Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/197178
MARKET WATCH TIM TEICHGRAEBER Tail proffers the painfully Aussiebranded Sweet Red Roo, Bronco's Classic Wines of California line offers Crane Lake, and Trinchero's Ménage a Trois is generally lumped into the same category, even though it is also not labeled as a sweet wine. A sweet shiraz from South Africa called Jam Jar has a bigger buzz than any pinotage that I know. According to Nielsen's scans of major retail, liquor and convenience store sales, sweet red wines still represent less than 1% of the total dollar value of table wine sold in the United States, but sales increases over the last couple of years have been meteoric. For the 52-week period ending July 20, 2013, sales of sweet red wine were up by 33.1% over the previous year. Yet it appears that the trend is slowing. Danny Brager, Nielsen's senior vice president of beverage alcohol practice, said his company's sweet red statistics cover only wines labeled as "sweet," a category that has grown significantly in recent years. Wines like Apothic and Ménage a Trois would not be included in these figures, nor would most dessert wines not labeled as "sweet." Brager said the category is slowing a bit. "Growth for sweet red wines has slowed from 52 weeks Jam Jar shiraz from South Africa is a hit in the sweet reds category. And this column would be incomplete without a shoutout to Karma Vista's trophy-winning Devil's Head Red from Michigan, Alexis Bailly's fortified Ratafia from Minnesota, and Oliver Winery's insanely successful Soft Red from Indiana, which, according to Shanken News Daily (Aug. 27, 2013), produces more than 30,000 cases of Soft Red a year. As a category, sweet reds have been almost as hot as moscato, clocking serious double-digit gains in dollar and volume growth over the past two to three years. Those numbers are slowing, but that may be mainly because the small category has grown at an unsustainable pace. The same trend is evident in moscato. The brakes have been tapped in both areas, and growth seems to be slowing now that the new categories are established. 22 V I N E YA R D & WIN E RY MANAGEM ENT | Nov - Dec 2013 dollar growth of 30% over last year, but only 12% over the same 12-week period a year ago," he said." Those shifts appear to signal some deceleration in the hot category. He also pointed out that the Nielsen-tracked average price-point in the category is only $5 per bottle. It may well be that the sweet-wine category – which also includes white wines – is one that small wineries can dip their toes into, particularly in the tasting room arena. ON-PREMISE A DIFFERENT ANIMAL I spoke with three on-premise beverage directors who agree that sweet reds are seldom requested and seldom sold in their establishments, even when they're made available. Admittedly, some of these establishments are fairly ritzy, but they do see tourists from 50,000 square feet of Stainless Steel Letina tanks, sanitary valves and fittings. St. Patrick's of Texas • StPats.com w w w. v wm m e d i a . c o m