.

“But, somehow, we were able to generate some last-minute buzz and we made half of our goal within the last 48 hours. It was a really thrilling ending, I must say. ” That the project beat its goal with a flurry of last-minute donations speaks to the enthusiasm for the project, as well as to Graham's unique place in the wine business and the respect consumers – if not the wine business – has for him.

“Crowdfunding, in many respects, is the financing of the future,” says Canadian wine writer David Pelletier, who contributed to the project. “Like micro-banking, it is a way of democratising development, giving the reins of economic trends and objectives into the hands of the people rather than a handful of deciders. Basically, Randall Grahm asked people: 'Do you feel it is important that I try and create 10,000 new varieties?' and left it up to the people to decide if they wanted in or not. A lot of crowdfunding's success also lies in how bad you want it, and Randall wants it bad.”

That the project wasn't tech-related and offered something that was different appealed

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One of Grahm’s disappointments – if not necessarily a surprise – was the lack of interest from the wine business. The campaign received almost no money from other producers and many seemed to regard it as just another of his publicity stunts. “I was slightly disappointed that the wine industry itself did not appear to be more interested in the project, but maybe they were a bit cynical about my putative schticks,” he said. “Who knows? I am thinking that it may be time for me to create a new wine called, ‘This Time I’m Serious’. Or maybe that could just be the epitaph on my tombstone.”

The other question? How will Grahm measure success? As he says, Popelouchum won't make any money and will almost certainly, as a non-profit, have to raise money for expenses for most of its existence.

There might be some way to license the new varieties, and research for new varieties with disease-resistance to powdery mildew and Pierce’s Disease is also a possibility. In the end, though, Popelouchum is as much about the effort as it is the results, an approach that is fine with crowdfunding contributors like Fried and Pelletier.

“I find this type of endeavor very ‘romantic’ in the literary sense,” says Pelletier, “but also tremendously important for a culture that is already feeling the effects of climate change. I think we need to look into the future and find suitable options for sustainable grape-growing, including finding varieties that will be more drought-resistant, which already is and will continue to be a pressing issue in California.”

Or, as Grahm puts it with his usual perspective: “I do hope that I live long enough to identify the one percent or fraction of a one percent that are truly unique and wonderful, but that’s probably doubtful.”

But so was the idea, all those years ago, that wines should have screwcaps.

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to Indiegogo, says Alisa Cordesius, the website’s manager of social innovation and design, which also hosted a Greek bailout campaign. “When Randall came through with this cool innovation idea, he was also touching on drought initiatives in California,” she says.

“And the crowd resounded to his campaign. In this, it was part of the many social innovation campaigns that we do.”

ARGENTINA’S RED GOLD Malbec, a classic grape from France, turns out to do thrillingly well in Argentina, putting that country on the world’s wine map, says Richard Woodard. And it all started around the barbecue.

Kaiken Winery, Vistalba

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arlborough has Sauvignon Blanc – but then so does the Loire, Bordeaux and just about every other New World producing country. South Africa has Pinotage – but its charms remain an acquired taste for many. Chile has Carménère – but is still far more reliant on Cabernet Sauvignon to generate red wine sales. When it comes to emblematic grape varieties, Argentina and Malbec is the unrivalled example.

Not that the country has exclusivity on the variety. Malbec was a historic mainstay of Bordeaux, the hero grape of Cahors and, more recently, has found success across the Andes in Chile, and in Australia and New Zealand.

But none of these places is identified with the variety in anything like the same way.

Cold figures confirm this impression: 93% to 94% of Malbec sales in Russia are Argentinian imports, a figure mirrored by the UK on-trade; even in a country like Australia where the grape is grown domestically, only 18% of Malbec restaurant listings are Australian (and, reports Wine Business Solutions (WBS) principal Peter McAtamney, less than 2% are French).

The perfect combination To Daniel Pi, chief winemaker at Grupo Peñaflor-owned Trapiche, this is a virtuous circle whereby Argentina has restored Malbec’s international reputation, and Malbec has elevated Argentina’s profile and identity around the world. “A fantastic symbiosis,” he says.

What’s driving this? According to Aurelio Montes Jr, whose Chilean family wine business owns the Kaiken offshoot in Mendoza, Argentina and Malbec were “born to be together”. He adds: “Malbec is the best wine to be drunk in Argentina, considering the Argentinian lifestyle. Our culture is closely associated with the barbecue and outdoors, [and] Argentinian

Malbec is the perfect combination to be drunk at a barbecue or on a beautiful day at the foot of the Andes.”

Translating this to a cold and drizzly day in Europe might look like a bit of a leap, but the crucial factor in terms of exporting the Malbec concept is another Argentinian cornerstone: meat. Domestically, it’s not hard to see how this works given that, according to Montes, steak consumption in Argentina tops 60 kg per capita per year – or more than 1 kg per person per week. “Argentina is known as a meat country,” Montes continues, “and wherever you go in the world, you are going to find a steakhouse – and many of those places are Argentinian cuisine.”

McAtamney contends that Malbec’s success in the US, UK, Australia and other ‘Anglo’ markets has been driven by the emergence of ‘hipster’ consumers and restaurants catering to that opportunity. “Somewhat counter-intuitively, given that many of the main elements of hipster food are about becoming healthier, meat and the more primordial incantations of its presentation and service are at the absolute forefront,” he says. “The food truck phenomenon and the sort of value innovation now taking place in restaurants, as played out in the movie Chef, has been in large part driven by Americans’ desire to take their favourite fast food upmarket.

This almost always involves meat. Argentinian barbecue is right in the slot.”

The Malbec-and-steak tag team has been

Daniel Pi, chief winemaker, Trapiche

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a massive boon to the grape variety and to Argentinian wine producers, but might it also become a straitjacket, restricting consumption to one specific occasion? Pi agrees that this may become a problem in the future. “Despite that this is an almost perfect combination, probably our challenge ahead is how do we communicate the versatility of Malbec and its blends, pairing them with dishes beyond beef,” he says.

The expression of Argentine Malbec itself is also evolving. Communications manager Carla Castorina, from the export department of Trapiche, adds that blending is on the rise in Argentina, citing Trapiche’s Iscay Malbec -

MARKET SNAPSHOT: MALBEC IN RUSSIA • Malbec sales were down 18% to 525,000 L (January to August 2015); in calendar year 2014, they were flat at 1.15m L • The variety remains a small niche in the Russian market, accounting for 0.85% of total red wine imports (January to August 2015) • Argentina’s share of Malbec imports is dominant at 94% for the past two years,followed by Chile at 5% (6% Jan to Aug 2015) and France at 1% • Malbec sales are driven by activity in the upper economy price tier (€1.50 to €2.49/75cl), which accounted for 51% of sales in both 2013 and 2014; followed by <€1.50 (21% last year); €2.50 to €3.49 (16%); €3.50 to €5.49 (10%); €5.50 to €7.99 (1%); and >€8.00 (1%) • But, for Jan-Aug 2015, there are signs of a shift downmarket, with 23% of sales occurring in the <€1.50 segment, and 45% in the €1.50 to €2.49 segment

SOURCE: SIMPLE

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WINE STYLES MALBEC

Malbec elsewhere In Australia, Malbec is also benefiting from the trend away from mainstream grape varieties and towards ‘alternative’ styles, with WBS’s Wine On Premise Australia 2015 research showing Malbec listings up 115% on the year – although McAtamney points out that Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo and others are surfing a similar trend.

Elsewhere, though, regional trends are very diverse. “In general, in the US Malbec is doing very well,” reports Montes. “It took many years to be able to show the consumers that Malbec from Argentina is great, but now everyone has tried Malbec and most of them love it.”

Pi agrees that the US has been Argentina’s ‘key growth market’, but points out that the pace of growth has slackened somewhat more recently as Malbec in particular matures in the market. “Competition is fierce, as every winery in Argentina and almost every importer in the US is fighting for a piece of the Malbec pie,” he reports.

Castorina agrees, “Nowadays, you rarely find an on-trade account without at least two or three Malbec options in the regular list, and many times at least one Malbec in their by-the-glass programmes,” she says. “In the case of the off-trade, usually you’d find retailers (big and small) with at least four or five different Malbecs.”

But it’s a different picture elsewhere in the world, says Montes. “In Europe, Malbec from Argentina is still very young. Markets like the UK, Germany and Switzerland are growing, but there is big work to be done.

We need to promote Argentina as a premium wine country.” He adds that Asia is more complicated, as “we are very little-known.

Chile has done a great job in this region, and we need to learn from them.”

