Conference on Wine and its advertising (El Vino y su Publicidad de la Economía a la Lingüistica, University of Valladolid)

Just back from a trip to the high plateaus of Valladolid where I participated in a conference on wine marketing at the university there. I spoke the importance of integrating the ditigal marketing of a winery with traditional marketing, all aligned to emphasize brand values and the unique selling proposition. Also speaking, among others, were Pino Pérez of Perlueto on the explosion of social media in wine, German Muñoz of Terrior 34 on the structure of wine marketing and Santiago de Enciso of Wineplus.de on his firm's on-line efforts selling Spanish wines to German consumers. Teresa Ramos of the University gave an informative presentation on using Wikipedia by adding of beneficial links in existing articles (important to note: any link added needs to fit Wikipedia policy).

Bodegas Paramo Arroyo presented their gold medal winning organic wines (that is to say made from organically grown grapes), as did Bodegas Fariña

El Vino y su Publicidad (Wine and its advertising) conference

I'll be speaking tomorrow on the integration of on-line marketing within the overall framework of winery marketing efforts at a conference organized by the University of Valladolid. Should be interesting.

"Once upon a wine...": using a short story contest to promote wine

The Spanish wine website Turismodevino.com is organizing a contest for short stories about wines.

Writers (in Spanish) can submit stories of 600 words or less that complete one of three beginnings: a life changing visit to a winery, an escaped lunatic sneaks into a wine tasting competition, or a crime whose principal clue is missing bottle of wine. Winners will receive 380 euros, a stay in a hotel in Ribera del Duero or wines. The deadline for entries is Octuber 1, 2009. More info at: http://www.turismodevino.com/1er-concurso-de-fotografia-de-turismo-de-vino-enoturismo.php

Beyond promoting the site with the contest itself, it will be interesting to see what use is made of the stories they receive; perhaps to generate ideas about themes writers associate with wines?

Stockholm to host 5th annual International Tempranillo Competition

The international competition for Tempranillo wines will be held May 26 to 29 in Stockholm. This competition is limited to wines made from the Tempranillo variety and organizers expect to have about 500 wines participating.

Most of the participants are Spanish, making this competition an excellent vehicle for international promotion of Spanish winery. However, participation from other countries. Last year's competition medal winning wines included Nepenthe Tempranillo 2005 and Mr. Riggs Yacca Paddock Tempranillo 2006 both from the Adelaide Hills region of Australia and Sanguinhal Aragonêz 2005 from Portugal.

Biofach 2009 Organic Wine Awards: 17 Spanish gold medals

Last month, BioFach 2009, one of the world's leading organic food shows was held in Germany with it customary organic wine venue. Spanish wines made a strong showing:
4 of the 11 "Grand Gold" wines (those scoring 95 to 100) came from Spain:
Piedra Luenga Bio Pedro Ximenez from Bodegas Robles, Garmendia Crianza 2004 –envejecido en barrica- from Bodegas Garmendia, Reserva Martí 2004’ from Albet i Noya and Son Roig 2005 from Can Mayoral.

In all 17 golds were awarded to Spanish organic wines.

New Wine Party (de)volving

I went to last night's Vilaviniteca New Wine Release Party. Its a street fair that, in years past, promised the possibility of finding a magical wine. 2008 was, unfortunately, different. Where in years past the chief concern was to avoid being trampled by the mob in the tangle of old Barcelona streets where the event is held, this year, it was finding something interesting to drink.

There was one wine like those that seemed to define the event in years past, young wines that, despite needing more aging, hinted at greatness by displaying a lot of fruit with tannic edginess. That wine tonight was Murmuron from the Rioja house of Sierra Cantabria. Also, Ostatu's offering was nice as well and as was the wine from Lurberri. It seems the Rioja wineries, at the these three, were more keen on serving up something interesting, than most of the Catalan producers, who were content with serving average wines or half fermented must (note to Castell de Remei: you can do better). The best thing about the event turned out not to be wine, but the samosas of Raji & Co. (amazing spicy mint sauce).

Perhaps the reason for being for this event has changed. Where as in the past, it had been a street fair with a subcurrent of garage inventiveness. Now its just a street fair, with a great atmosphere, but lot of ordinary wine.

