The Bryant Family thread about their second wine got me thinking about this. If many of the high end/high cost producers are having a hard time selling their inventory and so called waiting lists are no longer, will we see a boom in second wines or second labels from those wineries? It seems to me a smart way to preserve the stratospheric pricing on the flagship wine, while maybe being able to sell said wine that isn’t moving. Consumer wins by getting a good wine at a more realistic price and the winery sells their inventory and protects their flagship brand. Of course, the risk is that too many people figure it out.
Haven’t seen that, just people being more selective on what’s most important to them.
What I meant was…will we see a boom in wineries launching brand new second wines or second labels in the future?
Fair enough, half watching a movie and posting. I’m not ITB, but I would think that it would be a hedge on sales while saving the face on your premium label. Just an opinion, would be more interested in hearing from those ITB on that note.
I would think so - I believe the second label French wines are experiencing a boom already, and in the food world, things like Hershey’s chocolate are WAY higher in Q4 '08 than typical, while more premium brands are WAY down.
Maybe. However, it’s a slippery slope. If the second wine is just a temporay harbor for the juice until good times return, how do you still keep the wine in play after the quality drops?
If you are speaking of the higher-end, smaller wineries I would suspect not because of the expense to launch a new label, or reposition theirselves within the market.
I spoke with one fairly prominent winemaker today who cut back his flagship production a little bit but launched a second label for this very reason. I think we are going to see a proliferation of second labels to move juice while the top wines keep the price and wait it out.
We’ve already seen this happen numerous times over the past two decades - mainly to get rid of excess juice that simply did not fit the premier line.
That said, what I’ve seen more of are appellation bottlings at lower prices than single vineyard bottlings (see Brewer Clifton for example). In that case, you are not necessarily risking a ‘lowering’ of your reputation whatsoever - just giving consumers more choices.
What will continue to happen is wineries simply selling off excess stuff that will then be private labeled - they get their cash up front to help with cash flow issues, and the juice is never directly tied back to them so it can’t ‘hurt their reputation’ in the long run.
Higher end wineries doing their own second labels at this time certainly could be risky in terms of diluting their name and brand . . . but as William has pointed out, it will happen - it will just be interesting to see how it is ‘taken’ in the marketplace . . .
Cheers!
I agree with Larry. Such a move does not lower one’s reputation as a winemaker, particularly when this action is clearly what the market is looking for. To do it while the market for high end wines is on fire would mean that you might run the risk of devaluing your brand, but when the consumer base is looking for quality and value over ALL other things, you come out looking like a champ when you respond to it in kind. Give what the market demands.
WILL we?!?!? It’s been going on for years. Just because they don’t TELL about another label they are bottling under doesn’t mean it isn’t happening right under your noses.
Oooooh… dish!
I can’t that would cut off our supplies. BUT, I can tell you that the answer from 98% of european wineries to the question “Is your US importer selling all the wine you would like and, if not, can we buy some of THE SAME WINE on, say, the label you sell to the Swedish state monopoly or those Russian Cruise Ships (and pay less for it as well)?” is “YES!”…
I private label and this is precisely why I run from wineries looking to ‘unload’, as well as the bulk market. My niche of high-quality, vineyard designated P.L. wine may be suffering now, but I’d rather ride the storm. Perhaps not the best business decision, but it’s where I currently stand.