POLITICAL MACHINATIONS AND ARGENTINA’S ECONOMIC WOES The result of Argentina’s presidential run-off – in full swing at the time of writing – could have a significant impact on the performance and prospects of the country’s exporting wineries. The stuttering economy, beset by high inflation, an over-valued peso and a beleaguered central bank, has been the prime topic of the contest between ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli and challenger Mauricio Macri.

“Today working in Argentina is very challenging,” says Aurelio Montes Jr, of Chilean winery Montes, which owns Mendoza-based Kaiken. “Since we established our winery in Argentina, there are new regulations that complicate our winery.” For example, he says, inflation is around 40% per year, which means that production costs also grow 40% per year.

“The second problem is that the government controls the exchange rate between Argentinian pesos and the US dollar, and today we are having almost the same rate [as] one year ago, and with 40% extra cost of production.”

On top of all that, he says it’s very difficult to import products like barrels, yeasts, etc.

At Trapiche, Castorina agrees that operating a winery efficiently in the country has become

The picture changes again in an emerging market like Russia, where only in the restaurant sector does Malbec have its own identity as the pre-eminent Argentinian wine, according to Maria Koshkareva, product manager at importer Simple. “The trend of Malbec as a steak wine is not so big in Russia,” she adds. “Waiters and sommeliers can influence it in special steakhouses, but not much.”

Beyond Argentina, only Chile and France can muster much scale in terms of Malbec production. In the UK, according to WBS figures, Argentina takes a 93% share of Malbec on-premise listings, versus 5% for France, 2% for Chile and the odd entry from the US and Australia, while the whole Malbec market in Russia is 93% Argentina, 6% Chile and 1% France.

For non-Argentinian Malbec producers, the decision is whether to try to carve out their own distinctive niche, or to aim to ride on the coat-tails of Argentina’s success. “It

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Aurelio Montes Snr & Jnr

“increasingly challenging” because of the erosion of Argentina’s competitiveness versus other New World countries. But she also highlights the fact that the consequent stagnation in bottled exports has been accompanied by an improved mix, with the average FOB value of a nine-litre case expanding from $24.00 in 2002 to $36.00 in 2014.

Montes believes – hopes, perhaps – that the situation will change soon; Macri has promised to improve trading conditions and cut protectionism ‘on day one’ if he is elected. But for the moment, the company is intent on running a particularly tight ship, in recognition that “only the very efficient wineries are the ones that are surviving”, in Montes’s words.

is somewhat sad, I feel, to see the producers of the wonderful wines of Cahors positioned next to Argentina at Vinexpo, seemingly hoping that some of the magic will rub off on them,” says McAtamney. He also highlights the ‘grass is always greener’ paradox of Cahors producers talking enviously about the sunshine hours of Argentina creating riper flavours – while South American producers look to cooler regions such as Salta to produce a fresher, more food-friendly Malbec style.

So will the increasing sophistication of consumer food and wine tastes have an impact on the status quo, particularly if and when they discover the true roots of the grape variety in France? “This change in the market, of course, hands the advantage back to regions like Cahors, particularly as global warming kicks in,” acknowleges McAtamney.

“Despite all the massive challenges on the home front, including hyperinflation blowing out cost of production, I’m backing Argentina to continue to succeed.”

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Cabernet Franc as an example, which is based on 70% Malbec. “Lately, we in the industry are also focusing more in the knowledge and communication of the different geographical appellations of Argentina, so consumers, especially in the high end, will see in the near future, something more specific than solely Mendoza or Valle de Uco,” she says. “The development of Altamira, Gualtallary and Vista Flores in Mendoza, Pedernal in San Juan, and Calchaquí Valley in Salta, are just a few examples of this direction.”

TECHNOLOGY YEASTS

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NEW WINE CULTURES Despite boasting a turnover of nearly $1bn, Chr. Hansen is one of the invisible players of the wine industry. Its innovative products, however, are used around the world, as Elsebeth Lohfert discovers.

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here were plenty of smiles to be seen at the Chr. Hansen headquarters, north of Copenhagen on 21 October 2015. At eight in the morning the annual report was out. Two thousand, six hundred employees in 30 countries were listening to CEO Cees de Jong announce that revenues had risen by 14% over the previous year, to a total of €859m ($914m).

One of those employees, Laurent Hubert, a Paris-based, unusually quietly-spoken Frenchman who flew in for the day, holds the official title of ‘Marketing Director, Wine’ in the company’s Yeasts & Enzymes Division.

With academic roots in both biology and oenology, balanced by hands-on experience in Languedoc and at the illustrious Château Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Hubert joined Chr. Hansen in 2007. As the executive responsible for developing and marketing the company’s wine yeasts it’s his task to follow the major trends affecting the wine industry.

He studies market and consumer attitudes and helps Chr. Hansen’s scientists to decide where

Nathalia Kruse Edwards, application manager, wine innovation at Chr. Hansen

to focus their expertise, and why. “Excessive alcohol levels, for example, are a concern for consumers – so we help the producers to make wine with less alcohol,” he explains.

“The consumers also don’t want additives, sulfites for example, so the industry looks for ways to reduce the use of sulfites, and to avoid histamines. So, our aim is to produce solutions for the winemakers, creating new tools for them – that’s our raison d’être.”

The youngest child Nathalia Kruse Edwards, application manager, wine innovation at

Wine is the youngest Chr. Hansen showing an agar plate with non-Saccharomyces yeast. part of the Chr. Hansen ingredient in cheese production. Rennet had business, but one of the most promising. until then been inconsistent in quality and Twenty-five years ago, wine cultures for the purity, which made it difficult for cheese wine industry became part producers to work on an industrial scale. In of a new innovative strategy 1870, however, Hansen finally succeeded in and, as Hubert wryly says: extracting pure rennet from calves’ stomachs.

“In terms of what we do, This discovery was to revolutionise the dairy it’s only 25 batches ago, so industry, making it possible to produce it’s yesterday.” cheese in large quantities and of consistent The company’s first quality. ‘yesterday’ was in 1870, Later came the development and when it was established production of natural colours used for cheese by pharmacist Christian and butter, along with cultures for yogurt Ditlev Ammentorp Hansen. and natural ingredients for the food and feed At the age of 22, he began industries. In the beginning of the 1980s the to work at the University company became interested in developing of Copenhagen assisting cultures for the wine industry. As part of the Professor Julius Thomsen new strategy the French company SOCHAL, in his efforts to extract a a specialist in developing ripening yeasts digestive enzyme called and coagulates for the wine, was bought in pepsin from cow stomachs.

1986.

Hansen himself began For the development of wine yeasts the developing a method for Chr. Hansen research team turned to their extracting rennet, another old ally and neighbour, the University of enzyme that’s an important

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Chr. Hansen’s new product development was recognized in 2014 when it received the the Global Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation.

More or less manipulation?

According to Hubert, it was the early 1970s when scientists began to focus on the role of yeasts in alcoholic fermentation, while the work and development on bacteria and malolactic fermentation did not follow until two decades later. This explains why 60% to 70% of the world’s wine is inoculated with fermentation yeasts from companies like Chr. Hansen, while only around 10% to 15% are inoculated with bacteria. “But we think the development [of bacteria use] will be the same as for yeast,” Hubert says. The trend is already clear in markets like Germany, Austria, the US and Australia, where the rate of inoculation with bacteria now represents 25% to 35% of the wines produced.

At the University of Copenhagen, associate professor Torben Bo Toldam-Andersen, from his chair at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, agrees. Bacteria is “easier to work with, [and] gives another, faster, more smooth flow in the winery”.

In recent years, as ‘natural’ wines have become fashionable, the notion of whether or not natural processes should be manipulated has been at the heart of some heated controversy. Hubert’s response is direct: “The use of selected yeasts and bacteria is not a manipulation. These microorganisms all come from vineyards, musts or wines and they have been selected for the great services they deliver to winemakers.” He continues: “The push within the wine industry against ‘wine manipulations’ is real: there is a high demand for fewer pesticide residues and preservatives, most particularly sulfur.” Chr. Hansen products, he says, “certainly offer one of the best possible ways to help winemakers deliver drinkable, safe wines that contain fewer pesticides and sulfites.”

However effective the Chr. Hansen products may be, Hubert acknowledges that the company’s scientists are not alchemists.

Nature will always have its part to play, he says, “If it was possible with a special yeast or a special bacteria to replicate Château Pétrus, we could change the nature of a wine - but this will never happen.”

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new product for the wine Copenhagen.