D.O. Emporda - the windy wine region

Last night the D.O. Empordà held a promotional event in Barcelona. The small and hilly Empordà region is tucked into the northeast corner of Spain and is home to about 40 wineries. One of the signature features there are the Tramuntana winds that can get so strong that vine rows must be planted running north to south so as not to be knocked over.

There is one regional heavyweight: Castell Peralada, which owns 150 hectares of vineyards and produces nearly 2 million bottles a year of still wines and cavas, plus a wine spa & hotel, casino and golf course. The majority of wineries in the Empordà are small to micro-wineries run by families and friends.

At last night's event were roughly 24 wineries present. For me personally, the most distinctive wines were:

Celler Roig Parals: The Roig Parals Samsó is made from vines the are between 75 to 125 years old and the result is sublime. The winery was started about 4 years ago and produces only 20,000 bottles per year.

Celler Arché Pagès: Their Bonfill 2004, made from Garnatxa negra and Cabernet is a refined explosion of fruit.

Lavinyeta: a small winery that combines dedication with a sense of fun in their wines Heus, Puntiapart and Llavors.

Vinyes dels Aspres: which has become our own "house wine": Oriol an unfiltered unaged wine and the regal S'Alou (2400 bottles produced in 2004).

Celler Martin Faixó: their Cadac '04 is sheer elegance and the Perafita '05 a diamond in the rough that will shine after further bottle aging.

Oliver Conti: A regional classic that is expanding thier product range. High quality all the way.

These wineries are really doing good work and deserve greater recognition. Seek out their wines (but be sure to share!!).

Debatdevi Analysing the state of the wine industry in Catalunya.

Last Thursday, I attended the latest instalment of the Debatsdevi conferences on the wine sector in Catalunya. This session looked at promotional mechanisms for the sector.

Of interesting note from Trini Bofarull of the regional government promotional agency ACC1Ó was the concentration of the wine sector producers in 3 large companies that have combined sales of over 1 billion euros and 634 small to medium sized producers, one-third of which invoice less than 500,000 € per year.

This means that promotional efforts for the Catalan wine sector will be either company / brand focused, or made by regional government. The fact that Catalunya has 11 D.O.s (plus the majority of Cava D.O. production) results in less focused promotion, as compared with regions that represent a single D.O., such as Ribera del Duero, or even La Rioja (one D.O.C. with three sub-regions).

But clearly regional government has a role to play, most likely in acting as an impartial arbiter in cooperative promotional agreements of smaller wineries that bind together. Just how likely could be to happen, or how effective it would be for the companies involved, is not clear. Because, when it comes down to it, the item on the shelf has a brand, a package and a price, which are more meaningful (generally) than the D.O. from which it comes.

So what can be done: Jaques Thebault of the French promotion company SOPEXA suggested that innovative cross-category promotions can be used to capture attention. He referenced campaigns that promoted French cheeses and Spanish wines. This could be used by a specific wine brand with another recognized brand outside of the drinks area, or even outside of the food sector.

Promotion remains a difficult task. The companies with sufficient budgets prefer to promote their products. The effectiveness of general region or D.O. campaigns is debatable, with a major problem being the lack of connection of consumer perception linking the region with brands. Government subsidy of company brand promotion would inherently run the risk of inciting taxpayer rage (why not build new schools instead of promoting “luxury” goods).

Should there be public promotion of regions?

Or is this a waste of money, time and effort?

Women winemakers: Bodega J. Miquel Jané

In May I had written about the National Womens Wine Competition and the overall white winner from Spain. Recently I heard from another awardee from this competition, Bernadetta Miquel, of Catalan winery J. Miquel Jané. This winery won a double gold best of class medal for their Blanc de Blancs 2006.

Bernadette handles multiple roles: managing director of the family winery, succeeding her father José Miquel, the current president; head enologist, wife and mother of two young children. Bernadetta and J. Miquel Janés Export Director Ana Efford were excited about the NWW Competition as an opportunity to gain recognition in the US and as a reflection of the increasing visibility women are gaining in a such a traditional industry as wine making.

