Who judges the judges? More thoughts on wine competitions

We are living in - as the Chinese might say - electorally interesting times. India has just collectively decided to hand its governance to Narendra Modi who is variously described as the subcontinent's economic great white hope - its Margaret Thatcher - and a man who, as chief minister of Gujurat, has been accused of initiating and condoning the deaths of over 2000 of his citizens.

In Europe a frankly xenophobic, not to say sometimes downright racist party seems set to come first or second in the UK European elections and a clown is predicted to do well in Italy.  And in the run up to the next US presidential contest, senior Republicans are weighing the consequences of allowing their party to be represented by tea party firebrands. In all of these cases, people who are happy with the outcome of the vote will praise the democratic process while their opponents will shake their heads at the idiocy of the electorate. 

The wine world has its own highly conflicted views on democracy when it comes to wine competitions. Every competition seems to have its own way of selecting its judges. Decanter's DWWA likes to be sure that wines are tasted by people who 'understand' them and their typicity. So one set of judges gets to taste Bordeaux all day while another gets Barolo. Or Bulgaria. The IWC is fierce about the tasting skills of its panels but a little more relaxed when it comes to regional expertise. The philosophy is to favour tastiness over typicity. Then there are the OIV tastings at which a set of people from a wide variety of countries are given wines to taste without any notion of where they come from. Typicity is very evidently not very high on the OIV set of priorities. 

Other competitions are more influenced by a high proportion of winemakers or sommeliers among their panels. Interestingly, Australia has switched from the former to the latter in its competitions and this is reflected in a move from focusing on technical flawlessness to a 'naturalness' and food-friendliness. And then of course there are the competitions that hand the responsibility to the consumers. Palate Press does just this in the US. Or nearly. Before they re subjected to the democratic process, all its wines go go through a preliminary screening by professionals "to avoid sugared plonk from getting votes from serious wine lovers' dates".

In the UK, when Charles Metcalfe and I started Wine Magazine in the early 1980s, we decided to have pro-am panels at every monthly tasting and to publish their reactions. The problem with this model was that while a number of wines often did well with both groups, there were lots of occasions when we were forced to print reviews that effectively said "On the one hand... And on the other..."  We also had heated discussions over wines that, in the professionals' views, needed to be 'understood'. 

This was all fascinating of course, but we were trying vey hard to publish a magazine that paid its way by attracting and satisfying its readers. And when we talked to those readers they told us in no uncertain terms that what they wanted was clear recommendations. Everything else was, as some bluntly said, self-abuse on the part of the publication. Except they used a more graphic term. In any case, inviting consumers raised the Palate Press Problem: did we want wine enthusiasts? Or their dates. Some consumers know more than some experts; others don't. 

If we turn our overly myopic vision to subjects other than wine and the challenge of deciding between different kinds of expert panels and democracy become clearer. At the Eurovision Song Contest and at TV talent shows, there is often a gap between the "public" and expert vote. Who gets it right? In the UK and US people charged with crimes go before randomly chosen juries. In Germany the decision is made by a judge and two "lay judges" - usually "responsible, middle class citizens". In South Africa Oscar Pistorius's fate lies in the hands of a single pair of legal hands. Is one of these systems necessarily better than the others?

When buying a £500 camera do I want advice from a mass of consumers who might not even have seen, let alone used, all of the alternatives? Do I want it from a set of professional photographers? Or keen amateurs? Or journalists? Do the professional snappers use their cameras in the same way as I do? Do the amateurs know enough to test it properly. How knowledgeable are the hacks? If the people judging the camera are in another country, does that affect the way they assess it? Are there cultural differences?

In the words of a clever person describing the challenge of making peace in the Middle East, If you think you know the answer, you didn't understand the question.

What's the point of wine competitions?

Picture by Tim Atkin

Wine competitions are the worst way to identify the world's best wines. Apart from all the others that have been tried. I make no excuse for mangling Churchill's famous quote about democracy and using it here because the process of getting a group of people to blind taste a series of bottles is effectively a democratic process and it is undeniably flawed but... It does actually work better than the alternatives.

Immodestly, I can claim to know a little about wine competitions. Apart from judging at a long list of events including the SAA Wine Show in the Cape and regional and national competitions in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, I've actually run a few myself: 49 International Wine Challenges (IWC) in London, Japan, China, Russia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Poland, Singapore, Sydney and Thailand, to be precise... as well as the Tri Nations in Sydney which set wines from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa against each other.

