Louise Truswell has been working in and writing about the wine industry for a number of years. Virgin Wines – Online wine merchant offering boutique wines at supermarket prices. Choose from a great range of red wine, white wine, ros

Eight Useful Christmas Gifts for Wine Lovers

Wine is an excellent gift to be offered on any occasion: from an intimate reception to the celebration of important events. There are several different related wine gift ideas that you can offer. Any person receiving a wine bottle will always be charmed by the gift.

Below are a few wine gift ideas:

– Include a pot of Wine Jelly in a wine gift basket

If you plan to offer a Christmas gift to a fine gourmet, wine jellies are a good idea. Wine jellies (made with red, rose or white wine) are used to create succulent sauces or simply putted on bread like jam. Wine jellies also enhance the taste of a fruit pie.

Here is an example of a Christmas gourmet basket:

A bottle of Sauterne or sweet Bergerac, foie gras (fat liver), wine jellies, flavored oil, balsamic vinegar, a recipe book…

– Personalized wine bottle

Several enterprises offer the opportunity to acquire personalized champagne or wine bottles. You can also personalize the bottle by yourself: name of your friend or parent, birth date, your Christmas wishes…

– Professional corkscrew

This kind of corkscrews do not damage the wine stopper which has sometimes the same or more value than the wine and the bottle. Corks can sometimes be very hard to remove, so a professional corkscrew will leave the stopper intact.

Some corkscrew have an optional engraved monogram and manufacturers create professional corkscrew decorated for Christmas.

– Crystal wine glasses set

Crystal is delicate and is an excellent way to enhance the wine you offer to drink. Crystal glasses also add a touch of luxury to your table.

There are several crystal factories such as Val Saint Lambert (Belgium), Murano (Italy), Baccarat (France)…; which are expensive but there are also less expensive crystal glasses available on the market. They are cheaper because they do not meat the crystal criteria but are as beautiful as the real crystal glasses.

If your Christmas gift budget is very large, offer a set of 30 crystal glasses including: 6 red wine glasses, 6 white wine glasses, 6 water glasses, 6 champagne glasses and 6 port glasses.

If your budget is limited, do not hesitate to offer a set of two wine tasting glasses.

The term “crystal” is protected in Europe and in many other countries since many years. To be called “crystal”, the glass must meet some rigorous criteria in percentages and rates.

When you offer this kind of gift, ensure you that these standards are met, and you will always be sure to offer a gift of great value.

– Wine decanter

What does mean decanting? Wine decanting means transferring the content of a wine bottle into another recipient before serving in order to reveal the wine’s aromas. A decanter also emphasizes the wine’s colours. This is an excellent Christmas gift for a wine lover.

– Wine tasting set

If you plan to offer a wine tasting set for Christmas, include wine bags to cover the wine bottles, a wine tasting guide, scorecards to evaluate the wines, glasses designed to taste each category of wine.

– Wine club membership

Wine Clubs are a great way to discover and taste many different wines. There are different kind of wine clubs: red wine clubs, white wine clubs, etc. Wine clubs take you on a tour of the world’s best vineyards and give you the opportunity to buy great wines and realize big savings. Put the certificate in an envelope decorated with Christmas motifs and hang it on your Christmas tree. This kind of gift can also be mailed with your Christmas greetings.

– “Pocket vineyard”

Another great Christmas gift idea for a wine lover, is the pocket vineyard; which contains an informative gold mine about wine: grape harvest tables, glossary, diagrams, suggestions to match wine and food… It is also an excellent tool for someone who is building a wine-cellar and will learn a lot about the subject.

By making a research on the Internet, you will find thousands of gift ideas related to wine that can be offered for Christmas. If your Christmas gifts budget is restricted, you can also offer a simple wine bottle in a nice gift pack.

Is My Wine Real?

