WINE TERROIR ADVENTURE

After producing the most publicized Chilean wine marketing campaign called “Carmenere Adventure”, this week a new campaign was confirmed from September 1 to December 15, and it is called “Wine Terrroir Adventure”.

It will be a motorcycle trip form Santiago to New York City, which will visit different Terroirs in Latin America and the US. The goal of this promotional campaign is to discover the best wine producing regions, from which all the footage needed to produce a documentary about wines and adventure motorcycling will be filmed.

This promotional campaign considers a 25,000-miles trip across 18 countries and Social Media will play an important role and throughout the Twitter account @WTAdventure and Facebook “Wine Terroir Adventure”, from which the rider – Cristian Munoz – will show pictures, news and updates from the trip while he discover unique wine appellations.

One of the main goals of this journey is to visit wineries that produce Ultra Premium and Luxury wines that truly represent their Terroirs. Along the route through The Americas, Cristian will interview winemakers, sommeliers, wine journalist and bloggers, consumers and restauranteurs, and have first-hand experience with the local wine community in order to understand the importance of Terroir in the production of high-end wines.

Wine Terroir Adventure will travel to 25 Terriors in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and the US, all countries where wines are made.

The producers of this documentary will also do online wine tastings form exotic places such as: Uyuni Salt Flats, Iguazu Falls, Machu Picchu, Yosemite, among others. Moreover, a series of Tastings will be done in Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bogota (Colombia), Mexico City (Mexico, San Francisco, CA and New York, NY the goal is to associate wines the tourism of specialty interest.

The producers of “Wine Terroir Adventure” are Cristian Munoz – CEO of Wine Adventure TV and Max Morales – CEO of Andes Wines Communications – that is the first Latin American wine marketing agency with more tan 10 years of experience.

Cristian Munoz will be the rider and executive producer, who has an extensive experience in wines and adventure motorcycling. Throughout this career in the wine industry, he’s been responsible for Marketing and Exports for different wineries in Chile, USA and Europe. He has visited more tan 35 countries and lived in 8 of them. Furthermore, he was the executive producer and rider of the Carmenere Adventure campaign.

* * *

If you’d like more information about Wine Terroir Adventure, or to Schedule an interview with Max Morales or Cristian Munoz, please call Andes Wines at +56 2-3702997 / skype: andeswines or e-mail the producers at andes@andeswines.com

CARMENERE ADVENTURE 2005 / 6TH ANNIVERSARY

Carmenere Adventure from Tregua on Vimeo.

andes@andeswines.com

USE OF FACEBOOK AND TWITTER BY CHILEAN WINERIES IS LIMITED

To analyze the use of the social media by Chilean wineries, AndesWines.com asked to digital audience consulting company, Sondet, a comprehensive analysis of how the industry is using these tools in the market.

ANDES WINES EXCLUSIVE REPORT

From the total of the wineries that belong to Wines of Chile, almost 30% don´t have profile in Facebook and more that 50% don´t have in Twitter. Results show that, the national wine industry, still has a long way to go to take advantage in the social networks benefits, they can help with their business plans and the relationship with their consumers.

The Andes Wines´ report was focused in the registered wineries in Wines of Chile, and the social media, like Twitter and Facebook, both, the most important in Chile.

An analysis was realized during February 2012 and defined which wineries have more web representation, through those networks, how intensive is their use and how many definitively aren´t in those nets. In the case of twitter, were considering the number of the tweets, followers and the activity which was shown in each profile.

Of the total of wineries which belong to Wines of Chile, 30% don´t have official profile in Facebook. 23.5% has profile but, they are forgotten o hasn´t got any traffic. A 34.4% shows high activity in Facebook, and coincidentally, have more followers; while 8.4% of the profile´s vineyards in Facebook have been created by users, not by the wineries.

In the Twitter case, the 53% of the vineyards, haven´t got account. 23,5% of the different profiles are lost and the same number registered high activity.

According to the director of corporate strategy for measuring social networks Sondet, Flavio Cardemil: “The majority of the wineries don´t have Facebook or Twitter integrated on their own web sites. In Facebook, for example, only the 32.7% have it. To link social networks to the websites is easier to the consumers, to know the brands in the social networks.”