Like democratic elections these events and others in which I have participated as a judge have differed in the ways in which they were run. Australian 'Wine Shows' when I took part in them were often oddly competitive in their own right. Tasters tested themselves and each other to see how many wines they could usefully assess. I recall one event at which I had to sniff, sip and spit my way through a single 'flight' of 150 'current vintage' Chardonnays, before rounding off the day with 40 reds and fortifieds. But there have also been French competitions at which we were expected to focus our attention on 20 or so undistinguished wines before being liberated to concentrate on the far more important business of a four-course lunch. The New World tasters have tended to have quite similar knowledge, tastes and criteria; again in Europe, I've found myself judging Alsace wines alongside Frenchmen for whom Gewurztraminer was a novel experience.

The competitions with which I've been involved have evolved too. In earlier IWCs, tasters were unaware of the country of origin of the wines they were judging, and we expected them to assess, say, a Merlot-based wine from St Emilion against ones from Stellenbosch and Sonoma. After analysing the results and talking to the judges, we abandoned that system in favour of providing information about origin and grape variety, but all of the competitions run according to OIV (International Organisation of Wines and Vines) rules still prefer to leave their judges in the dark. For a while, we tried giving judges an indication of the prices of the wines they were tasting - as the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) does with its Over-£15 and Under-£15 categories - but we gave that up too. Judges at OIV competitions are forbidden to discuss the marks they have given; judges at most New World competitions, the DWWA and IWC, have to come to a consensus over every award.

Unsurprisingly, especially given my experience over 25 years at all manner of wine competitions, I believe that the methodology we developed at the IWC is the one that works best. The decision to reveal regions and grape varieties stemmed from the realisation that not doing so led to wines occasionally being given awards that might not make sense to anyone who actually bought the wine. I recall tasting as part of a group at an OIV competition, all of whom decided that we were tasting Pinot Bianco, and that was the basis on which we allocated the medals. When it was too late to revise those awards, we were informed that all the wines we’d judged were labeled as Chardonnay; none of them warranted any kind of recommendation as an example of that grape.

Pricing was another issue. If it’s right for tasters to know the grape variety and origin because consumers have at least part of that information when they select a bottle, why not tell them the price as well? The problem we discovered was that price is a relative factor. To one person £15 is a lot of money to pay for a bottle of wine; for others, who are used to paying £30 or more for Burgundy, it’s relatively cheap. One taster, when given a £20 bottle tended to think “I’m damned if I’m going to give a wine that pricey – and, by implication, that poor value for money - a gold medal”, while another would say “£20 suggests this is a serious wine – and thus potentially more likely to be worthy of a gold than one priced at £10”. Judging without knowing prices yielded more interesting results; we found that it led to a higher proportion of inexpensive wines walking away with big prizes.

I also like the fact that wines at the IWC are tasted up to four times before they leave the process, and that all entries are sampled at least once by a 'super jury' - including reliable palates such as Tim Atkin MW, Charles Metcalfe and Oz Clarke - to ensure fairness and consistency. And I'm pleased that Mundus Vini, the German-based competition of which I'm a director has finally left the OIV system. There are indeed lots of aspects to Mundus Vini, including the Germanic efficiency of its organisation and the brilliant charts that reveal the flavours and characteristics the tasters found in each wine, that explain its success in mainland Europe, but I still think that all competitions, indeed all wine judging, is fundamentally flawed.

So why is that? First, there is the question of bottle variation. Even setting aside the issue of wines that are very slightly corked – a more frequent problem than is usually recognised – wines sealed with natural corks can differ hugely thanks to the variation in the amount of oxygen these closures allow into the bottle. Far too often when I check the half-dozen or more bottles of the same wine to be served at a dinner where I am a speaker, I find gold medal-worthy examples – and ones that would struggle to get a bronze. Next, there is the context: wines that come at the end of a line of bigger or lighter, oakier or unoaked samples can often be unfairly judged. Barometric pressure can affect the way wines are perceived, as, for those who believe in such things, can the biodynamic calendar. (I’m agnostic about this last factor, but the down-to-earth people at Marks & Spencer now schedule their press tastings to coincide with biodynamically ‘propitious’ days.

All of these factors can affect the way a wine performs at a competition, though hopefully the fact that there is a panel of tasters mitigates the additional variation in the way their physical and mental state can influence individual critics’ tastebuds. Wine writers are made from flesh and blood; the score they give a wine might well be explained by factors ranging from a light headcold to mortgage worries and pregnancy.

My own answer after all these years is simple. I look out for wines that have won awards in three or more reputable competitions. I have seen wines strike lucky or unlucky in one wine show, but it’s a very, very rare example that can bamboozle several sets of judges.

