Novelties are exciting. This is true not least in our country of birth, Sweden. Every month new wines are launched in the state monopoly shops. And every month wine journalists all over the country write about these wines, giving the monopoly free publicity (which I presume, in the name of public health, it would have preferred to avoid?).
Today, consumers are looking for innovation in wine as much as in other products, says wine mogul Bernard Magrez. You must, he says, evoke emotions with storytelling and an attractive label. Magrez makes wine all over the world, not least in Bordeaux where he owns several well-known chateaux.
That the label is important is a well-known fact. To use storytelling to help sell your wines has become fashionable in recent times (what would Jacob’s Creek be without Jacob?).
But is it true that customers want innovation? Aren’t old traditions ruling the world of wine?
It is probably fair to say that wine enthusiasts are attracted to the unusual and the new. Wine growers who are different more easily get the attention of wine journalists. What is there to write about if everything is as it has always been?
Now, wine producers are an innovative people so they often have something new up their sleeve. Not everyone can afford a designed multi-million-dollar new wine cellar, which Bernard Magrez undeniably can. But put an amphora in a corner (an ironic form of “news”) or replace some stainless-steel tanks with concrete tanks and the journalist gets his story.
Pretty much every producer has something new to show. It can be a homemade compost (difficult to photograph though!), an insect hotel, a new pump (the peristaltic Rolls of pumps!), a new press. It can be a new wine without added sulphur. Or a new grape variety.
In fact, all of this is part of the story surrounding the wine. The storytelling comes naturally when producers talk about their novelties. So now, only the enticing label remains.
If only it were that easy to sell wine.
This month there is a lot to read in the Brief. We have several articles on grape varieties, one on the hot topic of pesticides in wine (debated and misunderstood), a book review of an unusual wine book and much more.
We hope you enjoy reading them.
We also hope that everyone’s desire to travel will soon return. Or more correctly, that it will soon be possible to travel. The desire to travel is already there, isn’t it?
This autumn we have tours to Bordeaux and Champagne, the two most famous wine regions of France. You can pick one of them and we also offer the two regions as a combined tour for 9 days.
We also have three fantastic trips to the southern hemisphere to cheer up the winter months of 2022: South Africa, New Zealand and Chile-Argentina.
When it’s time to travel to the vineyards again, travel with BKWine, one of the world’s most experienced and knowledgeable wine tour operators.
More info about all this in the Brief.
Enjoy the Brief!
Britt & Per
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This is just the introduction to the latest issue of the Brief. Subscribe to the BKWine Brief and you will get the whole edition in your mailbox next month.
What’s on at BKWine Tours
BKWine is also one of the world’s leading wine tour operators. Here’s what we currently have on our scheduled wine tour program:
- Champagne and Bordeaux, September 23 – October 1 2021
- Champagne, September 23-27, 2021
- Bordeaux, September 27 – October 1, 2021
- Chile-Argentina, January 17-30, 2022
- South Africa, February 9-18, 2022
- New Zealand, March 10-25, 2022
We also make custom designed wine tours.
We’re different than most other wine tour operators. We are people who know wine inside out, who travel constantly in wine regions, who write award winning books about wine. Who do this out of passion. Our tours are different from others. More in wine tours: BKWineTours.com.