Congratulations on the award to Bernadette and her team. Here's hoping it leads to more inroads in the US and other markets.

Special offering: summer course in Barcelona

Next month, my company, Manfatta, will be offering a course for non-native English speakers on wine: technical vocabulary, descriptive terms, presentations and explanations. The course is geared toward professionals in the wine sector seeking to expand and polish their abilities to promote and sell their wines to English-speaking audiences.

The subject material will focus on:

• Characteristics of grape varieties: species, varieties, clones, etc.
• Vineyard management techniques and factors affecting cultivation, vine diseases and treatments.
• Structure and composition of wines
• Harvesting techniques
• Grape processing
• Maceration, fermentation, vinification and blending
• Techniques for stabilization, tartrate removal, bottling and labeling
• Sparkling wine production
• Wine marketing and wine business issues

Cost: 260 Eur.

For more information, please write to Manfatta reception.

Talking about Debatdevi

At the presentation for the upcoming wine promotion project Debatdevi, I was asked to give some comments on the need for wineries to craft messages that are not cliches and also the importance of listening to the voices of the consumers. Excerpts in Spanish on the Debatdevi YouTube channel.

Debatdevi: support for local wine consumption in Catalunya

Yesterday, the Catalan Institute of Wine and Vine (INCAVI) with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development of Catalunya launched Debatdevi, an inciative to support Catalan wines in Catalunya.

Debatdevi will be carried out on two levels: the first will be five independent publicly held debates from July through October. The five planned debates will explore the issues of quality, wine and terroir, promotion, changing consumers and commercial strategy. The second level will be the creation of an online exchange among the speakers of the five debates. Once a critical mass of interaction has been created, the on-line forum will be opened up to the general public for their participation. In addition there will be other materials made available via YouTube, Slideshare and Facebook. It should be an interesting experiment that generates more ideas for supporting consumption of local wines.

I will be panelist on the first debate to be held on July 1st, titled: New consumers, New habits.

Mystery solved: Bianca 2006 the best white wine made by a female enologist comes from Bodegas Nilo

In answer to my post of last Thursday (Women's Wine Competition names Bianca 2006 of Spain top white wine, but who made it?), I received an e-mail from Bodegas Nilo co-owner Maria Jose Lopez.

She and husband Juan Carlos Nieto (a second generation viticultor) started the winery in 2006 focusing on Verdejo, the star white wine grape of the Rueda D.O. The grapes used in their Bianca wine comes for 25 year-old vines. The enologists at Bodegas Nilo are Silvia Garcia and Maria Sevilla.

Their US importer, DeGarcia & Associates, proposed that they enter the NWWC and they came away with the award for best white wine made by a female winemaker. In the US, Bianca is only available so far in Pennsylvania, so Verdejo enthusiasts in the States will need to be persistent if they want to get ahold of this wine!

Congratulations to Maria Jose, Juan Carlos, Silvia, Maria, Esther and all the team at Bodegas Nilo!

Jaumandreu's call for label designers: using a blog for crowdsourcing

Jaumandreu winery is using their winery's blog for crowdsourcing in announcing a label design competition for their upcoming release.

On June 8th, the winery will host all interested designers for a visit to the winery, giving information on its history and present projects, and will offer a tasting of their wines. Following this, participants will have from June 16 to 21 in which to present their label proposals. The winning entry will be announced on July 3.

This promotion is a nice combination of getting more visitors to the winery, encouraging them to talk about the experience, as well as generating new visual proposals for use on labels and other promotional materials.

Wine bloggers' dinner

During Alimentaria week, I had the pleasure of attending what was perhaps Spain's first wine bloggers' dinner, hosted by Bodegas Tintoralba.

It was a fun chance to meet up with other wine 2.0 people like organizers Ryan and Gabriella of Catavino, Robert McIntosh of Dinastia Vivanco, Ane Miren Lambe of Excel Wines and Emilio Saez van Eerd, Export Manager of Tintoralba and dedicated blogger himself.

2.0 wine marketing presentation at Alimentaria: Time change

FYI to those intending to attend my presentation on 2.0 wine marketing:
The time has been changed to 4PM on Monday March 10.