Associate industry that had until Professor Nils Arneborg then only been tested in the at the Department of Food laboratory.

Science and his students The object of her became partners and research was named NoVA were present when Chr. – for no volatile acidity Hansen was the first in the (VA) – and thought ideal world, in 2003, to launch for warm climates where a non-Saccharomyces malic acidity levels are product, a yeast blend low.

Edwards went to with S. cerevisiae and six French wineries and K. thermotolerans.

In to the INRA (Laboratoire 2009 the T. delbrueckii de Biotechnologie de and K. thermotolerans components were released Laurent Hubert marketing director, l’Environnement) centre in on their own under the cultures & enzymes division, wine. Narbonne to test and finetune the product until it Prelude, and Concerto, was ready to be launched in France, Italy and trademarks. The precise contribution made Spain in 2014. NoVA not only offered a whole

by Nils Arneborg and his department is new way of thinking for producers in regions covered by a confidentiality agreement, but where VA problems were often prevalent, Arneborg says that, “Nature has unlimited but it also showed interesting features Chr. resources and so far we have only exploited Hansen calls ‘bio-protection’. The product a fraction of them.” proved able to inhibit the growth of some Several of his talented students have moulds and acetic acid bacteria, making it a also worked with Chr. Hansen. One of potentially valuable new tool for winemakers them, Nathalia Kruse Edwards, is now wanting to use less sulfur.

Chr. Hansen’s application manager for wine innovation. She was a student at The Danish Technical University when she Revolutionising winemaking changed to Food Science and Technology at the University of Copenhagen. While Over the last five years the Chr. Hansen wine working as a waitress in her spare time, she team has won acclaim for other innovations. became interested in wine. She then spent Remarkably, NoVA allows winemakers to a semester at the University of Adelaide induce malolactic fermentation in grape where she studied oenology and realized juice before the alcoholic fermentation, that this was her field: “Wine is the most reducing the time taken by the process to complex food product I have come across and one to three days, compared to the customary I wanted to try and understand it. Climate, three to twelve weeks. Hubert claims that growing, harvesting, fermentation, blending, wines treated in this way “go through both etc: there are so many variables to impact malolactic and alcoholic fermentation within and influence the final product. So much is 10 days and are microbiologically stable”. inexplicable. Wine production is science but “We have launched products and also art, and it’s this interaction I like,” she technologies that are landmarks in enology,” says, dressed in the lab’s obligatory white Hubert says, picking out Prelude, “the first cap, boots and smock. Edwards went back to pure non- Saccharomyces yeast for mouthfeel Copenhagen with her enology qualficiations improvement”; Concerto, “acidic balance and hands-on experience from working at management in red wines”; and FrootZem, Vasse Felix Estate, in Margaret River, for “fruit flavour optimization”. CiNe is the first the 2012 vintage. “To make wine is really direct inoculation of pure Oenococcus oeni craftsmanship; it takes many years to learn culture to manage malolactic fermentation it and can’t be done purely from books.” without producing buttery, lactic flavours, Deciding that wine should be the subject while Viniflora Freasy is the first red wine for her PhD, Edwards went to Chr. Hansen malolactic culture that can be stored at 18°C and asked if they had a relevant project. instead of -50°C, making it an easier product They invited her to conduct field tests on a for smaller wineries to use.

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MARKETING G L O B A L LY S P E A K I N G

SPEAKING INTERNATIONALLY It’s easy to make a faux pas when dealing with another culture, says Richard Siddle.

But if you get your communications strategy right, on the other hand, you can connect with a global audience.

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verybody has heard stories about – and probably been guilty of – saying something in a foreign country that might sound fine at home, but which translates into something very different, or even insulting, in another language. But being embarrassed on an individual basis is one thing – being embarrassed on a corporate level is quite another.

Today, when everything can be checked, double checked, or even Google translated, there is no hiding place.

Brave new world Wine producers and generic bodies are having to go to increasing lengths to ensure they have the right message for the right consumer in the right market.

“One size definitely does not fit all,” says Bernard Fontannaz, founder of South Africa’s Origin Wine, which has international brands such as Fairhills and Stormhoek. “Asia is a completely different ball game to Europe. But even within Europe, Holland is very different to the UK. It is less price-driven and more willing to try and find ways to build a brand,” he explains.

For a brand to work across many continents and cultures requires a completely

“When looking internationally, different way of thinking for the you have to decide what makes traditional wine company, claims that brand unique,” he explains.

Mark Hely, export director of Once you know the “spirit of Australia’s McWilliam’s Wines. the brand” the next challenge “The wine companies that are is “identifying the audience” winning are consumer-lead, not and “creating a campaign that product-lead,” stresses Hely. is flexible enough to be used in To have any chance of knowing each market,” he says. what message is going to be right Maidment agrees there are in different countries, you need aspects to a brand’s values that to have a true understanding of “When looking should work in any market. But the core values and DNA of your internationally, you Argentina could not have done a brand, claims Andrew Maidment, have to decide Bordeaux-style campaign in Asia who heads up Wines of Argentina what makes that as “we are at a different stage of both for Europe and Asia. brand unique.” awareness about what Argentina “Part of what we do will work Paul Houlding, is there compared to Bordeaux”. everywhere,” he explains. “So it managing partner, Instead it needed to play a lot is not a case of ripping everything isobel more on the stereotypical image of up and starting again as that Argentina. “So for China we would would get confusing.” look to play on football and Lionel Messi as that Stuart Purcell, creative director at Cedar, is all they know about Argentina.” a specialist publishing business that creates Hely says brands need to be aware that “the international content for companies like Tesco target audience for that brand could change and British Airways, questions whether all dramatically in different markets” between age brands have the ability to work in all markets. groups and genders.

He asks: “Does the brand DNA run deep enough There is not one winning approach, stresses to cross international waters and boundaries?

Hely. Wines, for example, based on the family, Is the ‘code’ of the brand strong enough and the tradition and the heritage of where they represent sufficient material in the proposed come from do not have to do so much work in territory to actually work?” different markets, he argues.

The key, says Bela Szabo, strategy and But the growing number of lifestyle brands, innovation director of global advertising like McWilliam’s’ Expressions range, have to agency, DDB, is to understand be tailored to the different lifestyles of the local the “operating principles” for market. your brand; that is, the common All of which requires specialist local narrative which runs through knowledge. In the heyday of global advertising everything the brand is about. in the ’80s and ’90s major advertising agencies Paul Houlding, managing would have local offices all over the world. Not partner of isobel advertising any more, says advertising executive, Mark agency, was faced with that Fiddes, co-founder of IdeaMotel, that helps challenge when developing “The create international campaigns. Now an agency More You Look The More You will come up with a concept or execution that Discover” global advertising specialist, individual agencies will then tweak campaign for Bordeaux’s wine and adapt to their local market, he says. “Their marketing body, the CIVB.

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BORDEAUX WINES The challenge for advertising agency isobel was to create an international wine campaign for Bordeaux wines that could work in any market which also adhered to strict French advertising laws. As it is forbidden to use people to advertise alcohol in France, isobel used illustrations to target its target audience of experienced wine drinkers looking to explore new areas. Hence the tagline: “The More You Look The More You Discover”.

The illustrations were created to reflect the different wine cultures where the campaign would run and how Bordeaux wines are perceived in that market. By having different illustrations local offices could choose the ones most suited to their culture. For example, one illustration showed a bottle of wine being picked up by chopsticks, which worked well in China. But it could not be used in Japan where it is seen as bad luck to pick up anything with chopsticks other than food.

The simple graphics of the Bordeaux campaign are universally recognisable.

Closer the better The most successful brands in the future will be the ones that can “read cultures better” in different countries, says Szabo at DDB. It’s not enough to have a superficial understanding of a market’s cultural differences. It’s important that the language and messaging you use is as authentic as it can be, urges Purcell. “There are a host of visual guidelines concerning how the same image may be offensive or tolerated depending on your stance. Pigs, cows, nudity, people smoking, religious symbols, protest symbols, flags, borders can all be in need of specific treatment – or deletion.”

Wines from Spain, for example, could not use one of its campaigns in China, as it featured

I HEART WINE, COPESTICK MURRAY One of the biggest recent global branded wine success stories has been thei heart brand, which uses the i heart New Yorkstyle logo to promote different wine varieties (i heart Pinot Grigio etc).

Robin Copestick, managing director of Copestick Murray, says the brand is always looking to fit comfortably in to its local market. “We definitely adapt both message and approach to different markets, but we always try and maintain key brand values to individual markets,” he stresses. “We have created a special edition wine for i heart wine for China, the US and Australia.”

