Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/197178
MARKET WATCH TIM TEICHGRAEBER But on-premise sales have fizzled so far weet red wines aren't a new phenomenon. They've inhabited some of the more lightly visited corners of retail shops for ages. Vintage Ports are the most venerated sweet reds, tempering stiff tannins and fortified alcohol with a dose of sugar, but sweet reds take a number of forms, and typically range between 1.5% and 10% residual sugar. The category has seen steady double-digit growth, fueled by new products introduced in the under-$10 price category. Jubilant, bubbly-sweet Italian reds such as lambrusco and brachetto, black muscat dessert wines, and late-harvest zinfandels, cabernet sauvignons and cabernet francs, have long filled a minor role in the North American wine scene. + The "sweet reds" category Now there are many inexpensive is one of the fastest-growing red wines that are actively promotof the past three years. ed as being sweet. + Nielsen numbers indicate In the last few years, sweet red strong off-premise growth, wines have emerged as a fastbut don't measure on-premgrowing retail trend, and more ise sales of the category. and more wines are being market+ Sweet reds are challenged ed as just that: sweet red wine. by a sweet-wine stigma, Many of the new breed are deeply especially when consumers colored, full-bodied domestic reds order them in public. with a moderate degree of residual sugar. At the same time, there + The average price for are very good lambrusco wines "sweet" red wines, as finding a fresh audience on the tracked by Nielsen, is East Coast. approximately $5 per bottle, E. & J. Gallo has a hit with its and they account for less subtly sweet Apothic red (which than 1% of all red table is not marketed as "'sweet"), as wine sales. well as another wine under its own + A sweet red can be an name brand, and a third in its Bareentry-level product that foot Wine & Bubbly brand. Yellow AT A GLANCE doesn't translate easily to service in restaurants. Oliver Winery in Indiana sells 30,000 cases per year of its Soft Red. w w w. v w m m e d i a.com N ov - D ec 2013 | V INE YA RD & W INE RY M A N A G EM EN T 21