Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/230154
MARKET WATCH TIM TEICHGRAEBER hen it comes to making a wine that tastes good, blending a few varieties together has always been one of the best tricks in the book. Rhone, Bordeaux, Chianti and other blend "recipes" have been around forever, but the "red blend" category has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, and now accounts for 9.4% of total offpremise wine sales, according to Nielsen figures released in late 2013. It's been interesting to see that category growing so quickly. When I first conceived of writing about this topic, I envisioned a warm, fuzzy column about how America had finally turned a wine-culture corner and come to understand the virtues of blended reds, and that adventurous Millennials were leading the charge. Having picked a few brains on the topic, I've decided that much of the + The red-blend category has growth of the red-blend catmore than tripled over the egory has more to do with past four years. marketing and other forms + Much of the recent growth of sugar than it does with has been in domestic red any kind of consumer epiphblends priced $8-$15, with any about blending grapes an average price of $6.75. to make better wine. The "red blend" cate+ While blends in the $30gory sales tripled between $60 range have seen some 2009 and 2012, according success, those buyers are to IRI, and Nielsen reportdifferent from consumers in ed that red blends grew lower price ranges. 15.1% in dollar volume + Residual sugar has been a over the previous year for key ingredient in the sucthe 52-week sales period cess of the red-blend catending Sept. 14, 2013. egory. "A word of caution a b o u t t h i s c a t e g o r y, " warned Christian Miller, research director for Wine Opinions, a company that routinely surveys the Wine Opinions Consumer Panel, a 7,500-member national sample of regular wine drinkers. "'Red blends' includes jug wines such as Carlo Rossi, flavored box wines, California old-vine field blends (such as high-end Ridge Geyserville), traditional blends like Cotes du Rhone and Rhone-style blends or Bordeaux blends, top-of-the-line proprietary wines and AT A GLANCE Seeing Red Producers are in the black with blended red wines w w w. v w m m e d i a.com J a n - Feb 2014 | V INE YA RD & W INE RY M A N A G EM EN T 21