Connecting to the wine

The wineries with more followers in Facebook are Lapostolle Wine (7,320) Misiones de Rengo (3,758) and Viña Concha y Toro (2,962). While in Twitter are Viña Valdivieso (4,947); Concha y Toro (3,603) and Ventisquero (2,563).

In Chile, Viña Valdivieso and Ventisquero are among the most active wineries on Twitter with a level tweeted average 6,000 and 5,000 tweets respectively, and third place is La Rosa Wines with an average of 3,609 tweets.

According to Maximiliano Morales, AndesWines.com General Manager says: “have lots of followers don´t prove more traffic and greater brand impact on social networks. For example, there are wineries through contests and / or “quiz” of specific issues resulting in different impacts on the brand. This can lead to a winery to produce a constant struggle between his followers, for that particular prize at the end is something “free” and can devalue the brand, becoming regarded as the “winery that gives free wine thanks to Twitter or Facebook “.

“Something similar happens with contests to participate in events. Often they are 3 or 4 fans who get the awards always leaving out others who are discouraged followers of the brand in question and stop following your tweets, creating a low interest.” Morales, said.

In the analysis highlights Concha y Toro which in addition, has an official Facebook profile has a distinguished brand. Frontera and Trio featuring more than 34 thousand, and 19 thousand followers, respectively, surpassing all the vineyards in the Association. In addition, Trio has a Twitter profile than the official Concha y Toro, with more than 1,100 followers.

Meanwhile, only 9 of the 119 vineyards have studied its Facebook profile with a personalized welcome message. This represents 7,5% of the companies under Wines of Chile, two of which 9 are among the top three ranked (Lapostolle and Concha y Toro). “The importance of welcome pages is to approach the audience and differentiate from other brands and the standard Facebook” adds Cardemil.

“In most cases, there is a dissociation between the winery and the company or person, who takes over the management of social media, since service is outsourced to an advertising agency, through a community manager, journalist or publicist. In this case, need more training in order to convey the brand attributes, and a lack of “monetization” of the strategy, that is based in most cases giving a gift. Definitely need a specialized consultancy that is based on wine marketing strategy to measure the real impact” Maximiliano Morales told.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
Twitter @andeswines
(56) 2 3702997

“TOKYO IS THE JAPANESE WINE MARKET”

Japan´s first Master of Wine, Ned Goodwin, introduces us to this foreign and distant drinking culture. Far from being a new frontier in wine drinking, the land of the Rising Sun has seen other spirits rise –beer and sake-, yet it is open for new experiences, even if only in Tokyo. By Marta Lillo, AndesWines.com

AW: What has it been to live in Japan as a foreigner and a wine expert?

NG: Fascinating and certainly never dull, but that is more because of the cultural insights that living here provides, rather than due to any real dynamism in the wine market. The Japanese market is not particularly dynamic and will not be in the future either.

AW: Is Japan the new frontier in wine drinking?

NG: Far from it. The old frontier as far as Asia goes, perhaps.

AW: What is the market size of wine drinking in Japan?

NG: Just under 2 liters per capita consumption, with 70% of that concentrated in Tokyo. Thus, in essence, Tokyo IS the Japanese wine market.

AW: What brands are more popular in Japan?

NG: Regional brands are more popular than commercially labelled brands, per se, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chablis, Chianti, Napa. That is about it. Otherwise, inexpensive volume-driven brands such as Sunrise, Carlo Rossi, Yellowtail are popular but not necessarily due to brand loyalty, but simply because they are inexpensive and appealing in these recessionary times.

AW: Have there been any alcoholic drinks legislative changes over the past 12 months that you find key for the wine market in general?

NG: No, not that I can think of. The free-trade agreement with Chile certainly raised Chile’s market penetration here albeit, that was more than 12 months ago.

AW: Has the alcoholic drinks industry in general been affected by the global recession?

NG: Of course. Beer and sake are on the decline. Wine is fairly stagnant as it has been for the last 12 or so years although I read figures that indicate some growth in volume consumed, especially at the (very) low price points.

AW: What is consumed more; beer, sake, wine or spirits?

NG: Beer. Wine would be last in the grouping, in volume terms.

AW: What have been the key trends seen in new product developments? Any Chilean brands among them?

