In lieu of our normal monthly newsletter, given our home base in Northern California, we at Charles Communications Associates, representing wineries from our own backyard and around the world, dedicate this missive to those affected by the Northern California fires of October 2017
The Napa Valley has recently taken a lot of heat – both literally, due to the serious temperature spike that hit the valley earlier this month, as well as figuratively from those who think the aberrant fluctuation spelled doom for the entire region’s harvest. The media has been eager to report this story, which we can all understand – what’s sexier than a potential climate change story about America’s most recognized wine region? Fortunately for the consumer, cooler heads prevail for those of us on the ground, and I wanted to share the perspective from someone who has been around the vineyard block.
Meet Faith Armstrong, the winemaker behind Onward and Farmstrong wines. As refreshing as the Pétillant Naturel she makes of Malvasia Bianca, many of the words used to describe Faith's wine could be used to describe the winemaker herself. Honest, vibrant, unfiltered, true to her origins, bright, complex.
Having studied in Rome during my junior year of college, and visited the picturesque if tourist-soaked towns of Firenze, Sorrento and Pompeii, I am no stranger to Italy’s charm. But prior to this past May, I’d yet to set foot in the Piemonte, an Italian region that’s often overlooked in favor of its more glamorous counterparts (Tuscany most of all).
As the world we live in continues to shrink due to the mounting effects of globalization, the international wine industry is being remolded almost daily. The global appeal of wine has transcended across cultures, and as a result, wine is being produced more widely then ever before all over the world. This is leading to the development of many non-traditional growing regions and transforming those who have had little exposure to wine into devotees.
As I gear up for two big competitions where I’ll be judging in the coming months, http://www.fairplex.com/wos/wine_competition/ in May and http://www.sunset.com/marketplace/sunset-international-wine-competition-details-00418000074753/ in July, I’ve been reflecting on why wineries should participate.
I’m a fan of wine competitions and if you’re a winery, or an olive oil or spirits producer you should be a fan too. I’ve been judging wine for close to 12 years now in California, an exercise that keeps my palate sharp and my frame of reference broad. Each year, as the spring arrives in Monterey County, I head down to King City for the first judging of the season. Some people have daffodils and croci to remind them of spring, I have the Monterey Wine Competition which kicks off a series of 4 yearly events at which I judge.
Judging at a coffee competition!
Many wineries over the past few years have pulled away from entering wines in competitions, largely due to budgetary reasons and sometimes due to a lack of a consistent gatekeeper internally to share the wisdom of participating in many (not all) but many of the wine competitions out there. Several competitions tie in with wine & spirit retailers such as the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition, which is a great service to wineries that enter. Here’s another list of reasons why wineries should enter competitions:
- The buzz if your wine makes it to the sweepstakes is the best 3rd party endorsement you could want. 50 to 80 different professional palates sent your wine forward and concur it has the chops, that’s more significant than a single critic’s review.
- If you get a gold or a silver medal, that has a lot of weight so to speak at retail or in your marketing campaigns. If you don’t medal, hardly anyone knows that unless they want to study 2000 + wines that were entered and didn’t advance so your risk is a low one
- You’re serving consumers; in the sea of choices consumers have, a shelf talker or medal stickers are often the only life-raft they have in an overwhelming situation, do them a favor!
- More and more competitions are getting sophisticated with their software, this year the 1st annual Sunset Magazine Wine Awards lets wineries enter online so that they can track their results immediately once the competition is over. I predict this will be the wave of the future.
http://www.sunset.com/marketplace/sunset-international-wine-competition-details-00418000074753/
- Wine competitions are a relatively modest investment when compared to other marketing spends a winery could make, and the returns are great.
- Many of the judges are renowned journalists, and we know they get inundated with wines to sample and try, many of which never even get to be tasted as it’s a full time job critiquing wine. Here, if your wine proceeds forward, you can certainly get their attention a different way.
One aspect of wine competitions I’d like to see change is the marketing of the power of their panels. I still subscribe to the fact that 50 to 80 palates liking a wine is a more powerful tool to a consumer than the proclivities of one critic (all due respect). Also, the regional names of competitions in California only mean something to the people who run and organize them and not that that’s not important, but what is more important is for the consumer to understand the purpose and focus of that competition. I wish there could be a little more differentiation in the larger competitions and that they could brand themselves with a terminology that is more broadly accepted, perhaps that day will come.
As we commemorate Earth Month, as more and more people are calling April, we reflect on one of the fundamental reasons we love the wine business. Being focused on agriculture as a business, naturally responsible farming for both the winery staff as well as consumers plays a big role, but there is much substance to the term sustainability as it relates to wineries and vineyards.
