On Appealing to a Wider Audience and Picking the Right Clones

When Tablas Creek Vineyard announced it would release a box of wine for $95 and sell it though the wine club, people in the trade took note. If your least expensive wine is priced at $25 and a box contains four bottles, a box may not seem like the most viable option, despite the quality advantages for wines made for short-term consumption. The issue has always been consumer perception. Now, though, we’re seeing more small- to mid-sized wineries putting premium wine in alternative packages that appeal to a younger and wider audience. Some are quite good and have gained some traction. This month we look at Tablas Creek’s experiment with high-end boxes and delve into other ways wineries can appeal to a wider audience, including using NFTs, different types of marketing campaigns that drive ROI, and campaigns that are more focused on long-term brand building.

It’s hard to believe it’s June already. It may feel like we just wrapped up the 2022 harvest but the vines are growing quickly, and winemakers are already sampling vineyard blocks to assess maturity and crop load for 2023. Decisions made in the vineyard now affect wine style and quality. We often say that great wines are grown, not made. When it comes to quality and style, one of the most important winemaking decisions involves clone selection and matching the right clone to a given site. This month we learn about how some of the thinking around clones evolved, about how a couple of clones led to improved quality in Napa Valley, about trials measuring differences in anthocyanin levels and phenolics with certain clones, and about updates to a book informing growers and winemakers about the best clones for wine quality. Clone selection plays a role in disease management, too, and Dr. Marc Fuchs with Cornell University writes on his studies of virus-vector-grapevine interactions and implications for disease management strategies.

The way grape growers deal with pests and disease in the vineyard is evolving as well. The June issue features an introduction to biologicals, derived from natural materials, and discusses their growing use as an alternative to chemical treatments, the first in a series. Future articles will explain why there aren’t more bioherbicides, what’s in the pipeline, and how using biologicals can reduce the carbon footprint.

Wine Business Monthly

June 2023 • Volume XXX No. 6

Editor Cyril Penn

Managing Editor Erin Kirschenmann

Assistant Editor Katherine Martine

PWV Editor Don Neel

Eastern Editor Linda Jones McKee

Copy Editor Paula Whiteside

Contributors L.M. Archer, Bryan Avila, Richard Carey, Christopher Chen, W. Blake Gray, Mark Greenspan, Michael S. Lasky

Design & Production Sharon Harvey

Director, Analytics Group Alan Talbot

Editor, Wine Analytics Report Andrew Adams

Events Director: Danielle Robb

Web Developers Burke Pedersen, Peter Scarborough

Marketing Specialist Katie Hannan

President & Publisher Eric Jorgensen

Associate Publisher & Vice President of Sales

Tamara Leon

ADVERTISING

Account Executives Hooper Jones, Laura Lemos, Ashley Powell

Account Support Representative Aidan O’Mara

ADMINISTRATION

Vice President – Data Management Lynne Skinner

Project Manager, Circulation Liesl Stevenson

Financial Controller Katie Kohfeld

Data Group Program Manager Rachel Cunningham

Research Assistant Sara Jennings

Public Relations Mary Jorgensen

Chairman Hugh Tietjen

Publishing Consultant Ken Koppel

Commercial Advisor Dave Bellon

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