NG: Slash discounting across the board, from on to off-trades, to obviate the need for trained and capable sales staff; Lower wages; little new product development as a result, although for a while there were wine brands touting their new health benefits due to ‘polyphenols’, bio etc. Domestic wine is also gaining attention. Right now the market is undergoing a paradigm shift from the on to the off trade. The traditional sommelier hegemony’s influence is waning, with huge opportunity for savvy buyers and sales leaders (trainers and motivators) in the off-trade.

NG: Do Japanese alcoholic drinks consumers want value for money or added value?

Perceived value for money.

AW: What would you recommend to wine producers in general when approaching the Japanese consumer?

Think hard. Know the right people on the ground. Choose your distributor carefully. Make regular visits. Prepare yourself for language barriers and a culture that is as frustratingly uninternatioal and inflexible, as it is fascinating and rewarding. Things do not get done fast in Japan and there are many cultural hurdles. Currently, few industries can compete with the downward price spiral, aside from Chile and to a lesser extent, perhaps, Spain. Understand that perceptions of the Old World are largely positive and regimented and that traditional OW regional brands hold sway, even in this climate. Few people taste with their mouths, but rather, with their eyes.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

FAST-GROWING DEMAND FOR CHILEAN INDEPENDENT WINES

(March 2012) Renowned wine publications Harper’s, Master of Wine Jancis Robinson and The Independent Wine Review have recently acknowledged the growth of the Chilean independent wine movement, allowing the sector to increase its global market share. Report by AndesWines.com

Speaking to Harper´s magazine, Wines of Chile’s European director, Michael Cox, said that Chilean wines are growing fast in the independent sector, accounting now for 10% market share in this sector, having displaced Italy from fourth place by volume.

However, he warned that Chile has yet to reach its full potential in the £6 to £12 area: “There are too many Old World wine regions with stories and names that get stuck in people’s minds. At these higher price points, Chile can more than hold its own,” Cox added.

Cox spoke to Harper’s during Prowein in Dusseldorf, where 43 Chilean wineries were exhibiting on the Wines of Chile’s stand and 19 on their own stands, and more working on their importers booths.

Recently as well, renowned wine expert Jancis Robinson dedicated a full report on the recent changes in the Chilean wine map, among them the creation of Vigno, the group of producers that have joined to promote the Carignan appellation produced in the Maule Region in Chile.

The Independent Wine Review also reported that UK consumers are now purchasing more Chilean wine than French wine in independent wine retailers, which are notorious for supporting unknown, more exclusive and tailor-made wine brands, compared to traditional sales of industrial brands by supermarkets, pubs and restaurants.

By 2011, the country was also the fifth most popular country of origin for wine sold in the UK (by value), overtaking South Africa for the first time. Almost one in ten bottles of wine sold in the UK were Chilean, said the Review.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

DESSERTS AND WINE? WHY, YES!

Andes Wines sweets and pastry writer Suzanne Taylor’s job could not get any better. She embarked on a very yummy task: combine desserts with wine. A Peach struesel tart and a Chocolate cake with a hint of merken were the perfect excuse to try a couple of sweet wines that made our mouths water…

There is nothing more satisfying than a mouth-watering dessert at the end of an incredible meal. Possibly, the only thing that could send you into a different stratosphere is to serve it with a dessert wine that compliments the taste and complexity of the dessert itself.

I choose these two different desserts for a couple of reasons. The aroma of peaches fills the air everywhere right now in Chile. Even a steamy, hot day won’t keep me from baking those beautiful peaches. Chocolate flourless cake is nothing new. But when I suggested making it with Chile’s own chili spice – merken, the raised eyebrows signalled that this is not something that has been tried very often.

Andes Wines CEO, Max Morales, enologist Jose Miguel Sostomayor, and myself embarked on the difficult task of trying to keep an independent mind when trying these delicious combinations. And we were in for a treat!

We chose Encomenderos 2010 Moscatel to taste with the peach streusel tart. I really liked how the acidity helped to balance the sweetness of the dessert. It had a very fresh taste.

With the flourless chocolate cake, the Syrah Tardio from Portal del Alto really hit the spot. Without trying the wine, the merken was just slightly noticeable. After the wine, the spice really came out and tingled all the way down your throat. It just went down so, so well altogether. I really liked this combination.