Is My Wine Real

By Kenneth J. McCormick

Webmaster of About Facts Net

There are a lot of counterfeit items in this world. Just to mention a few, there is counterfeit money, counterfeit credit cards, counterfeit identities and from what I have been hearing lately about some of the Chinese cars, there may be some counterfeit cars also. When one tends to think of counterfeit items, I really don’t think they give much thought to counterfeit wine. I know that I certainly don’t give wine much of a thought, but on the other hand I am not a wine drinker so I can’t speak for them. I was very surprised to learn that there are quite a few bottles of counterfeit wine on the market. I really shouldn’t have been, because some of the really old bottles are worth quite a bit of money and when money is involved so is crime. I have to wonder though, if somebody plops down a couple of thousand dollars for a rare wine and he and his friends drink it, if most people ever really know the difference? I just have to wonder how many people have done this? The reason that I told you that I don’t drink wine is that I don’t want you to think that this article is being written from the point of view of a wine expert, since I am anything but. I just wanted to clear that point up.

I was reading about wines the other day without really knowing why? In the article it talked about counterfeit wines and called them Château Faux. For some reason I felt that this was kind of intriguing. We all know about the big problems with Chinese imports that we have been experiencing, but how many people know that counterfeiting wine is also a big industry in China? Some of the wine bottles from as recently as 20 years ago are no longer manufactured the same way. In order to counterfeit some of these wines from that time, most counterfeiters would have to refill an original bottle. Here is the thing however, the bottle has to be perfect and the labels also have to be in order. One might not know that this was a counterfeit product even if he was an expert, until the cork was pulled. Most of the time, I have been told, that you can tell by the cork, if you know what you’re looking for, if a bottle has been refilled. Here is something that I just learned, the corks in wine bottles may have a vintage burned into their side. I don’t know if this exists on the older brands, but I do know it does exists on some. One dead giveaway is when you pull the cork on an expensive bottle of wine and this area has been smoothed out, if this brand usually had it burned into the cork. So here is the way that works, this type of wine would have the name and the vintage on the cork. .The particular bottle of wine I am talking about was said to have been purchased for $2000.

Just like US currency, some of the makers of very expensive wine are using high-tech labels and engraving, hoping that this will make counterfeiting their product, much more difficult. This doesn’t hold true if somebody gets a hold of an empty bottle. There are some people out there that collect rare wines. Can you imagine how many of them think that they have the genuine articles stored in their wine cellar, when they really only have a counterfeit? About the only saving grace in wine counterfeiting is that the people that usually buy these expensive bottles of wine can afford the loss. This does not make the crime any less serious however. I have always said a crime is a crime is a crime. It doesn’t lessen the crime just because you’re taking advantage of the richer segment of our society. The counterfeiting of wine has become so widespread in the United States, that the FBI is now involved in it. Some feel that some of the biggest wine auction houses in the world are turning a blind eye to the question of whether bottles are authentic, or they are not. Perhaps this is because nobody wants to have to pull the cork to answer that question, they feel they would destroy the value of the wine. The truth is that even if you opened a bottle or two from a large consignment of wines to be auctioned, this certainly does not guarantee that the rest of the wine is authentic. This is truly a huge problem for wine connoisseurs and collectors. When wine collections are auctioned from completely honest people, that doesn’t mean that they unknowingly don’t have counterfeits in their collections.

So how much wine is sold at auction houses? Well, The Independent, states that last year Christie’s is said to have sold about $58 million worth of rare wine from London and Paris to New York and Los Angeles. That’s an awful lot of wine just from one auction house. It has been said that there is some kind of deal between the Italian Mafia and Chinese manufacturers of fraudulent wines. This problem is so bad that it is believed that some of the very old wines may have been forged many years ago and went undetected. I can see it all now, some multi-rich executive is hosting a dinner party and pops open a bottle of Château Lafite-Rothschild, which he paid thousands of dollars for and all his guests drink it and praise the flavor, but in truth it is a forgery and nobody has even noticed. I really don’t know, but I do suspect that it just might be possible for a wine to be imitated in a lab. They may not get it exactly right, but it just might be close enough to fool many people. After all, if you gave a bottle of this stuff to somebody who had never tasted it, how would they know it was a forgery. So it seems to me that you would have had to have tasted the real thing at least once, before you could judge the next bottle.

