Luxury Boxed Wine & Will Diet Drugs Threaten Wine Consumption?
IN THE HEADLINES 🗞
NASA technology can identify grape disease from the sky, paving the way for rapid response by producers before it is too late. (The Drinks Business)🔭
Georgian Wine Producers Lose up to 100% of their Vines in Storms Affecting 4,600ha (Meininger’s)
The 2023 harvests in Italy and Spain will see crops plunge to a six-year low, according to official forecasts, after extreme weather impacted major regions. (Decanter)
Meanwhile, Symington predicts ‘high quality vintage’ for the Douro, one of the best in recent years. (Harper’s)
BAD FOR BUSINESS
Will the Diabete’s drug, Ozempic, threaten wine consumption? 💊
Interesting conundrum raised by Felicity Carter linking the new craze for weight loss drugs with falling wine consumption. One of Ozempic’s “side effects” is the reduced desire to drink alcohol.
In the UK, there has been a “severe shortage” of Ozempic. Britain’s diabetic patients face shortages while those better off, the “same demographic who buy fine wine”, can get “as much of it as they like”.
According to Carter, Novo Nordisk, which produces Ozempic, is now Europe’s msot valuable company, “worth more than Denmark’s entire GDP”.😳
Carter references an article in The Washington Post, which reveals that people taking these weight loss drugs consumed 62% less alcohol.
Snowball effect…
Two thirds of patients stop taking the drug eventually due to side effects, however, the drug is so lucrative, that improvements are imminent.
Another concern is that widespread use of the drug will change drinking etiquette altogether. Will some feel embarrassed by their own consumption if others say “no”?
“It seems unthinkable that people might one day lose interest in good food and wine, yet there might be a substantial number of people who prefer a slender waist to the joy of dining out.”
MARKETPLACE
2023 debuts to La Place de Bordeaux
Georgina Hindle (Decanter) reveals the 2023 newcomers to La Place*, Bordeaux’s complex distribution system which since 1998, has opened its network to ‘outsiders’ across 11 countries.
This year, around 20 wines will make debuts on La Place de Bordeaux including a “soon-to-be-revealed” German wine.
Burgundy will be represented for the first time as well as the Languedoc with the first release of DBR Lafite-owned Château d’Aussières. Limited-edition Champagnes, including a rare micro-cuvée from Philipponnat.
Fresh entries from Napa include Paul Hobbs, Cristina’s Signature 2010m Chappellet, Signature Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 and Pritchard Hill, Cabernet Sauvignon 2019.
From elsewhere, DBR Lafite’s Bodega Caro 2021 from Mendoza is making its debut and a new Jerez wine from the Telmo Rodriguez-Pablo Eguzkiza partnership.**
Debuts from New Zealand include Craggy Range’s Aroha, Martinborough 2021 and Le Sol, Hawke’s Bay 2021. Australia makes its first appearance too which includes Yalumba’s The Octavius Old Vine Shiraz 2018 from the Barossa Valley.
*In Bordeaux, you can’t buy wine directly from producers. Instead wines are sold through a complex distribution network called La Place de Bordeaux, which is how the wines find their way into markets around the world.
**The dynamic pair have been recovering long forgotten vineyards in historic parts of Spain for more than 30 years.
Luxury Boxed Wine 💸
Richard Siddle (The Buyer) interviews Laura Riches and Laura Rosenberger, co-founders of premium boxed wine brand, Laylo.
The idea behind Laylo came from an urge to satisfy the craving for an “odd glass of wine midweek”, without committing to a bottle. Boxed wine stays fresh for six weeks once opened and generates 90% less carbon.🍃 Win win!
The two founders give credit to the “entrepreneurial culture” at Naked Wines, where they honed their skills prior to setting up Layla. As a side note, Eamon FitzGeraled (former UK managing director of Naked Wines) went on to found WineSpark in Ireland).
The brand sprang to life in 2020 and now caters to thousands of loyal customers" through D2C and in the on-trade.
Sourcing high wines with the help of Clem Yates MW, their range is “intentionally small”, focusing on styles most people will love like Sauvignon Blanc. Each box is wrapped in print with a luxurious feel, telling the story of the wine’s origin (see image below of traditional local Toile de Jouy print).
Their target market? Wine lovers. Each three bottle box costs around £35 (equivalent to £11.66 per bottle) so customers are willing to stretch beyond entry level supermarket wines.
“We want Laylo to be to boxed wine what Whispering Angel was to rosé – the aspirational, trailblazing brand which helps build the category”.
*Someone please import this to Ireland 😍 I love the concept. Luxury + Wine in Box. Don’t they say the most successful innovations involve small adaptations of old ones? If generic boxed wine lacks street cred, make it glamorous! These girls are trailblazers for a trend that could balloon. Glass bottles have been the mainstay for 200 years (making them a relatively recent innovation in the 10,000 years or so of wine production) but they could disappear as quickly as the horse and carriage.
On that note…
You might want to check out Candour Wine (a new, groovy canned wine company in the UK).
Gallo Acquisitions
Jess Lander for The San Francisco Chronicle.
E. & J. Gallo, who recently purchased one of the U.S. best selling brands, Rombauer Vineyards, has made another acquisition in Napa which suggests white wine may be “the future of American alcohol consumption”.
Gallo has also announded the purchase of Massican, a rare, white wine-only icon brand from Napa.
Founded by Dan Petroski, Massican produces crisp, zesty, Mediterranean-inspired wines from “esoteric Italian grapes that are difficult to find in California, like Ribolla Gialla, Tocai Friulano and Falanghina”.
Gallo brand manager John Irwin said that while Massican wines are atypical for California, the acquisition enables the company to offer “a stylistic counterpoint” (to wine such as Rombauer, synonymous with the rich, round and buttery style of Chardonnay in the U.S.).
Separately, Zach Geballe (VinePair) describes the purchase as a ‘very smart play by Gallo’. **Click here to listen** 🎧📻
That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading 😄