A couple of things to remember if you want to try your own experiment with wine and dessert:

1. An acidic wine will pair well with a fruit dish, which also has its own natural acidity.
2. With more intense flavours of the dessert, the intensity should increase in the wine.
3. The wine should be sweeter than the dessert.
4. Have fun!

For those who dare:

Peach Struesel Tart

Pie Dough Recipe

3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly soft

1/3 cup sugar

6 egg yolks

Pinch of salt

2 cups All-purpose flour

In a mixing bowl, place the butter and sugar and start to mix with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes until all the sugar is incorporated. (you can do this with a mixer, but don’t over mix to the point where the mixture is creamy) Add the egg yolks and mix. Lastly add all the flour, salt and mix until it comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured table. Make a ball and then flatten into 6” disk of dough. Wrap this disk with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about ½ hour. This last step can be done in advance and left in the freezer for a week. Preheat oven to 200C. Take out of the freezer and let warm only slightly enough to be able to roll the dough out to about 12” diameter. Line the dough into a flan mould or pie mould that has been slightly greased and floured. Trim the edges and prick the dough with a fork. Place in a preheated oven for about 5 minutes and then turn down heat to 180C and continue to bake for about 10 minutes. Take out of oven and set aside.

Struesel Topping

2/3 cup All-Purpose Flour

4 Tablespoons granulated white sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

4 TBSP. unsalted butter

¼ cup sliced almonds – optional

Method- Sift all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the butter in small pieces. Add almonds. Blend just until a mixture forms and there are small pea sized clumps. This can either be done by hand or by food processor. Do not over mix. Can be made ahead of time and left in the fridge for a couple of days.

Fruit Mixture

7 cups peaches – peeled and sliced

¼ cup white sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp.  lemon zest

3 TBSP. All purpose flour

Peel peaches and then slice about 1/2” thick – too much thinner and they will disintegrate during baking. Add zest. Sift all dry ingredients and mix with peaches. Place mixture in pre-baked pie shell. Spread streusel mixture over top of peaches. Bake at 180C for 45-50 minutes or until the peach filling starts to bubble.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Merken

125 grams good quality semi-sweet chocolate

½ cup unsalted butter

¾ cup white sugar

3 large eggs

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp. merken

¼ tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C. Chop chocolate and place into stainless steel bowl. Place bowl over a pot of water and slowly melt chocolate with butter. (The water should not be boiling!) Add sugar. Take off from the pot of water.  Whisk eggs and add to the chocolate mixture. Sift dry ingredients and add to the mix. Lightly grease a 10” cake ring. One that has a collapsible bottom is easier to remove the cake. Pour mix into the pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes. When testing for doneness, an inserted knife will be slightly moist with mixture. Let cool. Note – this cake is not supposed to have height like a normal cake because it does not have the flour.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

WINE FRAUDS AND COUNTERFEITS IN THE WORLD

The Pinotgate scandal reminds many that the world of wine has its share of scams, and revives the debate about the inability of wine producers and traders to detect irregularities in time.

By Marta Lillo and Sandra Vargas, AndesWines.com

(Santiago, February 2012) Even the most renowned wine critic in the world has tasted fake wine at one moment in life. Without noticing it.

Wine is not only easy to drink, but also to fake.  Technology, globalization of prices and produce, an international market increasingly expensive, a limited offer of fine wine bottles, the subjectivity in wine tasting, and the fact that the older the vintage, the harder is to prove its authenticity, are all variables that make this business an easy target to counterfeiting.

Although difficult to measure, Wine Spectator magazine projected that about 5% of the wine traded in the international secondary market is fake (bottles that collectors keep for more than a decade). The figures on the sale of fake wine in specialized stores and gourmet corners at supermarkets could be even greater. The numbers for alcohol counterfeits in general speak of nearly US$ 1 billion in annual losses for the alcohol industry worldwide, according to data by the International Federation of Spirits Producers.

This is a complex situation for a business to which public image is everything. It should not come as a surprise, then, that only a few cases see the light of day, as their victims fear to be branded inefficient and have their prestige compromised.

