Posted on 08/21/2019 10:01:49 AM PDT by ptsal
There is a lot spoken and written about the wine industrys inability to truly connect with more consumers about what wine is all about and why there is so much to discover if only people took the time to look. But why should they? Are they ever going to change the habits of a lifetime and not just see wine for what essentially it is. An alcoholic drink to enjoy with friends or on your own. Thats where Paul Mabray start his conversations about wine. If wine is truly going to connect with its target audience it needs to really understand what consumers do care about and that means getting deep, down and digital. Which is the message he delivered to great effect at this summers MUST Fermenting conference in Portugal.
(Excerpt) Read more at the-buyer.net ...
Some do.
But I suspect the potential new wine customers might just be going straight to marijuana. Easier to hide (for kids), harder to detect. And it's a perfect gateway to crack and heroin.
Better all around! Plus, they don't even have to work anymore. Just buy a used Eddie Bauer tent off craigslist and move to downtown San Fransicko!
What a life!
Generally, only Wine Snobs “care” about wine.
I drink wine occasionally, but it is not my favorite beverage. By far.
I’m pretty sure I’m in a 90% majority.
No idea why I can’t resize images anymore. Seems like everyone else can. They show up resized in preview then they post in full size. height=50% width=50% works for preview.
All you need is a bottle of Hogs Head and a bottle of Double Barrel and you’ve run the table.
OH!
Cripes, I think I just got a hangover from looking at that picture!
My girlfriend makes sure I stay on the lookout for Vin Vault Chardonnay. It comes in a 3 liter box ($17.99). The stores around here keep running out of it. It seems to be a local favorite.
I drink light beer. Mixed drinks when I don’t have to drive.
Look for wine probes. I don’t know what you call them here. They have them in wine country n carolina. Did it in W Germany.. walk through vineyards tasting wines.
I have a super taster gene so tannin makes me sick. No red wines.
Real men drink whiskey. Those who don’t should wear dresses.
Here in Michigan, you can buy spirits, beer and wine in all grocery stores. Most stores wine sections more than double that of beer and spirits combined (Costco and Sam's club as well), so I think you're far off the mark here.
I sell wine for a large grocery chain. Consumers are very interested in wine, but it needs to be hand sold. Most consumers are very intimidated by wines especially when they lack any knowledge of wines. They will often buy the same wine over and over because its a safe choice. Some will even buy based on the fanciest label or bottle. Customers appreciate a knowledgeable sales staff who will help them to find a great wine at a price with which they are comfortable. I have many customers who are developing a quite sophisticated taste in wines simply by being helped in their wine choice. Sadly many wine shops do not have a knowledgeable staff or who just push products made by large conglomerate wine makers and not wines from smaller wine makers or less common regional wines from Europe.
Consumers don’t care about wine because the United States of America is a beer-drinking country. This goes back to the early settlers who came to this country. Most of the early settlers came from northern Europe where hops was grown and a climate not conducive to wineries. When these settlers immigrated to the US they brought their habits with them and their tastes as well. The only way that people will turn to wine nowadays will be to label beer drinkers as white supremacists.
I think I see a forty in my fridge... I am thirsty.
That said, I have mixed feelings about shops that primarily push wines from small producers and relatively obscure regional European wines. IF the shop owner and the staff are really knowledgeable and if they don't use exclusivity as an excuse to jack prices up -- both big ifs and not common -- it can be rewarding for the consumer.
However, too often, small producers do not make better wines, just more expensive one (because their costs of production are greater, if for no other reason).
Many reputable large producers are very careful about the quality of their wines and will almost always provide fair value for the price. Their wines will rarely be fabulous (but it does happen....), but they will almost always be sound and well made, enjoyable for what they are.
For the average person whose interest in wine is limited, my advice is almost always to find a few reasonably large producers whose products you like year in and year out, rather than trying many boutique wineries without solid guidance.
Too many of our trading partners have huge import taxes on our wines, like 200%, making an average wine bottle cost $40. That has to stop. Hopefully once the China dam breaks many other countries will fall in line with fair trading practices and our wine makers will prosper.
Cold duck is our family tradition on holidays! Not bad in small amounts!
Yeah, plonk. Y’see, making our peace with plonk is precisely what I’m advocating.
Let’s face it: we can all remember that heavenly bottle of 1970 La Mission Haut Brion, but who can afford to drink like that every day? For years my every day dinnertime drink was Gallo cabernet sauvignon. At $4.99 for 1.5L, I didn’t expect much, and didn’t get much. But I got my money’s worth: an honest varietal that was good enough for every day meals at home when no company was coming. “Good enough” is the market space nobody wants, but it’s the space that needs to be served if wine’s to be incorporated in the affordable family diet as it is in France and Italy.
I’ve been to Napa several times, and tasted my way up and down and all over, but that is a tiny niche: bottles for the seriously rich, the restaurant trade, and special occasions, much of it coming from vanity winemakers, hobbyists sitting on massive Hollywood or Silicon Valley fortunes. They are not in business to meet my needs. Even $10 bottles are unaffordable for every day family drinking in most households. Nowadays I drink box wine, without apologies. If I could afford it, I’d upgrade to an Aussie screw-cap brand. I’m not out to prove anything, and marketing aimed at the ignorant and prestige-hungry doesn’t work on me.
When I was a student in Italy many years ago, we bought wine in bulk — so cheap that you could (and we did) throw it around the room at toga parties. It was literally cheaper than bottled water. It wasn’t prize-winning stuff, but still managed to enhance many a meal. Government fiscal greed and anti-alcohol prudery make “throwing wine” impossible in America, but widespread access to decent plonk would be a service to mankind.
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