The socialist republic of wine

A hundred years ago - well maybe 20 - when I was still co-chair of the International Wine Challenge (IWC) the then buyer of the UK retail chain Thresher rounded on me, saying that the problem with the IWC was that it only existed as a means for the company organising it to make money. For a brief moment, I was taken aback because of course he was quite right. None of the people involved in that competition was offering their services on a pro bono basis. But nor was he. And nor was Thresher. The only difference between the wine stores he worked for and my wine competition was that his lot went bust and mine is still going. Stated simply, we - which includes my successors obviously - were better at running a wine competition profitably than his lot were at retailing wine.

I was reminded of this exchange today when the South African wine writer Tim James responded to the tweeted question 'what's the point of wine competitions?'  with 'to make money for the organisers'.  In a capitalist world, James is at least partly right. If they did not at least break even, none of the existing competitions would exist. But the same is true of surgeons, restaurateurs and publishers. And wineries. 

The problem with the wine world is that it's hard to make a living producing, and still less, writing about it. So there seems to be a quasi socialist notion that everything to do with wine should be done for nothing. It's an appealing idea - to an idealist adolescent - but totally unrealistic. I suggest that Mr James asks the plumber who comes out to fix his boiler why he gets up every day. Or the vet who treats his cat. Yes they hopefully enjoy repairing leaks and making tabbies feel better, but I'd be surprised if paying the bills was entirely absent from their thoughts.

Making wine isn't easy. And nor is running wine competitions. I'd be very happy to see a winemaker or a wine competition organiser who can afford to eat great food, drink great wine and maybe even drive great cars - or give large amounts to charity. And the same applies to wine writers, unlikely as that may seem.

More thoughts on Wine Tourism

A(nother) article and brief interview covering my presentation about wine tourism in South Africa.

Robert Joseph the Creationist  

(A punning headline that is explained in the first three paragraphs).

15 May 2014 - by - Jonathan Snashall

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"You are in the entertainment business" Robert Joseph told 140 attendees at the Great Wine Capital’s (GWC) address on wine tourism last week. It’s been said before but how many wine people grasp the actual meaning – and what is takes to achieve real entertainment? 

Carolyn Martin at Creation Wines probably does, and she doesn’t need a corporate budget to put on a feel-good show.

Either Carolyn and Robert went to the same wine tourism school or Carolyn has been a Joseph disciple for years – for it seemed she may even have co-authored Robert’s power point presentation as it was hard to spot something that Creation aren’t already doing. The core messages were: attract more visitors; get them to spend more money; turn them into regular customers; turn them into ambassadors of the brand; and…….learn from them.

One of Robert’s catchphrases of the day, ‘the brand is in the mind of the consumer’, resonates with what Barbara McCrea (Rough Guide to Cape Town and the Winelands) was inspired to write as Creation’s guest blogger – “the pure gold of a food and wine experience is when we access the feelings of sublime well-being; deep satisfaction and relaxation”.

Creation doesn't operate a restaurant says Carolyn but they have invested in a new kitchen and employ a professional chef. They offer canapé and wine pairings, going far beyond the proverbial extra mile by offering tailored parings including gluten-free, banting (Real Meal Revolution) and vegetarian - “we pair your intolerance” says Carolyn. 

It is this sort of innovation and energy that has seen people trek to one of the remotest tasting rooms in the Cape (top of Hemel and Aarde ridge) with Creation now achieving 30% of sales via their tasting room.

But wait that’s not all – by a long shot. Robert spoke of “caring for the temporarily disadvantaged” i.e. the designated driver (not always a volunteer) and those who don’t drink alcohol; Creation offer an adult version – teas paired with canapés – and a kiddie’s version – fruit juices. Their latest project evolves around what to offer teenagers. 

Early into my chat with Carolyn, and without my prompting, she spoke of feedback and how they seek and carefully listen to feedback from their clients to ensure that their products and services are constantly evolving to meet their customer’s needs, ‘we have a weekly (staff) training cycle’ said Carolyn. 

Besides word of mouth, Creation has relied heavily on New Media to spread the word. In addition to being very active on social media, they offer free Wi-Fi making it far easier for customer’s to share their experiences in real time. Joseph said he was dazzled by Creation.

Another winery that I was reminded of, tirelessly working towards better wine tourism offers, is Robertson’s Van Loveren. It is another far-flung winery who – for as long as I remember – have had to innovate to get people to their door, long before the advent of organised wine tourism and social media. Following the opening of their bistro, they also offer food and wine pairings and – it would appear - pioneered the non-alcohol option.

Since opening the new tasting room and bistro late in 2012, and after the road closures ended, visitor numbers rose 25% and spend per head rose 45% says Van Loveren’s Bonita Malherbe. They offer 8 different food and wine pairings with all food used in the pairings on sale in the deli. “Having the merchandise and deli did not result in less wine sales, only more spend per person, our new approach results in people spending more time at Van Loveren, and the longer they linger, the greater the chance to create ambassadors,” says Malherbe. 