However, among the scandals that have made it through this pact of silence, the most notorious ones involve some of the oldest denomination of origin wines from Spain, France and Italy. The illegal practices range from bottling and labelling of low-quality wines as fine wines at the wineries themselves, the substitution of bottles during transport, and exorbitant auctions of fine and rare wines that turned out to be the contrary.

A never-ending old story

Compared to the millenary story of wine, which dates back to 20,000 AD, fraud and counterfeit detection is recent.

Among the first known cases in the modern world is the forgery of Portuguese port between the XVI and XVIII centuries. Original from the Duoro River valley, this wine fortified with brandy became a favourite in England when the constant warring with France limited the access to European wine. However, the competition with other Iberian wines and the copies by other Portuguese wine regions gave way to overproduction, which reached critical levels by mid 1700s.

As a result, exports to England came to a stall and the prices began to fall as British merchants started to discover the forgeries. To protect the origin and quality of this emblematic product, and at the request of the producers from Duoro, the Portuguese crown founded the Companhia Geral dos Vinhos do Alto Douro to secure the balance between quality, production, trade, and prices.

This initiative gave way to the first denomination of origin in Portugal, the first mountain demarcation related to wine, and one of the first vine registries in the history of wine.

But these efforts did not keep the counterfeits at bay. Port began to be produced from elderberry extracts, for example; the Companhia decided to uproot the problem, literally, by ordering the complete destruction of elderberry plans in the north of Portugal.

Three centuries later, scandals from forgeries and frauds continue to add up.

Since mid 2000s, energy tycoon and fervent wine collector, William Koch, maintains a real crusade against counterfeits while suing many wineries, traders and suppliers, claiming that he has lost about US$ 4 million because of wine that turned out to be fake.

Among the most relevant cases linked to Koch involves the mystic Château Pétrus, which wines are a symbol from the wine region of Pomerol, in Burdeaux. Many of the 1921 Château Pétrus that Koch owns were filled with cheap Cabernet from California; the winery claims that it never bottled magnums from its 1921 vintage.

The wine region and denomination of origin of Bordeaux is at the heart of many of these scams, as well.

In 2002, a former employee of the Belgian group Geens Benelux claimed that not all wines imported by the company from Bordeaux were of such origin. The wine allegedly came from other wine regions and countries, fixed with aromas and chemicals, and sold under false châteaux names at supermarkets and specialized wine stores in Belgium and France.

Then director general Willy Frederick and his predecessor, the founder of the Belgian firm, Roger Geens, were placed under custody. But the case never made it to a French court after Geens suffered a brain stroke in 2006. The Belgian side kept on and in 2007 then director general Gillaume Berckmans and three other executives were sent to jail and a court administrator was appointed to run the company. However, even though the enquiry continued, the trial was postponed in 2007.

Meanwhile, another scam was beginning to take form at another French wine region, but this time the responsible agents would be legally convicted, in 2010.

It all began when French producers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region decided to sell nearly 3.5 million litres of fake Pinot Noir, equivalent to nearly 18.5 million of bottles, to the world´s largest wine producers Constellation and Gallo, both from California, between 2006 and 2008.

The wine in question was a mix of Syrah and Merlot, much cheaper to produce but for which the French wineries turned a profit of about 7 million euros.

Consumer complaints gave way to investigations both in France and in the United States. Finally, in February 2010 executives from the French producers Ducasse, Vignobles, Alain Maurel, Sieur d’Arques, Montblanc and Caves Pierre Fabre, and from both American firms, were charged fines and convicted to jail, sentences that would later be reduced to conditional release.

However, the scandal did not end here. Constellation and Gallo claim that they were never aware of the sham because the French purchase orders always read Pinot Noir. Nevertheless, in 2011 they decided to reimburse the misled consumers, compensations that rise up to US$ 2 million, after an off-court settlement.

But three consumers were not satisfied by this and decided to launch a class action against Gallo and Constellation, accusing them of unfair competition and misleading advertising.

In 2008, also in Bordeaux, the Customs Office raided the cellar of a businessman planning to sell 5 thousand bottles of cheap wine fake fine wine labels.

New markets, new victims

Counterfeiting is taking advantage of the growing popularity of wine in non-traditional markets such as Asia.