When we talk about wine counterfeiting in China, we are not saying that the Chinese government condones this practice. As a matter of fact, they are actively cracking down on wine counterfeiters. The problem in China is that there are actually whole factories there dedicated to this. So these are not small operations, they are more like wholesale wine counterfeiting operations. As I said above, many of these factories have ties to organized crime and are working hand-in-hand with the Mafia in Italy, the Australian mob and many other gangster organizations. I guess one of the real big problems will happen when they have perfected counterfeit wines to the point where you wouldn’t be able to tell the counterfeit from the real without a lab analysis. In this technological world of ours this cannot be viewed as an impossibility. Looking at the art community for example, it is now possible for a computer-controlled machine to make an exact copy of an original painting so perfect that a law has been passed that states that it must say on the painting that is a reproduction. It may just turn out that the same thing will happen in the wine market in years to come. In a way, while this might be a bad thing for wine collectors and wine aficionados, it might turn out to be the beginning of a good thing for the rest of us. What I am talking about here is food that can be manufactured without using real animals and yet be so close in taste that we would not know the difference.

We know that much of the foreign wine that is being sold in Beijing is not genuine.This is mostly a problem for the Chinese however. Europe has also been accused of high-end wine counterfeiting. Many believe that this is actually where wine counterfeiting began and that it is only recently that an Asian market has developed for it. You want to impress your boss so you got him a bottle of wine that cost a few hundred dollars. Later you begin to think about your purchase. You start to worry that the bottle may not contain the genuine product and that maybe you boss, who’s coming to dinner at your house with his wife, has tasted the genuine article and will know the difference. What should you do? Should you take the chance and put this wine out on the table, or should you get something a little less exotic, that has less of a chance of not being genuine? This may be the choice that faces all wine drinkers in the future. It is nice to think that you have something rare, but it is not so nice when you have to worry about its authenticity. Well I have people coming over tomorrow. I guess I’ll go out and get myself a box of wine, nothing is too good for my guests and I know for a fact that it is genuine Gallo.

Copyright © 2007 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce this article if no changes are made and all links, if any, remain intact.

Why Should You Join a Wine Club?

Not sure what wines to buy? Always buy the same thing? Looking for a regular supply of wines direct to your door? If the answer is yes to any of the above, then you should consider joining a wine club. Wine clubs have become increasingly popular in recent years and offer a number of benefits when it comes to buying wine.

The main advantage of joining a wine club is that you get to enjoy a regular supply (monthly or quarterly depending on the wine club) of expertly selected wines. Unlike a supermarket or wine shop when you are faced with rows and rows of wines and unsure what to buy, with a wine club all the research is done for you. You get to taste a whole host of award winning wines, customer favourites, pre-releases and undiscovered gems that you otherwise may not have chosen. What’s more, you’ll be sure to have a bottle of wine to hand, perfect for every occasion.

Another advantage of joining a wine club is that you will receive detailed information about each of the wines. This can help when it comes to picking out wines in the future (particularly if you are new to wine), as you get to learn more about what you are drinking and the winemakers who produce the wines. Some wine clubs encourage you to rate or comment on the wine. This can be useful as you get to remember your favourites and you also get to see what other customers think of the wines before you taste them.

Joining a wine club is one of the easiest ways of buying wine. As you sit back and enjoy your wines, you can rest assured that the hard work is being done to prepare your next wine club case for you. And with delivery direct to door, you don’t have to lift a finger.

Some wine clubs offer an incentive to encourage you to join, such as a price reduction or free gift. Once you’ve joined, you’ll also probably benefit from other savings such as discounted cases or exclusive promotions. Virgin Wines’ online wine club goes the extra mile and offers a money back guarantee, so if you find that you don’t like a wine that has been selected for you, you can get your money back.

In addition, as a member of a wine club, you may receive invitations to tasting sessions or events. These can be a great way of meeting other people interested in wine, chatting to the experts who select your wines and trying new ranges.

Finally, with many wine clubs to choose from, it’s worth picking one that offers you freedom and flexibility. So if you decide that you want to skip a case or modify the selection where you don’t like a wine, this shouldn’t be a problem.

A wine club is a great option if you are looking to learn more about wine and they are a really convenient way of keeping stocked up with wine. Wine clubs do vary from one to another, so it’s best to check the details and terms first to ensure that you choose the best one for you. To find out about Virgin Wines’ Discovery Wine Club, which specialises in bringing you boutique wines from up and coming winemakers, and which offers all of the benefits mentioned above plus more, visit virginwines (dot) com.