During his presentation Joseph said most wine shoppers had a limited interest in wine and bought it as a commodity, “For the majority of people it is a grape-based alcohol beverage, bought in much the same way as beer. In this respect Pinot Grigio and draft beer can be pretty interchangeable”. 

Even at the top end, when it is bought as a luxury, many people are less interested in the grape variety, vintage or winemaker than in the status the liquid confers – or the pleasure it gives - “How many of the wealthy Russians buying Lafite and Latour in London restaurants know which grapes these wines are made from?”

Afterwards I asked Robert what the Cape should stop doing and he said to stop talking about biodiversity “a message that's all feature and no benefit. Frankly, people might buy organic because of a fear of chemicals, though most don't care, and Fairtrade to make themselves feel better. The existence of a few unfamiliar herbs and flowers, that does not affect the flavour if the wine, is no benefit to them at all”.

He maintained that worldwide, wine producers did not do enough to draw visitors to their cellars. They should be highlighting their websites on their labels. They should also be communicating differently on their websites. “Don’t use your website just to talk about yourself and your property and your winemaker. Winemakers are not intrinsically interesting to consumers”.

China is now the fourth biggest source of foreign tourists to South Africa, according to Bradley Brouwer, South African Tourism regional manager for Asia Pacific. In 2012, over 130 000 Chinese travelers visited the country, a growth of over 50% on 2011. Numbers are expected to rise significantly after Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Jacob Zuma jointly declared this year the “Year of South Africa” in China, at the 2013 BRICS summit.

Joseph said the recent austerity drive in China to temper excessive expenditure should not deter producers from recognising the importance of that country as a potential source of tourists to South Africa. “The Australians understand the value of Chinese visiting wine drinkers. Just look at the Chinese-language signs and wine gift packs at Sydney Duty Free”.

Q & A with Robert Joseph

Q. Do you agree the end of mid-size wineries is in site, with wine going to mirror what is happening with wealth and resources - the vast majority of people drink mass produced cheap and cheerful while the wealthy drink expensive wine from relatively smaller producers?  

A. Yes, though definition of "mid" will vary from region to region. The challenge lies in distribution. Less than 5-10 000 cases can be sold through various means, including cellar door, small export markets etc. Over that figure is a lot trickier. The more interesting question for me is when small producers – e.g. the garagistes - will learn that there is no point in being small and cheap. They have to be good and pricy, and to differentiate themselves, in everything they do.

Q. Just how big is wine tourism, how much bigger is it going to get and does it translate into significant sales?

A. Provided we remember that it will always be something that lots of people do a little of, and that the offering continues to improve, I think it will get much bigger. The sales will depend on the engagement the wineries create with the consumers. Selling directly to consumers via wine clubs enabled producers to establish a relationship with them, to find out their preferences and sell more profitably than via retailers. In the US, wine consumers tend to join several wine clubs simultaneously and will remain with a club for an average of 24 months and spend $1 200 to $1 700 over that period. This figure is partly explained by the higher prices commanded by US wineries, but the average of US$37 per bottle consumers pay when buying direct is significantly more than when they purchase in a retail store. A fast-growing 10% of all wine in the US is now sold directly to consumers – despite rules that ban shipping between some states. 

Q. How should we best employ generic marketing?

A. Horses for courses. China and other emerging markets need a generic WOSA effort to create a general picture of what SA does. More established markets, like the UK, will benefit more from quality and like-minded groups like Piwosa, family-owned groupings as we've see in Australia and sets of producers making similar styles of wines, such as the Douro Boys in Portugal. 

Q. How much should we oak Chenin?

A. Follow the Forrester recipe; it's a unique SA style. But do other experiments with other blends. Stop banging on about Pinotage. It's now under 5% of the vineyard and deserves under 5% of the attention. New Zealand planted Muller Thurgau (another cross) in the 1970s, discovered it didn't work, and replaced it with Sauvignon and Chardonnay and Riesling. There's a lesson to be learned there...

GWC’s Best of Wine Tourism awards have gone from strength to strength since the first edition. For the 2014 awards there were 350 applications from nine Great Wine Capitals regions. Of these, there were 53 local award winners and nine international winners.

Entries and conditions for the 2015 Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Awards can be accessed at http://greatwinecapitals.com/best-of?filter_region=3&year_won[value][year]=2014

Entry is free and the closing date for submissions is 11 July 2014.

Robert Joseph was in South Africa on behalf of The Wine Show.

