Comments on: seth and the wine biz

By: Jon winebrenner

Jon winebrenner — Tue, 10 May 2005 01:18:05 +0000

I can’t stop seeing a link between (most) everything you are saying on your blog and the Industrial Design industry. There seems to be a similar revolution [evolution?] going on there as well.
Your comments on storytelling rings particularly true.
Every heard of fuseproject in San Francisco? Run by a guy named Yves Behar. His whole approach to product design is that it needs to tell a story.
More an FYI, than an actual comment? Oh well.
enjoy.
Oh, my story? Seems that everytime I get past the rough draft I have to start over again.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 06 May 2005 09:44:04 +0000

I've worked in the wine industry in Oregon. "Mad Housewife" is a good local example of what you are talking about. Appeal to women...it's where the growth is. http://www.winebusiness.com/html/MonthlyArticle.cfm?AId=99630&issueId=99603

By: pedant

pedant — Fri, 06 May 2005 04:07:02 +0000

muscadet, non?

By: Samsara Days

Samsara Days — Thu, 05 May 2005 09:24:50 +0000

Time for Some Linking Love

Why? Because sometimes, you gotta spread the love.

By: brian moffatt

brian moffatt — Thu, 05 May 2005 06:43:54 +0000

Egad. I just had a look at the bottle of wine I drank last night. It's South African and called TRIBAL. Typical green wine bottle, but the long slender label is all leopard skin pattern and a stylized gold spear "TRIBAL MERLOT 2003 A fruity Western Cape Merlot with flavours of ripe dark plum and blackberry, and accents of spice, pepper and smoke. Light tannins, clean acidity and a good price make this an excellent partner for barbecue ribs or chicken wings" - http://www.worldsofwine.com/articles/000093.html Knew none of this going in. Yes, the story? Uhhh...well...conotes long days on the plain poaching rhinos and then settling back in the cool evening, under the mosquitoe tent listening to the distant cooing of the crocodiles , sipping on a Merlot and nibbling on the ear of my concubine. I mean the label was yellow. I like a yellow label on a green bottle. And yeah, it was an impulse purchase - I fall into the 99% of people who buy crap based on the look of the thing, the package on the supermarket shelf. Of course, if all were yellow, I'd go for the blue.

By: The TrueTalk Blog

The TrueTalk Blog — Thu, 05 May 2005 04:07:47 +0000

Pillowmen

I saw a wonderful, powerful show on Broadway last night, Martin McDonagh’s, The Pillowman.

By: veedubya

veedubya — Wed, 04 May 2005 11:52:07 +0000

well “FAT BASTARD” certainly cuts thru the clutter at my local Whole foods wine section. wine is alcohol. to sell alcohol you have to tune in to the “party” frequency and hit the right tone. give people permission/license to have a good time and get their buzz on. most wine labels are a pretentious drag and don’t help accelerate choice/purchase.

By: veedubya

veedubya — Wed, 04 May 2005 11:51:44 +0000

By: frosty

frosty — Wed, 04 May 2005 08:30:10 +0000

So if the shape and the front can get you your 50% chance of ending up in the basket, the back had better follow up strong…
Funny, right now I’m drinking a decent cheap red (Nagygombos) whose front label grabbed my attention but was a little too gimmicky. The back label sold it — by being a serious counterpoint to the playful front.
Now here’s a question:
If every wine told its story boldly and well, but there were still 100 to choose from at the supermarket, would it make things any easier?

By: frosty

frosty — Wed, 04 May 2005 08:20:48 +0000

PS, my brother buys wine with some regularity from Cooper Garrod in Saratoga, California.
They’re a little pricey but they have a great story: the guy who married into the family and built the wine business was a NASA test pilot for, oh, about a million years. Cool old cat, still leads tours.
Good stuff. Awful website though: http://www.cgv.com/
(Note to self: trade design for wine when in California next.)

