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w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m M a r - A p r 2 014 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 2 5 can be confusing, he explained, but they also offer an opportunity to engage the customer. Ridge's Donley said that Whole F o o d s b u y e r s h a v e a l s o b e e n extremely receptive to ingredient labeling. "It's right in line with what they're trying to accomplish," she said. "They're going GMO-free (for all food items). Lettuce Entertain You buyer Ryan Arnold was over the moon to see that we were pre- senting ingredients on our label. Younger wine buyers are coming in, and they're much more savvy than they were before. They want to know how the wine is made. I think it actually may have opened the door wider to a younger audience for Ridge." NOT EVERYONE IS CONVINCED Of course, not everyone thinks ingredients labeling is much of a game-changer. Veteran wine retail- er Gerald Weisl of Weimax Wines & Spirits in Burlingame, Calif., said he suspects that "Most wine drink- ers are more interested in the taste of a wine than the ingredients. Most consumers rarely check out the ingredients in various consum- er products in the grocery store, and probably fewer wine drink- ers are looking at this information on the handful of brands who are offering it." Many of his customers buy wine because they want to make some sort of statement about themselves, and some do make a purchase, he said, "Under the guise of helping the environment while drinking, but in general, the customer looking for some sort of 'organic' on the label tends to be (in my experience) a fairly new wine consumer or one who's not dis- criminating about the quality of the product in the bottle." He pointed out that many great wineries, such as Ridge, Domaine L e f l a i v e a n d D o m a i n e d e l a Romanée Conti, produce wines rel- atively naturally, but "Nobody buys those wines because they're culti- vated in a particular fashion." Ingredients labeling of wine is still a nascent trend, but if it reso- nates with the industry's gatekeep- ers and opens up a dialogue with curious consumers, it might just have legs. Tim Teichgraeber cut his teeth in retail wine sales before becom- ing the wine columnist for the Min- neapolis Star Tribune. Today he is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, Tasting Panel, Opus Vino and other publications, when he's not working as an entertainment lawyer in San Francisco. Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwmmedia.com. Christina Donley of Ridge says the sus- tainability focus of the winery's back label information is attracting younger wine drinkers. MARKET WATCH TIM TEICHGRAEBER