Vineyard & Winery Management

May/June 2013

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Bigger Not Always Better MARKET WATCH TIM TEICHGRAEBER What customers say about oversized bottles behind your back f you watch any television at all, you've proba b l y s e e n t h e AT & T commercial that features a suit-and-tie focus group moderator seeking the opinions of a tableful of rug rats: "What's better? Bigger or smaller?" asks the moderator. "Bigger!" scream the kids. "What's better, a big tree house or a small tree house?" "If it's big enough, you can have a disco!" says one of the girls. The question of whether it is better to have a big wound or a small wound doesn't actually come up in that particular commercial, but there's probably that quiet, pragmatic adult voice in your head that starts to pipe up when you're watching the commercial. "I don't know," you might say to yourself, "What are the utility costs like for this disco treehouse? Who will clean it? Where will I find a tree large enough to safely support my eight-bedroom, Tuscan-villa-style disco treehouse?" When it comes to wine bottles, there are a lot of North American wineries that seem to believe that bigger is better, not only for wine, but for the bottles that hold it. Blame Robert Parker for your wines if you want, but can you really blame Parkerization for your choice of the bottles that hold them? Who is your target + Before bottling, ask yourself: Who are market? School kids, like you trying to impress? the ones in the TV commercial, or environmen+ Oversized and unusual-shaped bottles tally conscious adults? present storage problems for retailers You might also want to and restaurants. consider the opinions + Reducing packaging is a way to save of the wine buyers, money and improve sustainable pracrestaurant servers and tices. retailers who have to deal with bowling-pin+ Younger consumers may appreciate sized bottles every day, the effort put into reducing your winat some considerable ery's carbon footprint. inconvenience. Anyone who works in the trade has witnessed bottle inflation, and is keenly aware of it every time he or she picks up an oversized 750 mL bottle of wine. Do you think that you're somehow subliminally fooling them into believing that your wine is better because it's in a massive bottle? I can tell you that you are not. SHORT COURSE SOMM SURVEY SAYS When it comes to wine bottles, bigger isn't always better. Photo: Thinkstock w w w. v w m media.com I broached this subject recently at an intimate Sommelier Journal tasting peppered with top educators and sommeliers. "I think the main thing is that (bottle size) M a y - J u n e 2 0 13 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 25

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