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Wed, 04 May 2005 08:19:13 +0000

Another interesting stat… if the person in the supermarket picks the wine off the shelf to look at the back label, it has a 50/50 chance of ending up in the shopping basket.
But “the moment of truth” comes before that.
Both the bottle and label design are important for telegraphing the story. Sure, you can tell the story in other media (Ads, TV, brochures etc)… but I suggest that 95–99% of the marketing is done on the supermarket shelf.
The story we like on wine bottles is the same kind we like anywhere else: fun, entertaining, smart, creative, informative, useful, edifying, validating, passionate, authoritative etc. etc.

By: frosty

frosty — Wed, 04 May 2005 08:04:09 +0000

Wow, so much food (drink) for thought here!
First let me say that I love Two Buck Chuck and drink lots of it whenever I’m in California. But that’s a pretty unique phenomenon, at least so far.
I was just buying wine in an unfamiliar shop today and had to deal with exactly this problem. If you aren’t lucky enough to be in the high end of the market, where the wine shop tells your story for you, I think you have two main ways to tell your story to someone who doesn’t know your wine:
1) The shape of the bottle.
2) The label.
The shape is less important but having a less common bottle shape, without being gaudy, can really help a wine stand out on a shelf of similar wines.
The label of course is the main point. Unless I’m buying wine from a vineyard I know, I do care about the label, consciously and subconsciously. Consciously, I look for:
+ Competent and preferably bold graphic design. Because it draws my attention, draws others’ attention, and suggest the makers are proud of their wine. Bonus points for using good original pictures by living, local artists.
+ Specific, up-front info on where, when and of what the wine was made. It doesn’t have to be any specific year or place or grape, but I know some good vintners and I know that the place, time and grapes are part of what makes it Wine — that is, what makes it a personal and human drink, not just alcoholic grape juice.
+ Specific, personal information on who made it. Sure there are exceptions, but I usually prefer to buy wine (and a lot of other things) from small players and families with a history in the business.
+ A lack of pretense (for all that). If it says Chateau, it had better be French.
This is all utterly unscientific, and I’m sure I could get better wine values if I used some other system. But I enjoy buying wine, and for me part of the experience is letting the wine tell its story through the bottle first, and through the glass later.
2am, rambling after 12hrs of work, hope this isn’t totally incoherent.

By: Brock Tice

Brock Tice — Wed, 04 May 2005 07:50:53 +0000

P.S. — Big Tattoo Red is decent, and cheap. I have had it before, and I have another bottle sitting on my wine rack right now.

By: Brock Tice

Brock Tice — Wed, 04 May 2005 07:49:02 +0000

I also have seen and purchased the Two Brothers wine, but I had heard about it before. Other interesting wines with stories that you may or may not have heard of are the Fat Bastard series of French wines, a wine called Big House Red ( and White ) which may not have a story but it has a nice picture of a prison on the front, and a good pun in the title.
Wines are so dryly labeled that at this point a story isn’t even necessary to stand out. One just has to take oneself a little less seriously than the rest, and it’s noticeable.
Not that a story isn’t valuable — it is — it’s just that the space seems pretty dull at the moment, even though the wines may be great.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 04 May 2005 05:49:34 +0000

OK first, vintage DOES matter on Ports. Not on a lot else agreed, but don’t paint all grapes as exactly the same. Seriously. I really believe that. There is a difference.
Telling a story in 3X5 inches. Seems like he hired the right guy as master of the business card comic.
Not many wines tell a story from my browsing of the shelves. I think its funny to consider the “two buck chuck” as a story not on the wine label itself but an integral story to its sales none the less. First word of mouth on what a good deal it is and the catchy saying “two buck chuck” goes a long way. Then there is an added story of him sticking it to his X-wife by selling it so cheap which I don’t believe for a second. For those that don’t know two buck chuck is Charles Shaw wine that is a not bad, ~really~ cheap, massed produced wine only sold at Trader Joes. Now there is a good retailer who knows a good story when they see one.