Wine Storage

Have you ever wondered where the term “wino” came from? It is an offensive term that dates back to the Victorian Era to refer to a poor drunkard. Wine was cheap and considered a poor mans drink; hence, wino referring to a drunk poor homeless man. Whether this origin is true or not, wine has somehow climbed up the prosperity ladder. In the last decade, wine has become so trendy that wine connoisseurs are standard at most fine restaurants. Furthermore, wine is not just a drink to drown your sorrows, wine also is an investment. To protect ones investment, wine storage has become big business and it is used by wine many enthusiasts.

Wine storage is used by restaurateurs, wine connoisseurs, investors, and anyone who enjoys a good bottle of wine. Restaurants buy wine by the bulk and need wine storage for their wine surplus. Since most restaurants don’t have storage space or proper wine storage facilities, restaurateurs use wine storage at a self storage business for wine preservation. Connoisseurs know how to appreciate a good bottle of wine. As experts, they feel the need to care for a good bottle of wine like a mechanic takes care of his car. To preserve the wine’s bouquet and the wine’s body, wine connoisseurs recommend wine storage. Everyone knows that wine gets better with age, so does the value of some wines. Wine investors know this. Also, they know how to protect their investment by using wine storage. Like baseball cards, if you don’t preserve your wine collection well, it will lose its value. Wine storage is like sleeves for baseball cards. Lastly, you don’t have to be a wine guru to use wine storage . Wine storage is available to anyone with a large or small wine collection. You might be planning a party and need wine storage as a temporary place to hold your wine bottles. In fact, a wine layperson can order wine and have it delivered to the wine storage business.

So what is the difference between wine storage and storing wine at home? Wine storage is designed specifically for wine. Each renters wine storage unit is individually locked in private vaults. Wine storage is climate controlled at 55 degrees Fahrenheit with 60 percent humidity and low light exposure. These are the perfect condition that any wine guru will recommend. Unlike Vodka and whisky, wine is a perishable good. There is insufficient alcohol in wine to keep it well preserved.

It’s common knowledge, like birds fly, that wine gets better with age. But not all birds fly, and not all wine gets better with age; especially, if wine storage is not properly prepared. Also, like all living creatures, wine reaches a point maturity point; then it starts to deteriorate. But if you properly take care of your wine like the human body, it will last much longer. If you bought a bottle of Chteau La Mondotte Saint-Emilion 1996, you probably spent around $608. If you own a bottle of Dom. Romane Conti 1997 you spent over $1,540. That is a lot of money to spend for a quick buzz. But that’s not the reason why you spent that much, is it? Protect your investment and use a wine storage unit near your.

How to Choose the Right Wine Glasses?

Only a wine enthusiast can understand the importance of wine glass ware. The quality of glassware can greatly enhance the wine experience from bad to good or vice versa. Bowl, stem and foot are the three parts that make up a wine glass. You have to choose wisely, while purchasing a wine glass, as the shape and quality of the glass reflect upon the quality of the wine. It is widely believed that people give more attention to the glasses than to the wine. These days the wine glass has emerged as a status symbol, just like Rolls Royce is in the world of automobiles. Before using a wine glass, one must know the correct way of handling a glass. The wine glass is one of the most delicate pieces of stemware. As there are different kinds of wine, so are the proper ways of handling each of them when in a wine glass. The most common way of holding a wine glass is by its stem, which should be tucked in between the fingers. A wine glass in never held from the bowl (except with red wine) because when the bowl of the glass comes in contact with the skin, the body heat gets transferred to the wine and slowly erodes the aroma and the taste.

The materials of a wine glass are equally important, because they have an affect on the temperature of the wine almost instantaneously. Drinking from a wine glass made from fused or cut glass, isn’t a pleasurable experience. The reason being, that such types of glasses interfere with the flavor of the wine, as well as create a rough thick lip (part of the glass where the wine is sipped from). However, glasses made from blown glass are widely accepted by casual wine drinkers, as its lip is slim and smooth. Another material used in the manufacturing of wine glasses is ‘Lead Glass.’ The result is a high quality wine glass, which is cherished by the elite of the wine drinking community.