Time for the electronic nose - a way to fight the fakers

Calling all inventors. If there's anyone out there who can come up with a convincing project to build an affordable, portable electronic nose that would - with the help of an online database - reliably establish the grape variety/ies, origin, age and cleanliness of a wine, I'll be the first to chip in some of my hard-earned cash. 

Stated simply, the equipment we currently have at our disposal - human nose and tongue - despite their extraordinary sophistication, really aren't up to the job. Every day, there are countless discussions of whether a wine is or is not corked, or spoiled by brettanomyces. Producers across the globe have also been known to deliver wine to customers that is quite different to the one in the sample on which the original purchase was made. Big buyers have the means and muscle to fight their corner when this happens. Smaller ones don't.

And then there are the fakes. According to some estimates, half the Lafite in China now has no link to the chateau. And what about all the fake Gavi I've heard about there? How much of that is there?

But of course the Chinese wine drinkers are all unsophisticated folk given to diluting their wine with Sprite, aren't they? (Actually they're often not, but that's beside the point of this post). Western palates are far better equipped to spot a fake. To which I'd respond "Up to a point..."

Just look at the steady flow of stories we've been seeing of western billionaires being duped by forgers in Europe and the US. Rudy Kurniawan is about to go to jail for up to 14 years for selling 'at least' $20.73m worth of fake wine. Then we had the case being brought by a customer of the Antique Wine Company which was accused of selling fake wine purporting to have been produced in the 18th century.

Most recently, as Dr Vino revealed, there is the Danish couple accused of cheating members of the White Club who paid €15,000 for the privilege of being served fake wine in bottles that were apparently refilled several times.

Among those refilled bottles there was apparently one pretending to be Petrus 1970 which was sufficiently convincing to fool Neal Martin of the Wine Advocate. Martin is far from unsophisticated. He knows a lot about wine and has tasted a lot of Bordeaux in general and Pomerol in particular while writing a book on the appellation. 

But any eyebrows that are raised at Martin's inability to smell a rat among the other delicious odours in his glass should be returned to their normal position right now. Just look at the art world and the number of top experts who are regularly fooled by good fakes. Last week's London Sunday Times magazine had a piece by Christopher Goodwin that described how Werner Spies, a leading art expert, was bamboozled by a brilliantly executed fake supposedly by his friend Max Ernst.

Wolfgang Beltracchi, the forger behind that work was only caught (after faking up to 300 works, many of which are still in leading collections) because of analysis of the paint he had used. A meticulously careful man Beltracchi himself had been fooled by a tube of Zinc White paint whose label had failed to mention that it contained 2% of Titanium White which could not have been used by the artist.

In other words, the human eye, nose and tongue all need help when it comes to catching fraudulent artists and winemakers. Given the millions being made by the forgers, I'd have imagined that there should be plenty of cash available to fund the development of a reliable portable electronic nose. Especially if it can also help to lay the blame on cork manufacturers as often as they deserve.

So, all you inventors, Kickstarter awaits you!

**************************************************************************************************

After posting this and sparking a vigorous debate between Dr Jamie Goode (a scientist) and Mark Gifford of Blue Poles vineyard in W. Australia (a geologist) over whether a portable gas chromatography machine could ever be a reality. Gifford was an optimist, saying: "we have portable parts-per-billion devices now in the geological field that were thought impossible 10 years ago. It is possible". Goode, however, was adamant a portable machine capable of detecting TCA in concentrations of 1.5 parts per trillion - the requirement to finger 'cork-tainted' wine - would never exist.

A little online exploration revealed that Goode is too pessimistic. The zNose 4600 is already on the market, and it can already detect TCA in concentrations as small as one part per trillion.

The zNose is still a much bigger, clumsier piece of kit than I have in mind, and it can only detect one aroma at a time, but it looks to me like early proof of concept. My ideal version would be linked to a Coravin which extracts wines through a cork and to a laptop linked to an online database.

I look forward to being able to demonstrate that kind of device to doubters like Jamie Goode.

Why are there no global wine brands? Some thoughts on wine marketing...

An article published on wine.co.za today covering a speech I made to members of the South African wine industry at a Great Wine Capitals event last week.

Accept that wine is a commodity, says International Wine Commentator 

There is almost no such thing as a global wine brand that is not fortified and does not have bubbles, claims high-profile UK wine authority, consultant and educator Robert Joseph. 

Apart from the top-selling champagnes, ports and sherries and a few illustrious collectibles that are more often to be found on auctions than in shops, it is hard to think of a wine brand that would sell in duty free shops across the world in the same way as a spirit like Absolut vodka or Gordon’s Gin, in his view.