The image of a monkey will be used in China in 2016, to tie in with the Year of the Monkey.

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artwork with large white backgrounds which has negative connotations there. Purcell also urges companies to look at every detail down to the type and size of font being used.

Maidment agrees: “For China we had to buy specific fonts that represented the Chinese characters we wanted to use in the right way,” he explains.

Robin Copestick, co-founder of Copestick Murray, who has seen its i heart brand distributed in 25 countries, says it is equally important to be aware of cultural differences even in your own country. “We would not try and sell a i heart Manchester United wine near Liverpool,” he adds.

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CONCHA Y TORO: WINE LEGEND CAMPAIGN FOR CASILLERO DEL DIABLO Concha y Toro, which arguably runs the biggest global promotion for it Casillero del Diablo brand, believes its ‘Wine Legend’ campaign appeals to consumers in any country because it’s based on a true story.

People all over the world relate to the tale of the winery’s founder who claimed, 130 years ago, the Devil was protecting its best wines in the cellar, says Cristobal Goycoolea Nagel, marketing director for Concha y Toro in Chile. “The concept of the brand is exactly the same in all markets,” he adds, but it will look to adapt “the approach and implementation” in specific countries. This is normally around the use of media, graphics, imagery and local legal restrictions in areas such as Asia, Latin America, the US and Europe, he says.

It can’t use fire, for example, to communicate alcohol in France or Sweden, or the link with sport and its sponsorship of Manchester United in Mexico and Costa Rica.

Creating a global campaign uses budgets more effectively, freeing up money for this Concha y Toro TV ad.

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skill,” adds Fiddes, “is making your product fit in with the everyday conversation taking place with your target consumer group in that country.”

For example, Inés Menéndez de Luarca, of ICEX Spain Trade and Investment, says its overall message is to demonstrate the versatility of its wines and then relies on its local economic and commercial offices to determine which of those wines, in which channels and which types of consumer are best to target in each country.

Fontannaz’s approach is to listen carefully to what local retailer buyers are saying. “They are usually very close to what consumers are doing and looking for,” he says.

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CONFERENCES DWCC

THE DIGITAL CONVERSATION The annual Digital Wine Communications Conference brought together wine lovers and communicators of all kinds, found Robert Joseph. He found the focus firmly on wine.

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hat do Swiss wines and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) have in common? Both were among the most popular items on the menu of the eighth Digital Wine Communications Conference which was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in October. This impeccably run annual event has been held in places ranging from Rioja and Franciacorta to Ankara, and the 2014 venue, Montreux. On each occasion, an audience of bloggers, public relations professionals and producers have been offered a packed programme containing a mixture of advice on how to communicate more efficiently online, along with often quite esoteric discussions about various kinds of wine, and the opportunity to taste wines they might not encounter elsewhere.

At a glance The 2015 event included sessions with titles such as ‘Pivot your Blog – finding new audiences and revenue streams’, ‘Should Wineries and Regions Pay for Better Wine Content’ and ‘How to Become Famous in Wine’ from Meininger’s editor-in-chief Felicity Carter. Richard Hemming MW, in one of the conference’s two keynotes, focused on the essentially non-remunerative area of wine books. Despite publishers’ resistance to the category, the numbers of books being written and published on paper or, increasingly, digitally, is rising dramatically, he explained. The growth – largely digital – has come from writers who are publishing their own work, usually with little hope of earning much money from doing so.

Among the best of the technical presentations were Judith Lewis’s ‘In-Depth SEO Masterclass’ and ‘Top 10 Actionable SEO Tips’, which, for those who understood the concept and were minded to follow her advice, were probably worth the cost of the flights to Bulgaria and the attendance ticket. One of the event organisers, Ryan Opaz, provided similarly invaluable tips for bloggers and other online communicators, including lists of time-saving apps and short cuts.

Would-be book authors learned much from the experiences of Wink Lorch, who used the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to help launch her Andre Simon award-winning guide to Jura nearly two years ago, and Cathy Huyghe who has just published a book called Hungry for Wine. Lorch explained how UK sales taxes and Amazon commissions meant that, surprisingly, she makes less money from digital versions of her work than printed ones she mails out herself. Huyghe revealed a different modus operandi from most of the authors in Hemming’s study; rather than simply write a book on a subject that interested her, she had taken a lead from readers’ preferences for some of the subjects she had covered in pieces she had written for Forbes. I took part in this panel – talking about the future shift towards different kinds of e-reader devices and greater interactivity in non-fiction works – as well as in one on branding that was led by advertisingexecutive-turned-Italian-winery-owner Reka Haros. With the help of Damien Wilson of the Sonoma State University and Hungarian communications expert Bela Szabo, we attempted to demonstrate the positive financial implications for wineries of building a brand rather than relying on an appellation.

Robert McIntosh, Gabriella Opaz and Ryan Opaz, organisers

Wine versus wine communicating Despite the sessions on communication, the hottest tickets were for the tastings – of Swiss, Moldovan, Turkish, Greek and Bulgarian wines, almost all of which focused

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attention on indigenous grape varieties. At least one panel speaker wondered wryly whether they might have attracted a bigger audience if they’d simply turned up with a few bottles of Albanian wine instead of taking the time to prepare a PowerPoint presentation.

In this, the DWCC does not appear substantially different from its counterpart, the Wine Bloggers Conference in the US. Postconference reports invariably focus on the wines tasted, not on the communication skills learned. Former Harpers editor Richard Siddle pointed out that it makes no sense for wouldbe communicators to spend thousands on tasting wines, while neglecting to learn more about the nuts and bolts of communicating, such as basic writing skills.

But the DWCC organisers have some decisions of their own to make.

As communication of every kind appears in both online and print formats, does it make sense to devote conventions exclusively to digital platforms? Second, connecting with the right audience – and, more importantly, an audience with whom the sponsors want to connect – is becoming increasingly challenging.

The 2015 event attendees’ apparent preference for tastings over communication skills sessions hardly bodes well for their development as key opinion-formers. Revealingly too, as one of the Burgundy Business School students remarked, there were few young faces in the audience.

One way to lower that age and, possibly attract the kind of dynamic, communicationfocused participants the Opazes and McIntosh clearly favour, might be to broaden the focus to include lifestyle topics and other beverages. Of the top 45 best-selling alcoholic drink books on amazon.uk, only five are devoted to wine, fewer than half as many as on either cocktails or beer. The idea of rubbing shoulders and sharing conference topics with experts on pale ale and gin may not appeal to some of the 2015 DWCC wine communicators, but seeing how people in other industries communicate may be just the inspiration they need.

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R E G I O N A L A N A LY S I S TRENTINO

6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

ITALY’S NORTHERN REGION The Trentino region in Italy must rank as one of the most spectacular in the world, thanks to the Dolomites that dominate the skyline. Michele Shah explores the wines.

The region of Trentino is dominated by the Dolomite Mountains

Cooperative production It is not surprising that the history of production in Trentino has been influenced by the fact that only 27% of the land is arable – and that applies to all agriculture, including apples and other fruits, along with viticulture. Its mountainous topography ensures that farming is very fragmented, which over the last century has given rise to one of the most evolved and structured cooperative systems in Italy and Europe. Cooperative farming in Trentino reaches a long way back, and has played a fundamental role in all sectors of its agriculture. Its success stems from the necessity to create an effective economic system for the region’s fragmented farming industry, including that of viticulture.

As much as 80% of all farming is controlled by cooperatives, and 92% of the region’s wine is produced by cooperatives, with member grape growers owning little more than 1 ha of vineyard. As many as 48% of Trentino farmers own a mere 0.5 ha of vineyard and only 0.8% of farmers own more than 10 ha of vineyard. For this reason, up until the 1950s, most wine in Trentino was sold locally in bulk. Today, some small successful wineries are emerging. Two such names include Foradori and San Leonardo, which stand out for their world-class quality wines, considered to be among Italy’s top labels.

Elisabetta Foradori, winemaker and owner of the Foradori estate, of which 68% of the 150,000

bottles are exported, inherited her estate from her grandfather in 1956 and started making wine in 1984. In 2002 she made a courageous choice, to go biodynamic. Today her cellars are filled with wine fermenting in terracotta, handmade amphorae, which were shipped from Spain. “I have never looked back since I made this choice,” says Foradori. “I seek to achieve balance and harmony in my wines and I believe in biodiversity through mass selection.

Lately I have planted vines from seed in order to increase the potential of diversity, to reach a true and balanced expression of the terroir.”

