| Each month I begrudgingly pick up my copy of the latest wine magazine. I know when I flip it open the first thing I will have to read about is the latest celebrity to lend his or her name to some extraordinary new wine project. We already have endorsements by the likes of Mario Andretti, Greg Norman, Francis Ford Coppola, Dan Aykroyd, Larry Bird and Mick Jagger. Even the Material Girl is dressing up a new wine label with her face. But when I read that American porn star Savanna Samson was forming a partnership to create a new wine, it caught my attention. The front label will feature a provocative image of Savanna to, as they put it, "help boost sales." This got me wondering – would a picture of a porn star on a bottle of wine really boost sales? Or did they intend to send the wine to Las Vegas, where it would no doubt provide the perfect foil to many a bachelor party buffet?
I’ve heard more than a few people admit they buy wine based purely on the label – in fact, it’s become common practice. Millions of dollars are spent in research every year, trying to find out what attracts a wine buyer’s eye. And the label is one of the most important factors in determining the success of any new wine.
Finding something people can relate to is one key factor – perhaps that’s why a smiling golfer will outsell some obscure French or German village name. But you have to ask yourself one important question: Does a flashy label mean the wine inside will be good? Or is it a clever distraction to hold your interest while you ingest a decidedly mediocre bottle?
Producers who want to introduce their wines into the lucrative North American market are resorting more and more to cheap gimmicks in order to get their product noticed. In the past, wine has been more or less free of the petty marketing bullshit associated with beer and liquor sales. But, as more consolidation takes place in the wine industry, we’ve begun to see bigger companies emerging with bigger marketing budgets. These companies are trying desperately to simplify wine for consumers – dumb it down a little or, as I’m fond of saying, "Americanize it." It sounds innocent enough on the surface, but there are some serious dangers inherent in this approach.
Wine is complex by design. It is a product of dozens of countries, hundreds of grape varieties and literally thousands of tiny regions and villages. There is no way to simplify it anymore than one can simplify geography. By removing from the label the name of the producer, the village it was made in and the grape from which it comes, you rob the consumer of the information that makes that wine special. These are the things that make wine different from other products – wine is the expression of a place and time, which, if done well, cannot be reproduced. When wine starts to be marketed like salad dressing or barbecue sauce, and is purchased because of the face on the package and not the juice in the bottle, we are in danger of losing one of the Earth’s most diverse and fascinating products.
It would seem authentic wines are disappearing at an alarming rate and being replaced by innocuous brands. One of the major problems with these branded wines is their seemingly homogenous nature. Let’s face it, if you’re going to make a million cases of wine and sell it them in North America, you had better make sure that people are willing to buy. The easiest way to ensure this is to make something soft and easy that won’t challenge the consumer. So more and more we see these same wines – soft, easy and simple, but eliciting no real response or emotion in us. How is someone supposed to appreciate the more challenging and traditional wines if all they ever drink are these new branded products? It’s like trying to develop a taste for classical music by listening to Top 40 – you can’t. So you end up missing out on the greatest experiences wine has to offer.
Flashy labels with made-up stories on the back are fun, but don’t forget there are great wines with real stories. A better strategy might be to find the wine with the worst label you can – at least then you know what you’re paying for. Otherwise, if you’re still stuck on labels, Samson’s new Italian wine should be ready in February. You can bet it will be a highly arousing and full-bodied effort. Bottoms up! |
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