Editor-at-large of Meininger's Wine Business International and author of the influential Wine Travel Guide to the World, Joseph was addressing Cape wine producers ahead of the opening of entries for the 2015 Global Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Awards.

Cape Town is a member of the global network of the world’s leading wine-producing countries that share international best practice to advance standards in wine tourism across the world. Its participation is supported by the city of Cape Town and the Cape Winelands District Municipality.

Joseph said most wine shoppers had a limited interest in wine and bought it as a commodity. "For the majority of people it is a grape-based alcohol beverage, bought in much the same way as beer. In this respect Pinot Grigio and draft beer can be pretty interchangeable”.

Even at the top end, when it is bought as a luxury, many people are less interested in the grape variety, vintage or winemaker than in the status the liquid confers – or the pleasure it gives. “How many of the wealthy Russians buying Lafite and Latour in London restaurants know which grapes these wines are made from?”

He attributed the lack of internationally recognised wine brands to the fact that the market was highly fragmented, and densely proliferated with small-scale producers who lack the marketing budget to build and sustain brands. "Wine messaging and packaging is inconsistent and confusing. Wineries fail to understand what consumers want – and do not do enough to make wine more accessible – and desirable.

"It is crazy to package a R30 wine in the same 75cl glass bottle as one selling for R3 000. Especially as the only reason we use 75cl glass bottles is because that was the lung capacity of a 17th century glass blower."

Urging producers to rethink the way they presented their wines to shoppers, he lauded those taking their cue from the perfume industry. He also said producers should market their cellars as wine tourism destinations on their packaging, encouraging the public to visit their cellars.

He argued that worldwide, wine producers did not do enough to draw visitors to their cellars. They should be highlighting their websites on their labels. They should also be communicating differently on their websites. "Don't use your website just to talk about yourself and your property and your winemaker. Winemakers are not intrinsically interesting to consumers. How many people have heard of Sir Jonathan Ive, the genius designer of Apple's most revolutionary products? These devices have revolutionised all of our lives but you don't need to know his name to buy an iPad. Think of marketing wine in the same context."

He said producers needed to provide information on their websites that was useful to consumers, including details of other local attractions and facilities.

He stressed that tourists visited wineries to be entertained. "That is what California has got right. They understand that wine tourism is not merely a matter of offering tastings. That’s not tourism – it’s try-before-you-buy retailing."

He said that wineries that believe that they don’t charge for tastings are wrong. “Everybody who walks through your door is paying you – with his or her time. They could be spending – note the term - that hour on the beach, or shopping or in a gallery. Charging for tastings means that you are not doing anyone a favour, and you have to offer value for your customers’ money."

He encouraged producers with cellar door facilities to cater for designated drivers, children and possibly even pets, and said they should ensure their cellar door staff were not only well-trained but incentivised to optimise the experience for visitors. "Give visitors free wi-fi access so they can talk about you in real time on social media. And give people an experience they can't get anywhere else by offering vintage or exclusive tastings. Also, think about inviting them to give you their opinions about new labels or wine styles you are thinking of introducing."

Selling directly to consumers via wine clubs enabled producers to establish a relationship with them, to find out their preferences and sell more profitably than via retailers. "In the US, wine consumers tend to join several wine clubs simultaneously and will remain with a club for an average of 24 months and spend $1 200 to $1 700 over that period. This figure is partly explained by the higher prices commanded by US wineries, but the average of US$37 per bottle consumers pay when buying direct is significantly more than when they purchase in a retail store. A fast-growing 10% of all wine in the US is now sold directly to consumers – despite rules that ban shipping between some states."

He said the recent austerity drive in China to temper excessive expenditure should not deter producers from recognising the importance of that country as a potential source of tourists to South Africa. “The Australians understand the value of Chinese visiting wine drinkers. Just look at the Chinese-language signs and wine gift packs at Sydney Duty Free”.

China is now the fourth biggest source of foreign tourists to South Africa, according to Bradley Brouwer, South African Tourism regional manager for Asia Pacific. In 2012, over 130 000 Chinese travellers visited the country, a growth of over 50% on 2011. Numbers are expected to rise significantly after Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Jacob Zuma jointly declared this year the “Year of South Africa” in China, at the 2013 BRICS summit. 

In addition to Cape Town-Cape Winelands, the other members of the Global Wine Capital network are Mainz-Rheinhessen (Germany), Bilbao-Rioja (Spain), Bordeaux (France), Florence (Italy), Porto (Portugal), San Francisco-Napa (United States), Mendoza (Argentina), Christchurch –South Island (New Zealand) and, the newest member, Valparaiso-Casablanca (Chile).