I hope to see you there!

Steven Tolliver to speak at Alimentaria '08

Alimentaria, one of Spain's biggest and most important food and beverage trade shows will be held once again in Barcelona from 10-14 March 2008. Taking place within the Intervin beverage pavilion will be Vinorum, a special series of presentations on wine and culture.

I am honored to have been invited to give a keynote presentation on the "new developments in wine marketing via the Internet". I'll be speaking on March 10.

Pairs tasting competition in Barcelona

One of Barcelona's leading wine and food retailer/wholesalers, Vila Viniteca will be hosting a pairs wine tasting competition on March 9th. The two person tasting teams will be competing for a 12,000 euro top prize.

In the first round each team will taste seven wines with points for identifying the country of origin (1 point) , the area (1 point), the DO, AOC, etc. (2 points), the grape varieties used (4 points), vintage (3 points), winery (2 points) and brand (2 points). The top ten teams will go to a second round, followed by a final elimination in case of a tie.

More information available at: Vila Viniteca

Climate change and wine: Friday morning

I've just been listening to interesting (and somewhat frightening) presentations at the 2nd Climate Change and Wine Conference.

As was reported by the IPCC, the current forecasts are for dramatic and unprecidented changes in temperature and precipitation around the world. Predictions range from an average increase of 2 to 4 degrees celcius up to a possible 6.4 degrees and rainfall will likely drop in southern Europe, South Africa and other regions.

Curiously the higher levels of carbon dioxide and temperatures will increase phytosynthesis and plant growth, but is already distupting growth cycles. Plants will flower earlier and come to harvest sooner. For grapes, this means that harvest will happen at the hot time of year (not good), but worse, the accelerated growth will be mean higher sugar to acid ratio, disrupting flavor, storage and many other factors.

Dr. Richard Smart, viticultural guru, commented that in the face of the all the predicted changes and upheavals likely to be caused by global warming, talking about the effects on wine is probably frivolous. But he pointed out that the wine industry may well be the canary in the coalmine for the rest of agriculture. What the wine industry finds out and does may well have benefit for other types of agriculture that we rely on for survival.

Presentation of Peñín's top wines of Spain 2008

Spanish wine critic José Peñín , who's annual guide to Spanish wine is required reading, will be presenting the top Spanish wines of the 2008 Guia Peñín on October 28th in Madrid. Experts such as Jay Miller of Robert Parker Wines and Julia Harding, Master of Wine, who works with Jancis Robinson, will participate in this tasting of 70 wines receiving at least 94 points in the upcoming 2008 edition.

Mention from Export Seminar

I wanted to mention that in addition to those already listed, other wineries speaking at the seminar with me on July 10 were:

Celler de Capçanes: the cooperative that helped make D.O. Montsant what it is and broke the stereotype that cooperative equals inferior quality. Producer of a unique kosher wine: Flor de Primavera.

Celler Sort del Castell: The house behind local institution Vermouth Yzaguirre. Discovering their Reserva Especial served with an art deco seltzer dispenser at a neighborhood restaurant ten years ago was a before-and-after moment for me.

Jané Ventura: Winery since 1914, producing in D.O. Penedes and D.O. Cava. Their "Mas Vilella" Cabernet consistently receives critical marks (92 pts. in Peñín 2007 for the 2002). Working with regional variety Sumoll.

Speaking at Wine Export Seminar July 10

On Tuesday I was a presenter at an export seminar for wineries put on by the Chamber of Commerc of the town of Reus. The session brought together trade experts, executives of several wineries, directors of advisory counsels of Denominaciones de Origen, exporters and importers.
The subjects ranged from the necessary research before starting to export, the organizational supports available, to branding and marketing, to firsthand advice from experienced exporters.

I talked about the benefits of reputation management, visibility and some of the tools now available to help brands create interaction with and between consumers. My slideshow is included here.

The principle speaker was Rafa Garcia of Abentix Consulting who provided a panoramic view of the fundamental questions regarding exporting. Among the other speakers, Salus Alvarez, President of the D.O.Q. Priorat, stressed the importance of identity and selling based on uniqueness. Pere Martorell, President of De Muller spoke of the vital need of hiring good commercial people. Santi Rius pointed out that inter European trade legislation needs to do more to foster exports and internet sales.