Trentino produces a mere 1.5% of Italy’s wine. According to Foradori, the cooperatives promote a political system where votes are all important, giving everyone a say when it comes to decisions regarding Trentino’s viticulture and its promotion. “Trentino’s wines are mainly visible in supermarket chains, and is littleknown for its potential for excellence. It needs to emerge and enhance its image.”

“Cooperative farming still today is a major economic resource within the territory,” says Alessandro Bertagnoli, president of the main Consorzio Vini del Trentino, the 120-memberstrong grape-grower’s association. “The

presence and power of the cooperatives are often demonized, but they should be seen as gentle giants, playing an important role in the region’s livelihood and economy.” Bertagnoli, also president of the Aldeno cooperative, with 240 members and 300 ha, produces a line of organic and vegan wines. “My mission for Trentino can be summed up in three key words: tradition, vocation and sustainability,” says Bertagnoli. “Sustainable viticulture is one of the consortium’s main aims. We must respect nature, use less chemicals and be aware that what we do today will affect future generations.

This is one of the main aims, together with promotion, that the Consorzio Vini del Trentino is committed to.”

Cavit, Trentino’s giant cooperative system, was one of the first to be established, in 1950.

Today there are three main cooperative players: Cavit, with 11 affiliated cooperatives under their holding; Mezzacorona, with one affiliated cooperative; and La Vis, affiliated to the Cembra cooperative. Together they produce 85% of the region’s wine production, most of which is exported.

Cavit, which produces 6m bottles, currently represents 4,500 winegrowers and associate

Growth of vineyard area in the province of Trento ha 12,000

10,860 10,104 9,518

10,000

8,880

8,967

1980

1985

8,734

8,756

1990

1995

9,845

10,176

10,036

2005

2010

2013

8,000 SOURCE: VINI DEL TRENTINO CONSORZIO DI TUTELA

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he majestic range of Alpine mountains known as the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage site, tower above the city of Trento, around which are some of Italy’s most northern vineyards. The Dolomitic range comprises 18 alpine peaks, which rise to above 3,000 metres and offer an impressive backdrop to the region’s viticulture, as well as offering a mineral cocktail of porphyry, basalt, magnesium and limestone, making for wines of individual character.

6,000 4,000 2,000 0 1970

1975

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2000

members; altogether they farm 5,700 ha of vineyards, equal to 60% of Trentino’s total wine production. Financially things are going well; the most recent figures show the company made €158.5m, a +3.7% rise against 2012/2013.

Of this, exports represent €125m, or 80% of production; exports rose +4.7%. Andrea Nicolini, export manager, proudly points out that over the last few years their export strategy has been to increase both volume and value. There has been a focus on increasing the production of sparkling wines – in 2014, production grew by 12% – using both Charmat method and the classic method.

Given the importance of sparkling wine, it’s not surprising that Chardonnay represents one of the widest planted varieties, over 2,830 ha.

Altogether, sparkling wines produced under the Trento DOC appellation are made by 41 producers with more than 100 labels between them. In 2014, some 7m bottles were sold to the tune of €70m, showing an average +6% increase.

“Exports reach some 20% and the leaders include Ferrari and the cooperative brands Rotari, Cesarini Sforza and Altemasi, followed by niche producers such as Abate Nero, Pisoni, Maso Martis and Opera,” says Sabrina Schench, spokeswoman for the Istituto Trento DOC. Other grape varieties used in the production of Trento DOC include, but to a far lesser degree, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and a small percentage of Pinot Meunier. The wines, almost invariably brut, are made according to the classical bottle fermentation method and must age on the lees at least 15 months before being released; 24 months for ‘millesimato’ or vintage types, and 36 months for ‘riserva’.

Ferrari, a family-run business established in 1902, is the leader in the Trento DOC sparkling wine sector, producing some 45m bottles, of which 15% is exported worldwide. Indeed, it was thanks to Giulio Ferrari that the region has become a sparkling wine area. In 1902, the young oenologist was in France, where he noticed some similarities between the regions of Champagne and Trentino. Today, Ferrari wines are an Italian icon, served at state and red carpet

events. And now, the company has decided it’s time that the world knew more about the region the brand comes from. Camilla Lunelli, family member and communication and PR Director, says that from 2016, the company is beginning an intensive export campaign that will focus on the Trentodoc appellation, rather than solely on the Ferrari brand name. “Trento DOC is tied to Trento’s unique mountainous viticulture and this awareness and potential needs to be communicated and promoted internationally.”

Other wines Trentino’s total vineyard surface counts some 10,000 ha of vines, mostly registered under the Trentino DOC appellation, which covers the Adige Valley from Avio in the south to Mezzocorona in the north. Trentino’s main area of production of white aromatic wines is the mountainous Valle di Cembra. Until about 20 years ago, the valley was dominated by the red Schiava variety, a light table wine often made into a rosé, but it’s since been replanted mainly to Müller-Thurgau, which climbs the steep hillsides with its pergola and doublepergola vineyards. The Cembra valley is also an excellent area for other white varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Grigio, the latter being the second-most planted variety in Trentino (2,650 ha); it has acquired a reputation as some of the best in Italy, thanks to its vibrant, mineral quality.

“The Piana Rotaliana of Mezzocorona is an extensive flat valley, some 35 km in length,” explains Lucio Matricardi, head winemaker at Mezzacorona cooperative. The Mezzacorona cooperative is the second-largest in Trentino, with 2,600 ha, 1,500 members and a 4.5mbottle production. He notes that the valley offers diverse climates which can vary between 3°and 6°, taking in an alpine climate in the north, to a more Mediterranean climate further south. The Piana Rotaliana is also home to the production of the red variety Teroldego Rotaliano DOC, Trentino’s most widely planted red variety amounting to some 623 ha, of which the Mezzacorona cooperative farms 350 ha.

The Valle dei Laghi, close to Lago di Garda, is home to the local white Nosiola, a recently revived variety. It’s traditionally been used to produce Vino Santo Trentino DOC, a dessert wine made from late-harvest and partially dried grapes. Crisp and dry in character, ‘Nosiola’ is a local dialect word meaning ‘nocciola’, or

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hazelnut, so-named because of its nutty taste.

It is indigenous to Trentino. Other dessert wines include Moscato Giallo and Moscato Rosa, Trentino DOC white and rosé muscatel wines, made from the Muscat grape.

Marzemino Trentino DOC, made from the local variety and varietal Marzemino – which entered history when Mozart referred to it in Don Giovanni – is Trentino’s third-most planted red variety (332 ha), after Teroldego and Merlot.

Once made in a sweet and often slightly fizzy version, it has more recently emerged as a modern dry fruity wine, that’s mineral and fresh, with the versatility to match many dishes.

The young and dynamic winemaker Massimo Tarter of Cantina d’Isera in the Vallagarina – one of the largest and oldest producer cooperatives – has ambitions to revive Marzemino’s status as one of Trentino’s rising stars.

The Lagrein varietal also plays an important role in Trentino DOC wines, as do international varieties such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, which were introduced into Trentino towards the end of the last century, as were Cabernet Franc and Carménère. A prime example of the success of the Bordeaux blend style is San Loenardo, which has been perfecting its style since 1724. “Our vision has always been to produce age-worthy, fresh, elegant wines that reflect the terroir,” says Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga, owner of the San Leonardo estate, which has a 280,000 bottle production and exports to 52 countries. “Trentino still has a lot to do in terms of communication and promotion.

It has the potential today to make fresh, fruity wines with low alcohol and vibrant acidity, which is what many consumers want, but the region is still relatively unknown,” he says, going on to explain that Trentino’s mountainous land is a challenge for viticulture.

However, the region’s production is multifaceted and there is space for everyone: Cooperative production has shown that it’s possible to produce in volume, while maintaining a consistent quality that offers value for money. The sparkling houses are also increasing in number and as more of their wines appear in a world market that has an insatiable appetite for sparkling wine, they will help to build awareness of the region. It is now time to focus on organic production and the individual identity of small, quality producers who are struggling to emerge from the shadows of the mountains, to show the potential of Trentino’s uniqueness and terroir character.

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Mezzacorona €171.1m Cavit €158.5m La Vis €89.1m Ferrari €52m Cantina Toblino €13.3m Vivallis €13m

SOURCE: WWW.ANNADIMARTINO.IT/VINO-2014/

TRENTINO POWER LIST – REVENUE 2014

Another great result Wines from nearly 40 countries poured in to MUNDUS VINI and showcased how wine quality is improving internationally.