Joseph was in South Africa on behalf of The Wine Show. His interactive Wine Marketing Toolkit will be published later this year.

Entries and conditions for the 2015 Great Wine Capitals Best Of Wine Tourism Awards can be accessed on http://greatwinecapitals.com/best-of?filter_region=3&year_won%5Bvalue%5D%5Byear%5D=2014

Entry is free and the closing date for submissions is July 11, 2014.

Who is Jony Ive? And why the question matters to the wine industry.

If there's one thing most wine professionals - the producers, distributors, marketers and critics - seem to believe in, its the value in talking about the winemaker. Consumers, it is assumed are bound to be interested in John or Jean, the person who performed the magic of turning grapes into a pleasant alcoholic beverage.

And of course it's true that some consumers - the enthusiasts - do like to know about the face behind the bottle, especially if he or she has an interesting story to tell. But how big is that audience? And how interested are those same wine professionals in the the men and women responsible for the stuff they use on a daily basis? Yesterday, I asked 140 members of the South African wine industry if they could tell me who Jonathan Ive is. Two hands were raised. I've now asked the same question of over a thousand professionals across the globe and fewer than than 5% have any idea who he might be. Do you know?

According to Wikipedia, Sir Jonathan Paul "Jony" Ive, KBE RDI (born 27 February 1967)^[1] is Senior Vice President of Design at Apple Inc... designer of many of Apple's products, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini and iOS 7. 

Just read that again. He's the man who gave us the first your-music-collection-in-your-pocket device, the iPod; the first all-in-one computer-and-screen, the iMac; the first phone-that-takes-pictures-and-plays-music-and-movies, the iPhone; and the first computer-without-a-keyboard, the iPad. Just look around you at all of the Apple products - and copies of Apple products - and consider just how significantly these things and their design has changed all of our lives.

Most people have now heard of Steve Jobs, but Jobs was not the designer; he was the company boss, the strategy and money-focused guy whose vinous counterpart many wine writers really would prefer not to talk to.

If you are one of the over 95% who hadn't heard of Mr Ive, you might be interested to learn that (according to Wikipedia whom I think we can trust in this instance)... Steve Jobs considered Ive to be his "spiritual partner at Apple," while Fortune magazine stated in 2010 that Ive's designs have "set the course not just for Apple but for design more broadly."^[3][4][5]

In 2004, he was named the "Most Influential Person on British Culture" by the BBC.^[20]

 in 2009, Fast Company put him at No. 1 on their list of "100 Most Creative People in Business;^[30] the Daily Telegraph named him the second "Most Influential Briton in Technology,^[31] Forbes magazine listed him as second amongst the "Most Powerful People in Technology;^[32] and The Guardian named him "Inventor of the Decade".^[33]

In 2010, Bloomberg BusinessWeek listed Ive among the "World's Most Influential Designers",^[34] CNN Money named him "Smartest Designer" in their "Smartest People in Tech" story.^[35] Ive was listed at No. 18 on "The Vanity Fair 100" list,^[36] and Eureka of The Times group placed him No. 5 on their list of "Britain's Most Important Scientists";^[37] Fortune named Ive the "world's smartest designer" for his work on Apple products.^[38]

In 2011, the Daily Mail profiled Ive, hailing him as a "design genius".^[39] He also was nominated for a British Inspiration Award.

In 2012, Vanity Fair gave Ive along with Tim Cook the first spot on their annual "New Establishment" List.^[40]

In 2013, Blue Peter awarded Ive a gold Blue Peter badge^[41] and he was then profiled by Bono in The 2013 TIME annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.^[42]

Ive was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours for services to the design industry. In the 2012 New Year Honours, he was elevated to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for "services to design and enterprise";^[43] he was knighted by Princess Anne in Buckingham Palace in a May 2012 ceremony.^[44] 

As of early 2014, Ive is listed as an inventor on over 730 U.S. design and utility patents, as well as many more related patents around the world.^[47]

I know some pretty interesting winemakers. With all due respect to them, none deserves remotely as big a mention in the history books as Mr Ive.

A question for winemakers: what if you didn't host that dinner?

"Would you to like to host a wine dinner for 100 people in Hong Kong/New York/London [delete as applicable]?" 

If you have not yet had this kind of invitation and you're a producer with any prestige in any of the major regions of the world, you soon will. And on one level, what could be more tempting? The opportunity to do what you may well enjoy doing most: talking about the vintage variations between different bottles of your lovely wine, the beautiful place it comes from, and the wonderful people who helped you to make it. And you get to eat a great dinner in attractive surroundings, meet some interesting people and maybe even sell a few extra cases.