Another factor that affects the quality of a wine glass is its shape. The shape of the wine glass preserves the wine’s aroma as well as its taste. The shape also helps position the glass in the most optimum way, so as to direct the flow of the wine in a suitable manner. Gulping or taking big sips from a glass of wine is considered atrocious. A very important part of a wine glass is the ’stem’. When holding a wine glass, its always the stem of the glass that should come in contact with the hands. This prevents warming of the wine due to body heat. The stem also prevents smothering of the bowl with fingerprints, thus keeping the texture of the bowl intact.

In all, there are three types of wine glasses:

Red Wine Glasses: The characteristics of a red wine glass are its round shape and a wider bowl. In case of the red wine, a person can hold the glass by its bowl, because the red wine is always served at room temperature. Therefore, there is no risk of the wine getting spoiled.

White Wine Glasses: These glasses are a bit narrower than the red wine glasses, so as to retain the wine’s temperature. They also have a slightly straightened sides.

Champagne Flutes: Commonly known as champagne glasses, they are very slim in size and have a long stem with tall narrow bowl at the top. Champagne is often sparkly (due to the presence of carbon-di-oxide) in appearance and in order to preserve this characteristic and prevent it from dissipating they have tall, narrow bowl. These types of glasses or flutes are used on special occasions only, like weddings, award ceremonies and black tie events.

Always remember, wine glasses are equally importantly as the wine they serve. It’s an intricate ballet of style, taste and panache. A wine glass has the capability to change the entire experience of wine tasting. An impeccable wine has to be served in an exquisite wine glass.

Fine Wine Accessories in UK Offers Huge Variety of Wine Accessories

Welcome to Fine Wine Accessories in UK providing excellent and unusual wine accessories, Hotel and bar accessories, Hotel & Bar equipments and Wineaccessory gifts.

All Wine accessories have its special features. For wine cooling, we have wine coolers, wine buckets, ice buckets, Wine Sceptre, Champagne Bowl, and very unusual wine Cool Bags. Rapid Ice Wine Cooler and rapid ice champagne cooler are also offered. Also we have Slimline Wine Cooler with cabinet which can be used in kitchen to store your wine bottles. Sometime we need to wait for hours for our red wine to reach the correct temperature, so for this we have introduce Wine Warmer Therm au Rouge. This is unique energizing gel gently warms up your wine in a controlled and sophisticated way.

We also wine tasting accessories such as wine tasting glasses, Clef du Vin, Blind Tasting Cover, I.S.O Tasting Glass, Spiegelau glasses, Spittoon Bucket for all wine tasting from Club to Trade. An essential wine measures and spirit measure in stainless Steel with govt stamped are also supplied.

We have huge wine decanters stock which gradually keeps changing everyday. Captain decanter, Ship Decanter, claret jug, hogget decanter, wine decanting cradle, decanting cradle in brass, and silver plate are main decanters preferred by wine accessories customers. Most attractive and useful decanting funnels and aerators are also offered. For outdoor trips we have good selection of hip flasks, Pewter hip flasks round and rectangular, Hip Flask – Leather Captive, and Pewter Hip Flask Funnel. Be different and order a Wine Tastevin such as Burgundian Tastevin or a Plain Wine Tasting Bowl Serpent Handle Tastevin or even a Pewter Quaiches. We also offer the Vacu Vin Wine Saver, Wine Preservers and Wine Breathers which is necessary for keeping your opened bottles fresh.

Other mostly commonly used wine accessories are wine glasses, champagne glasses, Champagne flutes, wine cellar accessories, wine cellar book, wine cellar Hygrometers, and wine cellar thermometers, Champagne Accessories, Cocktail Accessories. Then we have wine pourers, bottle pourers and drip rings, wine bottle stoppers, wine bottle coasters, wine table mats, wine openers.

All range of Corkscrews from simple to exotic such as lazyfish corkscrew, Bar- Mounted Corkscrew, Screwpull Corkscrew, electric corkscrew, winemaster corkscrew, air pump corkscrew, laguiole corkscrew, Wall-mounted Corkscrew and many more in corkscrew is offered by Fine wine Accessories in UK.

For excellent wine Pourers, we have Wine pouring baskets, wine pouring cradles, Universel’ Pouring Arc, Chrome Plated Pouring Arc, Silver Plate Wine Pouring Basket, and Pewter Wine Pouring Cradle.