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his year there were 4,257 wines presented to the international jury of the 17th Great International Wine Award MUNDUS VINI. In September, the 150-strong jury came together in the Saalbau in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, the wine capital of the Rhineland Palatinate, to blind taste wines from nearly 40 countries. The impressive results are a testament to the way that wine quality has been rising internationally: there were 33 Grand Gold awards, 768 Gold and 858 Silver. As

well, more than 50 special awards were presented.

So what do the results show? Firstly, that Italy isn’t just the largest producer in the world, but is also producing some of the best wines. When it came to medals, Italy came on top with 380 awards, followed by Germany with 356 medals, and Spain at 271. Portugal and France were awarded 145 and 123 respectively, while Australia shone from the New World, with 72 medals. South Africa attracted 41, and Chile 37. But

MEET THE TASTING DIRECTOR Christian Wolf studied international wine business at Geisenheim University, and has worked with Professor Ulrich Fischer at the Neustadt Wine Campus, as well as in other companies.

Why do you think MUNDUS VINI is growing so fast?

It’s partly the spring tasting we introduced, which takes place for the third time next year. People want to enter their wines, because if they do well, they will appear in the Tasting Zone at ProWein, which gives them a chance to be seen by buyers and professionals from all over the world.

How do you choose tasters?

We have had a lot of the same tasters since the beginning of MUNDUS VINI, and after every competition we check how good their tasting was, through double tastings of the same wines. Many people send us their CVs and, of course, we get people through recommendations. Everyone has their tasting checked.

How is MUNDUS VINI different from other competitions?

We hear a lot that this is the only competition that gives so much feedback about the wines, with the aroma wheel and the descriptions of taste and smell, and where it was especially good or bad. Producers not only get feedback in the sense of ‘Hey! You got a medal!’ but also on what they can do better.

Another big difference is that we have the competence to taste the big Champagnes, which is why the famous Champagne houses send their wines. No other competition in the world gets these really top Champagnes. That’s one thing that is unique to us – the trust of those producers.

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what was really striking was how well emerging wine countries did, with Russia achieving 5 medals, Morocco 4, Turkey an impressive 8, and Thailand 2.

SPECIAL AWARDS The Grand Gold medals represent the pinnacle of wine excellence; the jury must rate the wines at 95 points and above before it can receive one. The majority of this year’s Grand Gold awards went to France and Italy.

In recognition of the outstanding quality of the wines being submitted, more than 50 special prizes were also awarded this year.

The ‘Producer of the Year’ goes to Casella Family Brands from Australia, who are internationally best known for their Yellow Tail brand. The ‘European Producer of the Year’ is Sogrape Vinhos from Portugal. The ‘German Producer of the Year’ is DIVINO Nordheim Thüngersheim from Franconia.

Two other awards go to Reidemeister & Ulrichs and Wein & Vinos; Reidemeister & Ulrichs won 10 Gold and 12 Silver medals, and is therefore ‘Importer of the Year’, while Berlin-based online retailer Wein & Vinos – which specializes in Spanish wines – received 8 Gold and 7 Silver medals, and is therefore the ‘Mail Order Company of the Year’.

LOOKING AHEAD In order to offer the maximum opportunity to producers from both the northern and southern hemispheres, with their differing harvest dates, the Great International Wine Award MUNDUS VINI has both a summer and a winter edition. Altogether, 8,432 wines were tasted by our international experts this year. The logistics are immense, but both tastings went off smoothly, ensuring that every wine entered was given the maximum opportunity to shine.

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“We have a very special interest in MUNDUS VINI. It is the reference competition for the German market. Austria and Switzerland also see it as more and more important. We are very proud of the results we have achieved in the past two years.”

1 3

Javier R. de Galarreta, President and CEO, ARAEX Rioja Alavesa & Spanish Fine Wines

1 The 150-strong international jury.

4 6

5

2 Christoph Meininger, CEO, greets the jury.

3 Behind the scenes.

4 The board: Robert Joseph, Professor Dr Ulrich Fischer and Michael Hornickel.

Christian Wolf, tasting director (rear).

5 Wines remaining in cool storage, outside the Neustadt Saalbau.

6 One of the serving team.

7 A typical jury panel, from above.

8 A huge team is needed backstage.

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Special Awards

Best red wine from Argentina 2013 Waxed Bat Cabernet Sauvignon / Malbec Reserve Grupo Peñaflor Vicente Lopez Argentina www.penaflor.com Gold

Best white wine from Argentina 2015 Elementos Torrontes El Esteco Buenos Aires Argentina www.elesteco.com Gold

Best red wine from Australia 2008 Casella 1919 Cabernet Sauvignon Casella Family Brands Yenda Australia www.casellafamily­ brands.com Grand Gold

Best white wine from Australia 2014 St Andrews Chardonnay Wakefield/Taylors Wines Auburn Australia www.taylorswines. com.au Gold

Best New World red in food retail 2014 Lindemans Bin 50 Shiraz Reh Kendermann Weinkellerei Bingen Germany www.rehkendermann.de Gold

Best white wine from Bulgaria 2012 Chateau Burgozone Chardonnay Danube Plain IGP Burgozone OOD Sofia Bulgaria www.burgozone.bg Gold

Best red wine from Chile 2011 Manso de Velasco Cabernet Sauvignon Sociedad Vinícola Miguel Torres Curicó, Chile www.migueltorres.cl Gold

Best white wine from Chile 2015 Los Vascos Chardonnay Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) Distribution Paris, France www.lafite.com Gold

Best noble sweet from Germany 2013 Ungsteiner Nußriegel Scheurebe Trockenbeerenauslese Vier Jahreszeiten Winzer Bad Dürkheim Germany www.vj-wein.de Grand Gold

Best wine from the Mosel 2013 Niepoort Philipp Piesporter Riesling, trocken Ardau Weinimport Troisdorf Germany www.ardau.de Grand Gold

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Best New World white in food retail 2014 Elemental Chardonnay Reserva Bio DO Schenk / Domaines Schenk Baden-Baden Germany www.schenk-weine.de Gold

Best red wine from Bulgaria 2013 Chopin Nocturne Katarzyna Katarzyna Estate Sofia Bulgaria www.katarzyna.bg Gold

Best dry Riesling 2013 Riesling Hattenheimer Schützenhaus VDP Erste Lage Weingut Georg Müller Stiftung Hattenheim Germany www.georg-muellerstiftung.de Grand Gold

Best German white wine in food retail 2014 Riesling Hochgewächs -aus der SteillageMoselland eG Winzergenossenschaft Bernkastel-Kues Germany www.moselland.de Gold

Best German off-dry white in retail 2014 Peter & Peter Riesling Steillage ZimmermannGraeff & Müller Zell Germany www.zgm.de Gold

Best German sweet white in retail 2014 Mußbacher Eselshaut Riesling Spätlese Winzergenossenschaft Weinbiet Neustadt/Weinstraße Germany www.wg-weinbiet.de Gold

Best dry Silvaner 2014 Würzburger Stein Silvaner VDP Erste Lage Weingut Juliusspital Würzburg Germany www.juliusspital.de Gold

Best noble Riesling 2013 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Beeren­ auslese Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von BassermannJordan Deidesheim, Germany www.bassermannjordan.de Gold

Best off-dry German Riesling 2014 Hochheimer Stielweg Riesling Spätlese Weingut Lauer Hochheim Germany www.weingutlauer.de Gold

Best German dry red in retail 2011 Villa Heynburg Freistil rot Winzerkeller Hex vom Dasenstein Kappelrodeck Germany www.dasenstein.de Gold

Best German Perlwein 2014 Edition MC Silvaner Secco Weingut Zehe-Clauß Mainz-Hechtsheim Germany www.zehe-clauss.de Gold

Best Weißer Burgunder 2012 Weißer Burgunder, trocken Weingut von Winning Deidesheim Germany www.von-winning.de Gold

Best NV Champagne Champagne Ultra D Champagne Devaux Bar-sur-Seine France www.champagnedevaux.com Grand Gold

Best vintage Champagne 2004 Dom Ruinart Champagne Blanc de Blancs, brut Moët Hennessy Deutschland Munich, Germany www.moet-hennessy.de Grand Gold

Best Côtes du Rhône Villages 2014 Château d'Aigueville Côtes du Rhône Villages AOP Schenk / Domaines Schenk Baden-Baden Germany www.schenk-weine.de Gold

Best Châteauneufdu-Pape 2013 Cuvée du Vatican Cuvée du Vatican Châteauneuf-du-Pape France www.cuveeduvatican.fr Gold

