Often the global wine industry is accused of being nothing more than a general manufacturing industry, particularly the big wine brands. While it’s true that wine production is regulated and run like other commercial enterprises with a reputation for producing large quantities of a consistent product, to place wine in the same category as pasta sauce or other household commodities overlooks some very significant commercial differences.

For starters, lead times for production in the wine industry are far longer than for many other goods. The industry requires long term planning and large investment since it takes several years to produce sufficient grapes of the required quality before any wine is available for release onto the market. As an agricultural industry, producers only have one attempt per annum to create a marketable product. All these factors make it extremely difficult for the industry to change tack when faced with consumers that exhibit a thirst for new flavours and styles. For so long the industry, particularly in the Old World, has been producer led i.e. consumers drank what was available. These days the market has shifted to being consumer led.

Anticipating changes and trends in consumer behaviour is a far more challenging concept in the wine industry than in many other industries. However, there are areas where the industry has been able to successfully adapt to new trends including the demand for rosé wines and good value sparkling wines; and also a change in packaging format. The explosion in popularity of rosé wines in important markets such as the UK and US during the last five years took many wine producing countries by surprise.

Thankfully rosé production does not require long term ageing and can be made in a vast array of styles - dry, off-dry, sweet and also sparkling. Add to this the glut of red grapes around the globe and the demand for rosé was able to be met with reasonable ease. As an extremely approachable and versatile wine it is easy to understand how rosé popularity has soared. It is far more difficult to comprehend why it has not had similar resounding success in our own local market of Singapore.

Wine producers have also been able to react reasonably promptly to the increased demand in sparkling wines. Italy’s revitalisation of the Prosecco industry has been quite extraordinary with both white and pink styles popular in the export market. Australia and New Zealand have both met exponential growth in the sparkling wine category by putting forward extremely good-value “bubbly” wines. None of these examples offer the additional elegance or complexity of high quality champagne but they represent good value and answer the desire for “bubbles”.  Champagne should not be included in this category as champagne production is a longer term proposition requiring legal minimum ageing periods and the demand to produce traditional house styles achieved by blending of reserve wines.

The increasing momentum of many governments to impose heavy fines on illegal drink driving is to be commended although the knock-on effect in many countries has been a huge drop in on-trade wine sales. There has been a huge swing towards entertaining at home, thus increasing off-trade sales. Those who do frequent restaurants are generally drinking less, although there is always the temptation to finish a bottle. One producer who has reacted to this trend is Italian winery Fontanafredda, from Piemonte. Fontanafredda has launched its new line “Voumi Bollati” to promote responsible and safe drinking. Five individual wines have been put into three new bottle formats – 0.5 litre, 1 litre and 1.5 litres. Research showed that restaurant bookings are usually in multiples of two so each “Volumi Bollati” contains exactly two 125 mls glasses per head. With current average alcohol levels sitting around 13%, two 125 mls glasses of wine are generally considered safe and responsible. The specially produced, trade-marked bottles have also been made from 85% recycled glass so you can feel good about the environment as well as yourself.

Crystal ball gazing to anticipate the “next big thing” in any industry is always going to be a challenge. For the wine industry, keeping ahead has just become even more difficult with the advent of social media. A profusion of wine blogs and discussion forums together with the deluge of opinions voiced through Twitter, now mean that consumers with a strong enough opinion can more easily influence other consumers, creating new trends and fashions. Savvy producers and marketers have already tapped into this proliferation of activity ensuring that, even if they are unable to stay ahead of their consumers, they can at least keep in close touch. At a time of intense global competition between producers, listening to the needs of the consumer has never been so important.

Suzanne Brocklehurst 26/11/08