In the end, we had more topics to cover than time available.

S. Tolliver to appear on wine export roundtable

I'll be appearing tomorrow on roundtable panel discussing "The opinions of the exporter and the importer (New trends in consumption and marketing)". The talk will be held during a wine export seminar organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Reus.

My comments will focus on the importance of visibility and reputation management for wineries in the web 2.0 age and how new technologies can help brands talk directly with consumers and create a position in a saturated market.

Repeat California Golds at 3rd annual Tempranillos al Mundo! competition

The third year international single varietal competition for Tempranillo wines was held last week in Shanghai with awards going mainly to Spanish wines. 40 of the 43 wines receiving gold medals were wines from Spain. Martin & Weyrich Winery of Paso Robles, California has won an impressive two gold medals for the second year in a row; this time for their 2005 Flamenco Rojo and Flamenco Rojo Paso Robles.

The other non-Spanish gold was awarded to Alfa Crux 2002 from the Argentine half of Ortega Founier (the other half is in Ribera del Duero).

Two top gold medal winners were Carmelo Rodero from Bodegas Rodero and Amarén from Bodegas Luis Cañas.

Vila Viniteca Wine Release Event

Last Tuesday saw the annual wine release / street party hosted by Barcelona's leading wine store (and distributor), Vila Viniteca. The event, which takes place on the old, flagstone streets outside their store in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter, featured over 40 wineries offering tastings, plus stalls by local restaurants. This year began a couple of hours earlier at 5PM, in response to the growing popularity of the event. By 8PM, the mass of people in the tiny, pedestrian only street maked it nearly impossible to move.

I got there early and had a chance to chat with several of the wineries exhibiting their 2006 wines, which won't be released on the market for several months yet. Many of the wineries commented that the wines on offer had been bottled just in the last few days, so, in general, they were a bit raw. Mainly the wines were 2006 vintage whites or rosés, but a few wineries had some red wines from this year.

The following are the wines that most impressed me:

Bodegas Borsao, from the Campo de Borja, D.O. offered a version of their Primizia, a 100% Garnacha. Strong raspberry flavors and surprisingly smooth.

Pere Guardiola, from D.O. Empordà-Costa were tasting their Vi Novell, a blend of Garnacha and Merlot, done in the style of a beaujolais nouveaux. Very well rounded and drinkable.

Bodegas Monje, from the island of Tenerife was offering one of their reds, a 100% Listan Negro, an indigenous grape variety. As Tenerife never was hit by Phyloxera, there are many native grape types grown there, including Tintilla, Tinta Monje, Baboso, Vijariego Negra. The Listan Negro was a strong wine, but with good fruit and not too heavy tannins. An interesting offering in these days of Merlot and Cabernet everywhere.

There were many other wines being offered, many were interesting, but above all, the street-party/village fair atmosphere is the real attraction. See you there next November!

Cava Week program / the mood of the Cava world

Last night, the cava promotional organization the Confraria del Cava released the program of Cava Week (Setmana del Cava: Oct 7 to 15) and the new poster by leading designer Xavier Mariscal. The presentation provided clues to the mood of Cava producers going into the all-important year-end season.

In general, the mood is of cautious optimism following the cava boycott of a year ago in parts of Spain. In all sales of cava in Spain declined 7%, while exports rose. The Catalan Government's Counselor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing, Jordi William Carnes i Ayat, said that the boycott can have the positive effect of raising awareness of cava by its having been talked about so much.

The presentation included calls for more international promotion of cava and promotion of drinking it not only at year-end and that the cava producers should all be working together to build markets - an oblique reference to the end of the Cava War between Freixenet and Codorniu, the two major cava houses that produce roughly two-thirds of all cava.

This year's Cava Week event will overlap and continue on after the open air tasting event Cavatast, Oct. 6 to 8. and will feature the parties and competitions, the crowning of the Queen of Cava, plus a conference on the effects of global warming on viticulture and enology.

