Wine as Consumer Packaged Goods or how we sucked all the romance out
We at Vintuba are so happy to welcome back JessicaL as a regular contributor to our humble blog, welcome back Jessica! Now please tell us what consumer packaged goods and romance have to do with each other?
If ChrisO is the Everyman’s Wine Snob and JonM is the Wine Snob’s Everyman I guess I’m probably closer to An Educated Faker. Meaning, after working in the industry for awhile I most definitely spend more time thinking and drinking wine than the average wine buyer, but I don’t have anywhere near Chris’s palate or Jon’s objectivity. So take my ramblings for what they’re worth, BUT you need to pay more than $10 for a bottle of wine. That’s it. I said it. The entire rest of this post will do nothing but reinforce that belief. Get out now if you want to remain unconvinced.
Enough said
Commodity is not wine’s natural state. In fact, sometimes I don’t know how we (as in the wine industry) managed to get here from there. How we took something so inherently different and made it so the same. How in our mad-dash to lay a business plan and margin analysis over a vineyard, we overlooked what gives wine value in the first place. Forgot what makes it mysterious. Ignored what makes it special.
To get cost down you have to make more units. To make more units, you need more supply. And to eliminate variables. And to maximize efficiency. To run a strong business, you should produce a consistent product. Your consumer won’t like variation in quality. Your product isn’t successful unless its predictable and reliable. Does any of that sound like wine? No? Of course not.
For as much as we save by streamlining production costs, we spend in professional storytellers trying desperately to strong-arm romance back into a bottle that has been stripped of any identity. The vineyard sketches on the label, the big glossy leaves in the magazine ad, the overly prose-y descriptions on the back label – all tools of the wine marketer. Tasked with wrapping wine in an air of luxury and playing on the intimidation of the unknown, the wine marketer has to distract you from the fact that their brand has succeeded in making wine not much different than ketchup. And the cheaper the bottle, the cheaper the tricks. Huge volumes of wine allow the brand to keep costs low. This strategy requires sourcing from many, many vineyards where high yield is king and homogenization is queen. Any hint of terroir is thrown out in favor of consistency and the gentle nurturing of the family farmer is exchanged for the efficiency of the machine.
In my humble opinion, what makes wine interesting, worth spending time on, is the incredible number of variables that go into shaping the flavor and character of the fruit. I often tell people that what attracts me to this subject is that the more you learn the more you realize what there is to learn and how very much we don’t really understand. Climate, soils, clonal selections, rootstock, vintage variations, varietal characteristics, winemaker style, oak profile and on and on and on. This is the fun part! The part where we get to sit around and try to figure it all out. The part where we appreciate the nuances the way we appreciate art or the way that wonderful writing or inspired music touches our soul.
You should be drinking single vineyard wines. Small production wines. Estate wines. Wines that aren’t distributed. Wines from places you’re unfamiliar with. Wines that have personality and legacy and pride. It’s the difference between an original and Xeroxed copy. Between a gourmet meal and McDonalds. Between a face to face conversation and a text message. It costs more. It requires more thought. And it’s completely, completely worth it.
-JessicaL
Wine Marketer and Professional Know it All