Whether you are looking for wine accessory for yourself or wine accessory gifts for birthday presents, wedding present, or Christmas presents, Fine wine accessories offer different kind of wine accessory for different budget.

Visit our miscellaneous gifts category for unusual wine presents such as key rings, salt and pepper mills and grape scissors, tastevins, Laguiole corkscrews in presentation boxes, key ring sized hip flasks, crystal decanters, decanting cradles, wine cooler bags, wine picnic baskets, and wine savers etc. Classic champagne sabres are an ideal presents for men and wine lovers.

Hurry up wine lovers, browse and order your wine accessory today either by online or by visiting our shop or by phone.

Virgin Wines’ Discovery Wine Club – the Clever Way to Buy Wine

Let’s just say, you’d be crazy not to join the Virgin Wines’ Discovery Wine Club. Boutique wines, a personalised service and all the flexibility from a wine club that you could possibility need. Do you know of any other wine club offering these benefits?

Virgin Wines believes in selecting handcrafted, boutique wines especially for you. We steer clear of big brands, famous names and popular labels. Why? Because we want to offer you the best value wines possible and you won’t get that from mass produced, heavily marketed wines. So instead, we look to bring you the most exciting, best quality wines from up and coming, undiscovered winemakers. Pure gems just for you.

When you sign up to the Virgin Wines’ Discovery Wine Club, you’ll become part of a personalised approach to buying wine. We recognise that all our customers are different and like different wines, so that’s why we pick out a unique selection of wines for you to enjoy each quarter. What’s more, we offer two levels to our wine club, so you can choose to join the plan that suits you best. Should you wish to make further purchases of wine, we have a dedicated team of wine advisors on hand to help you personally with your wine recommendations. In addition, we have developed unique technology that will allow you to see only the wines that we think you will love when you sign in to our website.

Virgin Wines believes in providing our customers with as much information as possible about our wines. And honest information at that. Every week we add over 1000 unedited consumer wine reviews to our website. Why? Because it helps you with your wine choices, and helps us learn which wines to buy more of.

As a thank you for joining our wine club, you will enjoy a number of member benefits, such as a half price wine club welcome case. And that’s not all. You’ll also receive a saving of 20% on future Discovery Wine Club cases, plus an exclusive opportunity to buy extra supplies of wine at a 15% discount off the regular price customers pay.

Finally, when you sign up to the Virgin Wines Discovery Wine Club you can rest assured that you are in complete control. There’s no fixed term contracts or hidden charges to contend with. If you decide that you want to skip a case or even cancel your wine club membership, just tell us and we’ll be pleased to assist. If we’re about to send you a wine in your case that you don’t like the sound of, we’ll change it. And if you then don’t like the wine after you’ve tasted it, we’ll refund it with our “no questions asked money back guarantee”. No problem.

The Virgin Wines Discovery Wine Club isn’t just any old wine club. It’s different. Personalised. Flexible. And what’s more, you can rest assured that you will be getting a whole host of benefits to help you get the most out of your wines. To find out more, visit virginwine(dot)com

Top 6 Marketing Tips for Selling More Wine

With the vast selection of quality wines in Portugal, how can a small or lesser-known wine brand stand out from the pack, be visible and increase sales?

This was the “million” dollar question looming over the minds of the producers we met at the Lisbon Wine show in November. We’ve had these folks on our mind and thought we’d focus on a few key marketing points that could help this important industry.

The New Playbook selling wine

{note: you can read the original article here}

The 6 Key Points:

First and foremost, two necessary ingredients must exist: You have to love what you do: making great wine. And second: You need to communicate and share the quality of your craft.

Since Portuguese wines have quality, uniqueness and diversity, they’re able to compete against many international brands, so quality is not the issue. Recognition however is another story, and this unfortunately comes down to lack of good marketing. So the real issue isn’t the product, but the right marketing and communication strategy for our new, highly informed and connected generation.

