After Michael’s trends presentation during the last class, I
couldn’t help but notice a feeling of déjà vu. When I worked at Eventbrite
managing the craft beer business, I was once tasked with developing a
whitepaper on craft beer industry trends. Roughly 5 years ago now, some of the
top trends were a shift from bottles to alternative packaging types such as growlers
and increasingly cans, as well as a shift to craft beer on tap rather than in
bottles. When craft beer first adopted cans, many beer snobs were not having
it. Now it’s the rule rather than the exception. Craft beer seemed to be
quicker to adapt to digital as well, perhaps craft beer may be a great segment
to watch to predict future wine trends. I made a pinterest board of some
can-speration. Maybe we’ll see some of these designs in wine cans in the next
few years!
Monday, March 26, 2018
Friday, March 23, 2018
Cracking Down on Wine Shipping
There was an article published by the Washington Post today entitled Why is it becoming harder to buy wine online? It details the legal issues that have frequently arisen in class. While wineries can ship to 40+ states, retailers can only ship to ~13.
The article explains that recently, states have started to crack down on retailers attempting interstate shipments. Fedex is telling retailers they won't accept wine shipments going to certain states.
The National Association of Wine Retailers is fighting back. They're lobbying, getting legislation introduced in four states, and have set up a website, winefreedom.org, which has generated over 1K messages to Massachusetts lawmakers in favor of a bill.
Do you think this push by retailers will be successful?
The article explains that recently, states have started to crack down on retailers attempting interstate shipments. Fedex is telling retailers they won't accept wine shipments going to certain states.
The National Association of Wine Retailers is fighting back. They're lobbying, getting legislation introduced in four states, and have set up a website, winefreedom.org, which has generated over 1K messages to Massachusetts lawmakers in favor of a bill.
Do you think this push by retailers will be successful?
Stop Your Wine-ing? -- Beer is Fighting Back
According to a recent Nielsen report, between 2006 and 2016, beer lost 10% of market
share to wine and spirits. The largest brewer in the world,
Anheuser-Busch InBev, reported that beer as a proportion of the alcohol
consumed by 21-to-27-year-olds fell to 43 percent last year from 65 percent in
2006. That figure represents a steep drop over the past dozen years. Over
the past few years, wine and spirit advertising has made positive inroads among
young adults in places that were once the domain of beer, like sports arenas. Anheuser-Busch
InBev and MillerCoors have decided to take on wine and spirits in an
advertising war of sorts.
Recently, a digital ad campaign, “Stop
Your Wine-ing” by MillerCoors was released for “Two Hats,” a light beer
with fruit infusions and 4.2% alcohol by volume that is supposed to wipe out wine.
In the ad, a bowling ball rolls across a bar and wipes out a few bottles of
white wine.
"We want to recruit this new generation of drinkers,
who generally find current beer options to be outdated or expensive and build
their preference for beer in the long term," says Sofia Colucci, senior
director of innovation at MillerCoors.
With consumer preferences continuing to change in the wine
and spirits industry, it will be interesting to see how wine companies respond to
capitalize on this trend.
Tanzanian Wine Making Splash
I’m getting ready to visit my friend in Tanzania over Spring
Break, and she has a ton of fun culinary excursions planned for us. I was
curious about the types of wine I might encounter while I’m there. Turns out Tanzania
has a pretty interesting wine history.
South Africa, the continent’s leading wine producer, has
been Tanzania’s Big Brother and helped develop its grape-growing and
wine-producing sector. A short distance outside Tanzania’s capital city
are 150 hectares of land filled with clusters of red and white grapes that
produce Dodoma wines. Grapevines were first introduced to the central zone
in 1938 by missionaries from the Hombolo Catholic Mission, who, after
independence assisted in setting up production in Dodoma. Local investors
slowly began to consider the sector’s potential and in 1979, the government
established the Dodoma Wine Company, which bought grapes from farmers,
established a research centre to determine appropriate types of grapes for
wines and encouraged more farmers to start grape farming.
Tanzania’s
Dodoma region produces three wines -- dry white, red and natural sweet. Apparently,
their red wine has a smooth, rounded taste and is best with "Nyama
Choma," a local delicacy of roasted spiced meat, while the "natural
sweet" wine is the perfect complement for light salads or simply enjoyed
as an aperitif. The Dodoma region is home to a number of varieties including
Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Makutupora, a local dry red. The
dry earth and sandy soil, combined with low humidity, is perfect for producing
dry white and red wines in Dodoma.
I'm really excited to see what Tanzania will have to offer. I learned a ton during my last trip to India about the challenges and barriers of importing and creating wines in emerging economies, so I'm interested to see what similarities and differences Tanzania will present.
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