Best Bordeaux 2012 Château Villa Bel-Air Graves AOC Reidemeister & Ulrichs Bremen Germany www.ruu.de Gold

Best wine from Greece 2006 Cabernet-Nea Dris Erymanthos Winery Vasiliko Greece www.clauss.gr Gold

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Special Awards

Best red wine from Sicily 2013 Selezione Fellini Amanero Schuler St. JakobsKellerei Seewen Switzerland www.schuler.ch Great Gold

Best white wine from Italy 2014 Costanza di Mineo Cor Leon Grillo Bio Casa Vinicola Calatrasi San Cipirello Italy www.calatrasi.it Great Gold

Best Barolo 2010 Cannubi Collezione Rag. Franco Miroglio Barolo Riserva DOCG Tenuta Carretta Piobesi d’Alba Italy www.tenutacarretta.it Grand Gold

Best Brunello 2009 Trambusti Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Chianti Trambusti Prato Italy www.chiantitrambusti.it Gold

Best red wine from Italy 2013 Massaro Primitivo Puglia IGT Giordano Vini Valle Talloria di Diano Italy www.giordano-vini.com Great Gold

Best Italian red wine in food retail 2013 Segreto Rosso Negroamaro Passito IGT Salento Contri Spumanti Cazzano di Tramigna Italy www.contrispumanti. com Gold

Best Chianti 2012 Chianti Riserva DOCG La Torre Arezzo Italy www.relaistorre.it Gold

Best Prosecco V8+ Prosecco DOC, extra dry Le Tenute di Genagricola Loncon di Annone Veneto Italy www.latenute.it Gold

Best white wine from Sicily 2014 Corte Ibla Terre Siciliane Biologico IGP Santa Tresa Vittoria Italy www.santatresa.com Gold

Best Italian white wine in retail 2014 Mandrarossa Grillo Costadune DOC Sicilia Cantine Settesoli Menfi Italy www.cantinesettesoli.it Gold

Best Amarone 2009 Pietro Dal Cero Amarone della Valpolicella DOC Ca’ dei Frati Lugana di Sirmione Italy www.cadeifrati.it Gold

Best Chianti Classico 2011 Lornano Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Fattoria Lornano Pozzoli Italy www.lornano.it Gold

Best Lambrusco in retail 2014 La Tenute Bocciolo Lambrusco Garsparossa Medici Ermete & Figli Reggio Emilia Italy www.medici.it Silver

Best Prosecco in food retail Prosecco DOC, brut Mack & Schühle Owen Germany www.mackschuehle.de Silver

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Best wine from Luxembourg 2014 Domaine Thill Château de Schengen Riesling Caves BernardMassard Grevenmacher Luxembourg www.bernardmassard.lu Gold

Best New Zealand white wine 2014 Saint Clair Estate Sauvignon Blanc Wairau Reserve Bernard-Massard Sektkellerei Trier, Germany www.bernardmassard.de Gold

Best New Zealand red wine 2014 Mud House Pinot Noir Central Otago Accolade Wines Avonmouth/Bristol England www.accoladewines.com Gold

Best white wine from Austria 2013 Grüner Veltliner Rosengarten Reserve Kamptal DAC Weingut Waldschütz Strass Austria www.weingutwaldschuetz.at Gold

Best red wine from Austria 2012 Attaché Rosalia Winzer Domaine Pöttelsdorf Pöttelsdorf Austria www.w-d-p.at Gold

Best white Port wine 1989 Moscatel Adega de Favaios Adega Cooperativa de Favaios Favaios Portugal www.adegadefavaios.pt Grand Gold

Best red wine from Portugal 2013 Adega de Palmela Reserva Adega Cooperativa de Palmela Palmela Portugal www.acpalmela.pt Grand Gold

Best Port 1999 Sandeman Porto Vau Vintage Sogrape Vinhos Avintes Portugal www.sograpevinhos. com Grand Gold

Best white from Portugal 2014 Terras do Pó Castas Peninsula de Setúbal Vinho Regional Casa Ermelinda Freitas Águas de Moura Portugal www.ermelindafreitas.pt Grand Gold

Best rosé 2014 JP Azeitão Rosé Bacalhoa Vinhos de Portugal Azeitão Portugal www.bacalhoa.com Gold

Best red wine from Spain 2006 Inaraja Tempranillo Toro DO Monte la Reina Toro, Spain www.montelareina.es Grand Gold

Best red wine from Navarra 2010 Angel de Larrainzar Seleccion Especial Pago de Larrainzar Ayegui Spain www.pagodelarrainzar.com Grand Gold

Best red wine from La Mancha 2014 Ylirum Tempranillo Castilla La Mancha DO Hermanos Mateos Higuera La Solana Spain Grand Gold

Best Rioja 2011 Oscar Tobia Rioja Alta DOC Bodegas Tobia Logroño Spain www.bodegastobia. com Grand Gold

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Special Awards

Best Ribera del Duero 2011 Heritage de Convento de las Claras DO Tierra y Sol Bad Homburg Germany www.tierraysol.de Gold

Best Cava in food retail "Luna de Murviedro Organic" Schenk / Domaines Schenk Baden-Baden Germany www.schenk-weine.de Gold

Best Spanish red in food retail 2013 Castillo de Fuendejalon Crianza Bodegas Aragonesas Fuendejalon Spain www.bodegasaragonesas.com Gold

Best red wine from South Africa 2011 The Mentors Orchestra KWV Paarl South Africa www.kwv.co.za Grand Gold

Best white wine from South Africa 2015 Kleine Zalze Cellar Selection Chenin Blanc Bush Vines Kleine Zalze Wines Stellenbosch South Africa www.kleinezalze.com Gold

Best East European sparking in retail Bohemia Sekt Prestige brut Bohemia Sekt Starý Plzenec Czech Republic www.bohemiasekt.cz Silver

Best white wine from Turkey 2011 Selection Beyaz Kavaklidere Saraplari Ankara Turkey www.kavaklidere.com Gold

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, GERMANY DIVINO Nordheim Thüngersheim eG, Nordheim/Main, Germany

6 GOLD, 6 SILVER PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, EUROPE Sogrape Vinhos SA, Avintes, Portugal

1 GRAND GOLD, 8 GOLD, 7 SILVER PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, NEW WORLD Casella Family Brands, Yenda, Australia Best red wine from Turkey 2013 Sarafin Merlot Doluca Tekirdag Turkey www.doluca.com Gold

Best wine from Hungary 2012 Tüke Eszterbauer Borászat Szekszárdi Bikavér Magyar Szolo Borkultúra Nonprofit Budapest, Hungary www.vinagora.hu Gold

Best sweet wine in food retail 2013 Gallo Family Vineyards Moscato E&J Gallo Winery Wimbledon England www.gallo.de Gold

Best wine, USA 2013 Brazin Zinfandel Lodi AVA Delicato Family Vineyards Napa USA www.dfvwines.com Gold

Best German sekt in food retail Henkell Rosé Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei Wiesbaden Deutschland www.henkellsektkellerei.de Silver

2 GRAND GOLD, 11 GOLD, 4 SILVER IMPORTER OF THE YEAR Reidemeister & Ulrichs GmbH, Bremen, Germany

10 GOLD, 12 SILVER DIRECT SELLING COMPANY OF THE YEAR Wein & Vinos GmbH, Berlin, Germany

8 GOLD, 7 SILVER

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Volume X · Issue 6 · December 2015 Editor-in-Chief Felicity Carter, Phone: +49 6321 890879-25, Email: felicity.carter@wine-business-international.com Editorial consultant Robert Joseph Sub-editor Scott Saunders Publishers Andrea Meininger-Apfel, Christoph Meininger Contributors Subhash Arora, India; Eduardo Brethauer, Chile; Suzanne Brocklehurst, Singapore; Bob Campbell MW, and Correspondents New Zealand; Jung Yong Cho, Korea; Michael Fridjhon, South Africa; Eugene Gerden, Russia; Leslie Gevirtz, US; Dr Caroline Gilby MW, UK; N Dr Jamie Goode, UK; Mathilde Hulot, Hungary; Panos Kakaviatos, France; James Lawrence, UK; Adam Lechmere, UK; Daniel Lopéz Roca, Argentina; Jürgen Mathäß, Germany; Anton Moiseenko, Russia; Dr Hermann Pilz, Germany; Jeni Port, Australia; Wojciech Brońowski, Poland; Scott Saunders, USA; Eleonora Scholes, Russia; Michèle Shah, Italy; Jeff Siegel, USA; Sascha Speicher, Germany; Jenny Tan, Singapore; Elissaveta Velianova, Bulgaria; Larry Walker, USA; Richard Woodard, UK.