And you get all this for the cost of a return airline ticket, a few nights in a hotel and more than likely some wine from your cellars for which you may not get paid. (And maybe a contribution to the costs of the event - and the opportunity-costs of all the things you might have been profitably doing if you hadn't accepted the invitation.).

On occasion, these dinners can be hugely valuable - especially where hosting them helps to bolster a relationship with an important distributor or retailer, or when particularly valuable consumers or collectors are certain to be present. But there are plenty of occasions when the winery owner or winemaker scratches his head a few weeks later as he considers his credit card bill and wonders what return he got for that particular investment.

Before saying yes to the next request to host one of these events, ask yourself a simple question: what if I said "no"? How would a regretful refusal effect my life - and the health of my business?". And what would happen if I said yes, but on condition that the date was one that allowed me to do a number of other more obviously remunerative activities? 

(An extract from my forthcoming interactive Wine Marketing Toolkit. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about it...)

Keep the customer satisfied - why non vintage Bordeaux makes sense

(A piece commissioned by, and originally published on, Timatkin.com)

Imagine, if you will, two equally-skilled chef-restaurateurs whom we’ll call Jean-Paul and Jean-Jacques. J-P’s philosophy is simple: he makes the most out of locally-grown ingredients - even when they aren’t very good - and only cooks dishes he personally likes; J-J, on the other hand takes pride in traveling to find the best ingredients and giving his customers meals they enjoy.

In which of these culinary giants’ establishments would you most readily spend your money? Some of you I’m sure will happily place yourselves in J-P’s hands, and accept the parts of your meal that don’t work for you. I’ll freely admit that I’ll be down the road chez Jean-Jacques, for pretty much the same reason that I prefer jazz musicians who take requests and comedians who keep careful track of the laughs they get from every audience and polish their acts accordingly.

The wine industry - apart from the oft-derided ‘branded, commercial’ end of the market - takes a different view. This year, countless French producers are going to give us frankly substandard wine because it’s the best they could manage in the climatically challenging conditions of 2013. To return to my restaurant analogy, they’re like chefs who readily ask their waiters to serve second-rate steak with the explanation that the meat wasn’t very good at the market this morning. Except of course that restaurateurs who want to remain in business don’t do that: they frankly apologise for not being able to offer steak. Some vignerons will honourably follow a similar path with their 2013s, possibly biting the bullet and making a palatable non-vintage blend. Most however, will ask us to share their pain - and pay for the privilege of doing so.

These Europeans are, I freely admit, constrained by laws and custom. Outside Champagne and the Douro, vintages are sacred; the notion of a Bordeaux château fessing up to the need to skip one is as imaginable as a politician admitting that he isn’t going to implement one of the key policies in his manifesto. And, far from making frankly non-vintage wines, many winemakers proudly refuse even to take advantage of the legal right to blend 15% of another year.

Tradition is one thing, but this - to my mind - misplaced reverence for purity now seems to be increasingly apparent in the New World. If I had a bottle of Grand Cru Burgundy for every example of okay-but-less-than-dazzling 100% Sangiovese or Tempranillo or Vermentino I’ve been offered in Australia, I’d have a rackful of great drinking. Quite often, the winemaker freely acknowledges that the wine might have tasted better if they’d blended in a little of another variety, but they ‘just want to see how the pure version works’. Please don’t misunderstand me. I applaud them doing all this Research & Development. I just don’t see why they expect customers to fund it.

Fundamentally, winemakers, like chefs, musicians and comedians, have to decide who they are working for, and why their customers are giving them their money. Most wine drinkers, I’ll bet, buy wine for the pleasure it will afford them. In their minds, they may well have an idea of the way they expect and want it to taste; I don’t think they are paying for the experience of discovering how well or badly a producer has handled rainy or cold weather - or to be in on a first attempt with an unfamiliar grape. I’ll also bet that the people who do happily relish the intellectual rewards of sampling the admittedly substandard vintage or winemaking experiment are either loyal followers of that producer - like fans who turn out to hear a band try out songs from a new album - or avid wine enthusiasts.

So here’s my modest proposal. Winemakers could acknowledge the different audiences for which they perform. Produce small quantities of 2013 Médoc by all means for the faithful fans who are going to enjoy comparing it to the 2012 and 2011, but maybe make a non-vintage blend for everybody else. And, perhaps those innovative New Worlders could make a virtue out of their experimentation, labelling their R&D efforts as ‘discovery’ cuvées and inviting customers to tell them what they think of them. I’m sure the Jean-Paul’s of this world, and those who buy into the notion of ‘winemaker-as-artist’ will dismiss my suggestion out of hand, but I’d be very interested to see what they and others think.