Barcelona Wine Festival under way

This morning I attended the opening session of the Barcelona Wine Festival, which continues through tomorrow. This event is a travelling festival organized by the Wine Academy of Spain and was previously held in Marabella, Spain (of course, using the name of that city, not Barcelona). The event is unique in its combination of being a space for both the wine trade and the consumer.

The first session of the day focused on wine regions of Spain gaining attention on the international level. The session was moderated by Wine Academy founder, Paco Campo, and featured presentations by representative of several unique wineries including the ledgendary Priorat pioneer Rene Barbier of Clos Mogador winery, Victoria Benavides, one of the Dos Victorias of the same-named winery, and Francesc Grimalt of Ànima Negra. The panel presented their wines and the stories of their creation and answered questions from the audience.

Besides the conferences, the BCN Wine festival offers tasting of wines from Spain and around the world. Later presentations will include talks by Jancis Robinson and other notable persons from the world of wine.

Worldwide competition of Tempranillos

As mentioned previously in this space, the second annual international competition of Tempranillo wines was held in Germany last week.

The results of the competition are in and the grand prize winner is Pago de los Capellanes (whose new web site my company participated in creating) for their Tinto Reserva 2003. The same winery also had a Gold Medal winner with their Picon 1999. Congratulations!

Also of note was the presence on non-Iberian Tempranillos in the Gold Medal category:
2 from Australia: Stella Bella has repeated their Gold Medal triumph of last year with their 2004 vintage Tempranillo; joined by compatriots Yaluma Wineries for their 2005 Handpicked Tempranillo.
From Greece: Pavlidis Ktima Tempranillo 2004
From the USA: Martin & Weyrich Winery for their Flamenco Rojo 2002
Notably absent from the Gold Medal list were any South American winners.

Also receiving a Gold Medel was Anta Natura Winery, whom I recently visited and wrote about, for their Anta 10 2003. Congratulations as well to the team at Anta!

Worldwide Tempranillo Competition

Earlier this month, the first international competition of Tempranillo wines took place in Copenhagen.

Over 300 wines were entered in competition, the vast majority coming from, of course, Spain. However, there were several entries from around the world. The predominance of this grape variety in Spain was reflected in the number of award-winners, but there were also Tempranillos from Australia, Argentina, Portugal and Mexico that received high marks from the judges.

The top prize-winner was Contino Viña del Olivo 2001 from Viñedos de Contino of the CUNE wine group of La Rioja. The top non-Iberian Tempranillos at the competition were:
Stella Bella of Australia and Santa Julia Fuzion Tempranillo 2004 of Argentina.

See the full list of award-winners at http://enologo.com/tempranillo/uk/premios.html

Els vins nous han arribat!

In the space of a few years, the new wine presentation by the VilaViniteca wineshop has become THE major wine event of the year in Barcelona. It's a chance to take a first look at the 2004 vintage. Some of Spain's most innovative wineries set up tables out in front of the shop (now extending well down the street and around the corner) and offer up samples of their latest wines. Near-by restaurants join in with local foods to go with the wines and the event becomes an old-quarter street party. The 2004 edition was held tonight with 37 wineries participating. Here are what I thought were the most impressive wines of the evening.

Bodegas Castaño: the 2004 Monastrell (Mourvedre) is supercharged at 14.5% alcohol content, but for a new wine, it is amazingly subtle.

Ostatu: the 2004 showed a substantial tannin, a bit raw, but a great foundation for bottle aging.

Luberri: their new harvest wine showed real polish and should mature nicely.

Bodegas Sierra de Guara: Their Idrias Merlot rosé was very fresh - perfect for a hot summer's day.

Barbara Fores: Their rosé was so rich, it seemed like a red - very good.

Edetaria: This young winery featured two new red wines: one a syrah and the other featuring a local variety know as "garnatxa peluda" or "hairy grenache" (which has to be the best name for a grape ever created). Although the winery was started just a couple of years ago, the estate vines are 30 years plus, meaning outstanding raw quality.

Parató: The featured offering from this house was a rosé Pinot Noir - very well done, fresh with nicely balanced acidity.