International ARGENTINA/CHILE: Diego Eidelman, Bulnes 1785 P.8 C, C1425DKC Buenos Aires, Phone : +54 911 Sales Representatives 56175036, Fax: +54 11 48280622, EMail: diego@clubsycountries.com  AUSTRALIA: InterMedia Worldwide, Mike McCorry, 105 Albion Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia, Phone: +61 29211 1690, Fax: +61 29280 2893, Intermediaworld@mac.com  FRANCE: Ute Schalberger, Gladbacher Str. 44, 50672 Köln/Germany, Phone: +49 221 58 91 93 93, Email: ute.schalberger @t-online.de  ITALY: Ediconsult Internazionale, Piazza Fontane Marose, 3, I-16123 Genova, Phone: +39 010 583684, Fax: +39 010 566578, Email: wine@ediconsult.com  SOUTH AFRICA: Pietman Retief/Catherien Tredoux, 20 Jonkershoekweg/Rd, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa, Phone: +27 82 554 1476, +27 83 273 2232, pietmanretief@absamail.co.za, catjan@vodamail.co.za  USA: Hans J. Niebergall, Director Marke­t­ing USA, 474 N Bedford Road, Bedford Hills, New York, 10507, Phone: +1 914 708-6241, niebergall@niebergall-law.com

Editorial Secretary Irina Fischer, Phone: +49 6321 8908-57, Email: fischer@meininger.de Marketing Director Ralf Clemens, Phone: +49 6321 8908-81, Email: clemens@meininger.de Marketing Manager Jörg Sievers, Phone: +49 6321 8908-67, Email: sievers@meininger.de Production Conception Design, Layout & Information Graphics Cover Image Interview photos: Photographers:

Horst Emmert Prof. Hajo Sommer Steffen Heppes Paul Schaafsma Cath Lowe Hong Kong: deviantART; South Africa: Aline Balayer, Erica Moodie, Pierre Van Der Spuy - WOSA; Bordeaux: Gilles Arroyo, François Poincet; Crimea: wildman-fotolia, Sergey Kaptlikin; Malbec: Federico Garcia; Mundus Vini: Ralf Ziegler - Ad Lumina

Printing PVA, Landau, Germany Publishing House MEININGER VERLAG GmbH, Maximilianstrasse 7-17, 67433 Neustadt, Germany, www.meininger.de WINE BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL Maximilianstrasse 7-17 67433 Neustadt, Germany Phone: +49 6321 89080 Fax: +49 6321 8908-14 Email: contact@wine-business-international.com www.wine-business-international.com MEINGER VERLAG shareholding: Andrea Meininger (45%), Christoph Meininger (45%), Peter Meininger (10%) Publishing Frequency bi-monthly Subscription Sonja Spuhler, Phone: +49 6321 8908-30, Email: spuhler@meininger.de MEININGER’S WINE BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL is available on subscription at 120€ a year. www.wine-business-international.com ISSN-Nr. 1867-352X This edition comes with a brochure from the following company: Adhésion Group - Mrs. Cathérine Bourguignon 35/37 rue des Abondances - 92513 Boulogne Cedex - France We ask our readers for their kind attention

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6/15 MEININGER’S WBI

COLUMN NEXT ISSUE

PREDICTING THE FUTURE

T

he frequently voiced question “who will be the new Robert Parker?” is as revealing as it’s misplaced. The people asking it overlook the fact that the wine industry survived perfectly well for 8,000 years without any critics, let alone an all-powerful one, and there’s no reason to be sure that it couldn’t get through another few millennia in a similarly deprived state, especially given the recent development of alternative forms of consumer influence such as peer recommendation.

But the same could be said of supermarkets. Most of us have become so accustomed to pushing a trolley around a big store to do our weekly shopping that we forget the relative novelty of this kind of retailing. Until the 1950s, very few people outside a small number of major cities would ever have set foot Robert Joseph is recog­ in one. nised as one of the The arrival of those world’s most interesting commentators on wine. first self-service stores was nothing short of revolutionary. Suddenly, shoppers didn’t have to reserve time in their week to get to the market before it closed, or to trek from butcher to baker to fishmonger, greengrocer and cheesemonger.

Wine was a late arrival in these new shops.

Indeed, I recall one senior British wine merchant vociferously doubting in the 1980s whether the big chains would ever be taken seriously enough by consumers to gain much of a market share. Now, however, in places where it is legal, supermarkets commonly handle three or four of every five bottles sold to be drunk at home.

That merchant was a victim of what I like to call Status Quo Syndrome (SQS): a condition that causes sufferers to think that the time and place in which they happen to exist are not only ‘normal’, but immutable. Change – even logically predictable change – takes these people by surprise. Relatively few French producers have come to terms with the introduction of Vin de France as a legal designation, for example; plenty of US distributors are struggling to comprehend the speed at which DTC – Direct to Consumer – sales are growing.

Despite the Internet and worldwide travel, the myopia associated with SQS not only prevents

sufferers from looking into the future, it often stops them from seeing what is happening almost under their noses. How many Italian white wine producers are aware of the speed at which their neighbours in Austria are adopting screwcaps? How many of the Europeans and Americans who scoff at QR codes as a means of communication with consumers, notice how ubiquitous these black-and-white squares have become in China?

Shopping over the Internet is a very different experience to walking around a supermarket – which was, in itself, a quantum leap from waiting to be served at a shop counter. Shoppers no longer browse the aisles, allowing things to catch their eyes; they either know what they are looking for, or follow recommendations. Perversely, the process is actually quite similar to the one 19th century consumers would have known, while the move to home delivery offers customers a service that the wealthy Londoners and New Yorkers of 1916 would have taken for granted.

The next evolutionary leap in retailing will, I believe, be even more dramatic. Instead of the tedium of the shopping website, we will simply point our smartphones at the things we want and click a button, or say ‘buy’. If you think that sounds like science fiction, welcome to the ranks of SQS sufferers: that service is already on offer in the US to anyone using Amazon’s Firefly app. Users of China’s Facebook/Twitter alternative, WeChat, now buy and pay for products and services using that platform. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg is not taking this lying down. People who have downloaded his Messenger app can already book KLM flights with it without the drudgery of the airline website. The process is not only speedier, but it saves the user from ticking boxes to request aisle seats or vegetarian options; the app remembers their preferences from previous transactions. Its potential for the wine business hardly needs spelling out.

I’m sure there will be plenty of wine businesses that will myopically soldier on successfully without taking any notice of these developments, just as there will be hotels that remain unthreatened by Airbnb. But the recent fall in the share value of retailers like Macy’s in the US suggests that I’m not alone in thinking that anyone who takes the survival of 20th century retailing as a given, may be in for some painful surprises.

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IN THE NEXT ISSUE

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY 2016 marks the ten year anniversary of Meininger’s Wine Business International.

To celebrate, we’re going to be looking back at how the world of wine has changed in the past decade and have a stab at predicting what will happen in the next ten.

There are other important anniversaries we’ll be looking at as well over the year - and maybe yours will be one of them. See the editorial at the front of this magazine for more details.

WHO’S WHO IN THE NETHERLANDS Holland is one of the most significant import markets in the world and its retail scene, in particular, has been through some dramatic changes. Who are both the new and old faces you need to know?

NATUR AL WINES You’d have to have been asleep in the past couple of years not to have heard the buzz around natural wines. Why do they provoke so much attention and debate?

NEXT ISSUE

VOLUME XI ISSUE 1 · FEBRUARY 2016 PUBLICATION DATE: February 26, 2016 ADVERTISING DEADLINE: February 5, 2016

THE GRAND INTERNATIONAL WINE AWARD

2016 Spring tasting Exclusive presentation of the winning wines at

EL GRAN PREMIO INTERNACIONAL DEL VINO

Deadline 5 February 2016

Register now online at www.register-wine.com

We are thrilled to be recognized once again, as Argentina´s Most Admired Wine Brand

Consistency over the years Finca Ambrosia | Gualtallary 2011 . Wine Advocate | 95 POINTS. . James Suckling | 94 POINTS. Finca Ambrosia | Gualtallary 2010 . James Suckling | 95 POINTS. . The Wine Advocate | 94 POINTS. . Wine & Spirits | 94 POINTS. . Wine Enthusiast | 93 POINTS Editor’s choice.