As I've gone through the course and reflected on the differentiating, qualitative factors that delineate between the story, the ancillary sparkle, the label glamour, and the preferable taste of cannonball over the $100+ bottle- I've continually reverted back to the fact that what if this is all a mirage- a dream that those in the wine trade themselves are selling themselves on- part out of delusion- part out of curiousity to see if it will stick- because it if does, the upside is tremendous.
A commodity is defined as a product for which there is demand, but it is bought and sold without any sort of differentiating qualitative differentiation. We can all agree that there exists within the spectrum of wine, wide qualitative differences, but with Italy's 300,000+ vineyards, and Napa's 400+ wine labels, can the differentiation explain the minute delta's that exist in promoting each wine as SPECIAL, and UNIQUE? I would argue no.
Napa's cabernet is perhaps one of the world's most beloved wine collections; in 1976 they came to the forefront of the wine industry and were eternally glorified in the New World Hall of Fame. Indeed, various trade secretes, soil, rootstocks, techniques would differentiate between the best, and the rest. Yet now, globalization, oversupply, distributer power, lower prices that neither anchor themselves into classifications or competitive variation have merely choked out any belief the consumer has into why one wine would be superior to another.
I do not men to be brash, nor harsh- but would like to invite commentary on the following: wine has become a commodity. Those in the wine trade could be too self-absorbed to acknowledge that the lack of variation, forces upon them the temptation to create a world of "tasteful adjectives" of luxery ancillary services including 17th century castles, gondolas, specific types of french oak barrel- which have not been proven in superiority to traditional oak- and always- we can always count on the STORY. Well, "our wine is UNIQUE- it is SPECIAL.." Tell me how in comparison to others- tell me how on the safeway shelf- amongst the 40+ cabs- why the $15 cab always hands down tastes better than the $80. In such a case- is the pricing just another extravagant mechanism by which wealthy consumers can differentiate them from the lower classes, by ordering up on the menu, or by slipping in casual commentary at a dinner- "oh well- this beaut of a bottle was discounted from $7,000 to $800 when I got it through my private wine membership"- followed by a drowned chuckle.
I have yet to hear a satisfying answer of what factors differentiate most mid-tier wines from one another, and how do we weigh them. In the absence of such variables- maybe industry consolidation is better. Maybe instead of 400+ Napa wineries, 30 will do. Among 30- I'd be able to articulate my preference, than among 400, where I'm drowned in a sea of confusion.
A commodity is defined as a product for which there is demand, but it is bought and sold without any sort of differentiating qualitative differentiation. We can all agree that there exists within the spectrum of wine, wide qualitative differences, but with Italy's 300,000+ vineyards, and Napa's 400+ wine labels, can the differentiation explain the minute delta's that exist in promoting each wine as SPECIAL, and UNIQUE? I would argue no.
Napa's cabernet is perhaps one of the world's most beloved wine collections; in 1976 they came to the forefront of the wine industry and were eternally glorified in the New World Hall of Fame. Indeed, various trade secretes, soil, rootstocks, techniques would differentiate between the best, and the rest. Yet now, globalization, oversupply, distributer power, lower prices that neither anchor themselves into classifications or competitive variation have merely choked out any belief the consumer has into why one wine would be superior to another.
I do not men to be brash, nor harsh- but would like to invite commentary on the following: wine has become a commodity. Those in the wine trade could be too self-absorbed to acknowledge that the lack of variation, forces upon them the temptation to create a world of "tasteful adjectives" of luxery ancillary services including 17th century castles, gondolas, specific types of french oak barrel- which have not been proven in superiority to traditional oak- and always- we can always count on the STORY. Well, "our wine is UNIQUE- it is SPECIAL.." Tell me how in comparison to others- tell me how on the safeway shelf- amongst the 40+ cabs- why the $15 cab always hands down tastes better than the $80. In such a case- is the pricing just another extravagant mechanism by which wealthy consumers can differentiate them from the lower classes, by ordering up on the menu, or by slipping in casual commentary at a dinner- "oh well- this beaut of a bottle was discounted from $7,000 to $800 when I got it through my private wine membership"- followed by a drowned chuckle.
I have yet to hear a satisfying answer of what factors differentiate most mid-tier wines from one another, and how do we weigh them. In the absence of such variables- maybe industry consolidation is better. Maybe instead of 400+ Napa wineries, 30 will do. Among 30- I'd be able to articulate my preference, than among 400, where I'm drowned in a sea of confusion.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhile I empathize with the difficulty of selecting from the impossibly vast range of wines on the market today, I'm not sure that makes wine a commodity. In fact, I think it's evidence that wine isn't a commodity at all. If it were, we wouldn't have to worry about selection. We'd just grab any bottle and go. It is precisely because there is so much variation in wines that choosing among the hundreds of options is so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteIf search and selection are the real problems, maybe better marketing of wine based on its sensory attributes is a more apt solution than consolidation (which may be necessary for other reasons). Some standardized parametrization of the taste and aroma of a wine printed on the bottle might help, along the lines of the Riesling Taste Profile we read about a few classes ago. Costco does something vaguely similar by posting printed descriptions on shelves alongside the wine it sells, but I haven't seen other retailers follow suit.