Once the first two ingredients are in place, here’s what’s next:

01: Understanding your ideal customer

02: A creative name

03: Label design

04: Website

05: Blogging

06: Adegga.com

1) Your Ideal Customer

First and foremost, consumers are looking for good wines to pair with food. Today, consumers are more sophisticated and informed than ever before, hence their food choices are more dynamic and experimental. So, small and lower priced wine producers need to throw out the old playbook – and assess the right market for their wine. A good example are the folks behind Wine That Loves

Producers need to decide what type of customer they want to appeal too, and who they don’t. What got my attention at the Lisbon Wine Fair was that 95% of the wines had the allure of a high-end snooty type (the likes of 100+ Euro bottles), yet a large percentage were very reasonable and wonderful. This clearly demonstrates few wines are marketed at younger drinkers who buy reasonably priced bottles, but buy often. So a strong market who is ready and looking to buy regularly, is over looked – for one that’s highly competitive, limited and already saturated.

As a wine enthusiast, with some wine-jargon, and a customer of “reasonably” priced bottles, I would use these words to describe wine in more modern terms: fun, sexy, spicy, fresh, adventurous … however at the fair, 99% of the wines communicated:

Serious, traditional, stuffy, snooty – from branding message to wine name and labeling. Few deviated from the “traditional” theme, but the few who did, definitely got noticed! So let’s be honest, not every wine is “serious, traditional and stuffy” and that’s ok — some wines should be wonderfully bold, fresh and new to appeal to a new customer. Communicating individual character in creative new ways is the path to the new wine drinkers lips, and the parting of the red wine seas of “serious” wines.

Here’s a solution: When marketing wine, producers should look at their ideal drinkers through personas, then make sure they communicate to the needs and wants of this group.

2) A Creative Name

Choosing the right name is a delicate science similar to producing the wine. The wrong name on a bottle could completely turn off the targeted customer.

Today’s customers tend to be more traveled and informed, yet less formal. We want to be surprised, delighted and have our pallet tickled with a creative edge and freshness, so naming and labeling a wine is vital to its marketability.

Here’s three examples:

1. Fat Bastard Wines

2. Dirty Laundry

3. Dancing Bull

Two key points when it comes to naming:

01: individual and unique

02: not overly difficult to pronounce.

3) Bottle design and story

Imagine standing in front of a shop, with endless rows of wine bottles and having to pick a wine for dinner. This is a nerve wracking experience for most people, so one of two things happens:

01: they pick up the same bottle they always do or

02: take a huge leap of faith and bet on something new.

Part of the goal in marketing a wine is seducing the customer. Since potential buyers can’t taste the wine, the bottle design and labeling needs to communicate cues of visual sensory to help attract a potential customer. If a customer isn’t seduced by the bottle, branding and label, then the sale is lost, and only hope is personal recommendations.

As cost is always a factor, we recommend a simple bottle with a creative, clean and beautifully designed label. This doesn’t have to be expensive. For example, see how a successful Portuguese producer turned his children’s art work into a wonderful wine label:

Wine Label

Key points to remember for bottle labeling & design:

01: Tell a story about the wine

02: Help solve the shopper’s problem by giving suggestions for food pairings

03: Don’t assume the customer knows how to pair wines with food

04: Label design should be fun, different and aimed at the ideal market group

4) Web Strategy

To date, Portuguese wines haven’t taken advantage of promoting themselves through the web. This is a mistake! The web is the key source of information for today’s culinary aware and those looking to learn more. This is an invaluable sales and marketing tool.

The good news – the web is here to stay, so wine producers can turn the web into their best friend and take advantage by quickly reaching millions of people…real people, who love to drink wine! It all starts with a dynamic website and visibility strategy that is loved by humans and respected by search engines.

5) Blogging

Blogging doubled Stormhoek sales in less than twelve months.

Blogging scares and intimidates many, but it shouldn’t. A smart producer has two options: become friendly with the wine blogging community, or start one himself, we actually recommend both. This is a fantastic way to get closer to customers first hand.

A well-designed blog can be an invaluable marketing tool:

01: Help build a community around your wine

02: Higher search engine rankings

03: Media & press exposure

04: Better brand recognition

05: Low cost

If you’re unsure about blogging and would like to know how to star a blog, or would like us to set one up for you, contact us. We also recommend, you read this article.

Here are examples of good Wine blogs:

01: Pinot Blogger

02: Stormhoek.com

6) Adegga.com

Adegga is a play on the word “adega” (only one “g”) which means cellar in Portuguese.

