Winex 2007-I went to Winex this year for the 1st time not being directly involved in any wine buying on a retail scale. So I, like the majority of people there, went to Winex to taste some wine and to have a good time. Buying was not a priority. To the frustration of most winemakers, I would assume! What a bun fight to get to the Ernie Els!! And not because it is the one wine that all thinks is the best wine, but rather because of its price tag. Very few South Africans will buy wine at around R500 a bottle. They were not interested in how the wine was made, what was in the bottle or even to chat to the harassed wine maker, who just held out his arm and kept pouring until the wine ran out eventually!

Which begs the question, are wine shows of any benefit to the wine farm? Wine tasting samples are after all not free, and the table at the show is not free and the staff has to get paid and has be put up in suitable accommodation. All in all an expensive exercise for, what seems to be, very little marketing benefit.

I'm sure that across the globe wine shows don't differ much, unless they are dedicated to the trade and the trade is there with the serious intention of purchasing wine for reselling.

So why do we have wine shows? Above all in the hope that you will get lucky and the consumer will leave the show having noticed and tasted your wine, and hopefully buying it in future. Not all wine farms waste their money, I would think that De Toren probably can attribute their meteoric rise to the the top in part to their showing at Winex. But then they did not just leave it to the odds in the hope that they will get noticed. Their stand is always very visible (they traditionally have taken the first stand at the front door) and are always nicely dressed, and above all they maintain contact by collecting details of those who taste and send email newsletters to them.

Wine awards (except maybe Veritas) does not reach the man on the street, only 20 odd thousand people read Wine Mag SA, and the rest of the market has very little exposure. Wine dinners have become common place even on the outskirts of Gauteng, and to my mind still remain the best possible way of marketing your wine in a controlled environment. And certainly costs far less than attending Winex!

All in all, I have to admit that I think South African wine marketers are not reaching their target markets effectively. Wine consumptions per capita in South Africa is declining, and no wonder, alcoholic fruit beverage industry excels at reaching the younger markets.

Maybe the fragmentation in the SA market can be blamed for this. As the smaller wine farms do not have the capital or necessary skills to do this effectively.

Wine Regions should try and stand together, pool their resources and fight for the young affluent market, especially under black South Africans, most of them eager to learn about wine, and with the disposable income to match.

South African wine farms can learn a lot from the one farm that has excelled at marketing itself, Stormhoek, it is however interesting to note that they have done very little direct marketing to the SA market, and this is speaking from a consumers point of view. What I know about Stormhoek comes from their wine blog and my retail days, and I would not have known of their wine blog if my brother had not sent me a cartoon from it! They are however hugely successful in the UK.

Above all, I write about wine marketing as I see it. The farms may disagree with me and feel that they can't possible do more. If you have noticed any good wine marketing recently please feel free to froward me the details.

Have a good wine week.

Cape Winemakers Guild- The Guild has received a lot of press lately from around the world. They achieved very good results for most of the entries in international competition 90/100 and more and had a record wine auction, which saw more international buyers showing an interest.

What a pity then that the local news channel, on reporting on the auction, end up only showing the private labels of the individual farms and not the traditional white and red label of all auction wines. Look out for these wines on the Makro wine shelves soon, as far as I know they are one of the few retailers brave enough to stock these wines.

The lack of sales and interest from retailers is partly the fault of the CWG, and partly that of retail. The CWG concentrates too much on attracting buyers to the auction instead of trying to familiarise local wine consumers with the wine and the huge investment potential in these wines.

Retailers for the most part, are ignorant on what the CWG wines have to offer, or simply do not have sufficient educated staff to promote the wine during peak wine buying seasons like Christmas.

I still believe that you can pick up any bottle of wine with a CWG label and be assured of quality. And yes, maybe the wine is not necessarily better than the farm's flagship wines, it is not because you are getting ripped off but merely because the quality of the individual farms are exceptionally high.

One has to however, remember that the CWG is all about individual achievement and not so much about terroir. As the winemaker moves on, the CWG label moves with him. Definately not the French way of doing things. There is merit in this though, as it should inspire winemakers to achieve great results no matter where they are and what the terroir has to offer. The individual will be required to bring the best out of any terroir.

Be brave this Christmas, and go for some of the best, albeit fairly unknown wines of South Africa.