Looking to battle back against New World winemakers that have lured wine lovers and gained market share with hip marketing campaigns, quality assurances and label information about what's inside the bottle, tradition-bound French winemakers are considering screw tops.
Screw tops, boxed wines, colorful easy-to-understand labels and sophisticated marketing — innovations pioneered by countries like Australia and South Africa — are making inroads in tradition-bound France.
"We didn't see the danger coming from the New World — where competition came with a completely new approach to wine making," said Renaud Gaillard, deputy head of the French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters. "Finally we understood we had to change not only production but also the way the product is presented. We had to make the buying process easier."
The screw-top revolution was inspired as much by practical considerations as by consumer preference. Increased demand on cork suppliers has forced manufacturers to harvest immature cork, which some suspect causes oxidization.
While some argue that wines requiring more oxygen as they age require an old-fashioned cork, many winemakers are turning to more reliable seals for all but their heaviest reds.
Back in 2001, a bleak report on the state of the French wine industry written for the Agriculture Ministry urged winemakers to lose the snobbish attitude and be more attentive to consumers. The 80-page document included a five-point lesson in marketing for beginners: product, price, promotion, packaging and place.
Bottles are starting to look different. Some old-fashioned labels with grainy pictures of wine chateaux are going out, replaced with bright colors, brand names and innovations once unheard of such as printing directly onto the bottle.
Small producers are combining to market their wines. The pink butterfly embedded in the bottle of Fruite Catalan has helped make Vignerons Catalans en Roussillon — three groups of producers who together created the brand — an export hit. Their wine also is winning awards at home.
Source: Xinhua/Agencies
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