It is a place where friends come together to talk, share and learn about wine.

For Portuguese wine producers, here you have a captive audience of Portuguese wine drinkers and this would be an opportunity to get feedback about your wine, build a relationship with a group of influencers and naturally from this will come word of mouth. If your wine has all the ingredients in place, then naturally it will be talked about and people will carry that conversation offline at cafes, dinners, lunches and etc.

If you don’t know where to start, go to Adegga.com and get your wine’s listed for free.

If you’re serious about selling more wine nationally, across Europe or around the globe, then by all means get started on the above. And if you need our help, we will be more than happy to advise and help you with each step.

How a Wine Club Can Help You

If you are new to wine, a wine club will help you find out which wines you really like (and those that you don’t). It is the perfect way of discovering new wines on a regular basis. If you’re not currently a member of a wine club, you should think again. Here’s why you are missing out.

Do you generally stick to what you know?

When faced with rows and rows of unfamiliar wines in the local supermarket, do you find that you always end up sticking to what you know? If you do branch out, it’s likely to be because you are swayed by the nicest, most appealing label or because you’ve gone on someone else’s recommendations (which then leave you feeling flat when you discover that you don’t like the same wine as them!) So in your quest to buy new, exciting, great tasting wines for your dinner party or Sunday Lunch, you come away with your same old, trusted bottle of wine. Sound familiar?

Join a Wine Club:

But all of that could be put to an end if you join a wine club. Each month or quarter (depending on the wine club), the wine club will send you a selection of wines from around the world. Featuring a variety of whites, reds, rosé and maybe the odd sparkling or dessert wine, you get to try wines from different grapes, countries and styles. True, you probably won’t like them all but it’s a great way of tasting your way through a selection of new releases, customer favourites and award winning wines that you probably wouldn’t have previously dared chosen.

Discover What You Like:

In the same way that we all like different food, the key thing to remember about wine is that we all like different wines and no one can tell you what you will like. (Remember this next time you are in the wine shop!) So to get the most out of your wines, you need to work out what you like. To help you along the way, most wine clubs enclose detailed information in the wine club case about the wines, so that you can learn more about the grape, country and winemaker as you drink. Suggestions for food matches can also give you confidence next time you host a dinner party. It’s also worth rating your wine club wines as you taste them, as you can be sure that you’ll have forgotten how the first ones tasted by the time you finish the case! Even better is to choose a wine club that displays customer comments on its website. That way, you’ll have an idea of what to expect from your wine club wine before you taste it.

Wine Styles Can Help:

Some wine clubs, such as the Virgin Wines Discovery Wine Club, categorise wines by style, such as “Classic Chardonnay”, “Oaky Aussie Chardonnay”, “Huge Reds” and “Soft and Juicy” reds. This is great for newcomers to wine, as it is far more intuitive than the traditional country and grape based categories, plus it recognises that certain grape varieties like Chardonnay can vary significantly in taste. The real advantage of being a member of a wine club that categorises wines in this way, is that it opens wine drinkers up to a far wider range of wines than they might otherwise have come across. For example in the “Fragrant but Dry” category, wine drinkers will find Argentinean Torrontes as a great value alternative to a pricey French Muscat – a recommendation that you won’t get from a wine club or shop that focuses simply on grape or country.

Try a Tasting Course:

To help wine drinkers learn more about wine, some wine clubs offer tasting courses or events. Tasting wines back-to-back allows drinkers to really get a feel for how two different wines taste and, ultimately, it can help them decide what to buy more of in the future.

Risk Free Buying:

Still not convinced? Part of the fun of joining a wine club is tasting new wines and discovering new favourites but if you are worried about getting something you really don’t like and wouldn’t have chosen yourself, don’t worry. Many wine clubs offer a money back guarantee, so if you come across a wine that you really can’t stomach, they will refund your money.

Join Today:

Joining a wine club can really help you when it comes to learning about wine. Not only will you get to taste a variety of new wines and find out what you really like but also it will give you more confidence in choosing your wines. You’ll never need worry about picking out a bottle of wine for your next dinner party again! To find out about Virgin Wines’ Discovery Wine Club, visit Virgin Wines.

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