I believe this post and it’s comment really show what is at stake when producing, selling, buying and drinking wine today.
On one side you have typical marketing and on the other side you have the wine and it’s very rich complexity.
In the middle you have producers who will always need to sell their wine and consumers that will look for the best buy.
Because there is *selling* and _selling_, we will have *buying* and _uying_ ; or is it the other way round?

Because the wine world simplified, without risc and adventure components, is not the the wine world anymore but just a mere standardised copy, we must rethink our way of applicating marketing to wine.

The idea of marketing is actuating on the products’(services’) components to make it stick as much as possible to the detected needs/desires of a stratified group of people.

In the wine case, the statements made by the both of you show clearly this is not possible or very limited and subjective. So why not make it the other way round?

Translating the idea “getting wine closer to consumers” into “helping consumers access key tools for enjoying wine” actuations is what I think is right, and what I am trying to set up through a new business concept so that both producers and consumers enter a winner-winner game.

Best Regards,

Jessica Liabeuf

P.S.: David, it would be great getting to know you better!

I love your spin on the Sub-Prime Wine Crisis but I have to take issue with a couple of things. First, but not least, it’s really difficult to feel the pain of consumers who want to buy ‘good’ wine but refuse to spend the time it takes to understand wine, or even understand how to define their own tastes.

If I go to China and know only two words of the language am I going to feel nervous about it? Yep. But whose fault is it? Mine. Any consumer who does not want to invest the time into educating himself/herself deserves what they get within the confines of a glass bottle. If someone wins the lotto and invests all of their winnings into a lead paint surplus, who could possibly feel sorry for them for such self-inflicted stupidity? The wine world is complicated and it behooves anyone that wants the maximum benefit from it, to actually pony up and put some time in.

Your comparison to wine critics’ being the bond rating agencies is erroneous and here’s why: bond rating agencies take a snapshot of where a business or government entity is at that moment in time, based on what current financial information they can garner (like I need to tell you this, Professor). Wine critics on the other hand have actually tasted the wine being reviewed and render an opinion about its attributes or lack thereof, its aging potential and predict the wines peak in terms of drinkability. Are they wrong sometimes? Absolutely, but let’s remember this is a very subjective evaluation – it is not simply black and white as in a balance sheet or P&L.

So to the consumer who buys several wines based on a review and are disappointed, I can say this: find another critic whose palette is similar to yours. I have different trusted wine critics for Bordeaux, California, Australia, and Burgundy and other regions. I have poured hundreds of bottles of wine down the drain to fine tune my tastes with various critics but the payoff ultimately was very well worth it. After all, they get to taste thousands of wines per year. Me, hundreds.

As for the house brands making inroads in the market – please Mike – listen to yourself. These are bottles selling for $2 to $10 and why wouldn’t someone take a chance on that? It’s a no loss transaction for the consumer: if it tastes good – great. If not, who cares? Most consumers buying at this level would hardly be considered serious about wine anyhow. This is not economics; it is just filling a market need for those who will likely never care about the taste of wine or to become educated about wine.

I also must object to “dumbing down” everything in the wine world to appeal to those that can only distinguish between dry or sweet, or red or white. Honestly, are these concepts at retail actually going to benefit the wine industry or the consumer? My guess is no. Descriptors of silky, rich or crisp do not begin to define wine and only propagate the myth that making a choice amongst literally hundreds of thousands of wine can be that easy. Rather than dumb down, I strongly believe that the industry needs to step up its perception of consumer education initiatives by making it less intimidating for consumers to become more knowledgeable. There are many things that can be done, that are not being done by the industry, that I would be happy to share. This is the future of the wine market.

Best Regards,

David Boyer