Wine consumption has grown hand in hand with the economic boom in the region, particularly in China. Multimillionaires in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing are starting to better their Western counterparts in collecting fine and rare wines, hungry for the image of sophistication that this practice bestows, opening a new window of opportunity for counterfeits. Projections value the fake wine market in China in nearly US$ 685 million yearly, about 5% of the country’s total wine market.

In 2011, the founder and director of the Independent Wine Centre in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Simon Tam, sounded the alarm about a buying network of empty fine wine bottles discarded after tastings and at expensive restaurants. These would later be refilled with low-quality red wine.

Reports speak of empty Châteaux Lafite bottles bought for as much as 900 euros each to judges and restaurant administrators, refilled with cheap French wine, and sold after in nearly 4,000 euros.

Also, the vice chairman of the realty subcommittee of the Asia-Pacific Urban Development Association revealed on his microblog in late 2011 that the largest agent of Lafite in Beijing had told him that he had converted two ocean-going cargo ships into factories producing counterfiet.

As a result of this trend, Chinese traders and wine agents have begun to shatter the empty bottles once tastings and special events are done, so to reduce the possibility of forgery.

Meanwhile, denominations of origin in France have begun to register their brand in China, thus to be able to launch legal actions.

Latin America does not fall behind. A recent case concerns five wineries in Argentina with inflated wine stocks. The Federal Justice and the National Institute of Viticulture (INV in Spanish) began to investigate after the companies, which belong to the same group, turned an employee over to the authorities, accusing him of fixing the accounts, thus claiming no responsibility on the matter.

Many solutions to a common problem

The Pinotgate scandal continues to generate debate because of the high profile of the guilty parties, the multimillion dollar lawsuits and reimbursements involved, the damage to the public image of French wine, and the endless questioning about the capacity of winemakers and traders to detect irregularities and forgeries in time.

Current technologies account for the authenticity of the wine at its point of origin, but once it leaves the wineries the monitoring becomes difficult and expensive, leaving the wine and the label exposed to wrong doings.

The industry is coming up with new tools to prove counterfeits. An investigation at the University of Adelaide, in Australia, claims that the radioactive isotopes from atomic bomb tests left in the atmosphere in the past century could help date wine. The study found that the carbon-14 isotope ratio of the wine alcohol can be used to determine the vintage with precision.

Another crusader against counterfeiting, wine collector Russell Frye, began a listing of all legitimate bottles worldwide, which can be registered in the web page Wineauthentication.com, so to facilitate legal claims once fakes have been discovered.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

THE II INTERNATIONAL WINE COMIC COMPETITION IS NOW OPEN!

In order to continue encouraging the talent and creativity of wine lovers and fans from around the world, Andes Wines is launching the II International Wine Comic Competition (II Concurso Internacional de Comics del Vino). And for second year in a row, the initiative is being sponsored by the Lukas Foundation in Valparaiso, dedicated to the works of cartoonist and artist Renzo Pecchenino.

To enter, participants only need to send their work before the deadline expires on August 30, 2012 at midnight, Chile time.

This initiative is led by Andes Wines.com, the first wine culture website in Chile and Latin America. In its second version, the competition emerges as a result of the big success of comic strips about wine in Asia, particularly in Japan.

This graphic culture of wine comic books is boosting wine sales in the region by reaching youth consumers and professionals over 25 years old who are just starting to learn about wine as an option to beer and other spirits.

The trend is led by renowned Japanese manga “Kami no Shizuku,” which translates to “The Drops of God”. The story tells about a fictional hero in a quest to find the 12 best wines the world in order to inherit his father’s priceless wine collection. The comic has been described as “The Da Vinci Code” of wine.

The competition is open to all people, from oenophiles to designers and oenology experts, from all over the world, who want to produce a comic strip with wine a focal point.

Last year, the I International Wine Comic Competition awarded first prices to the comic strip “La Bodega Universal” (the universal cellar), by Spanish designer Juan Palacio.

The II International Wine Comic Competition is split into four categories: grape harvest, wine myths and legends, stories and wine characters. Those who are interested in participating can request the rules of the competition at andes@andeswines.com.

The international spread of the competition has reached Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, the United States, Europe, and Asia.

The first prize will be awarded US$500 and the publication of the comic at http://www.andeswines.com, both in English and Spanish, in addition to many other rewards that will be informed during the next weeks.

Andes Wines Communications ™

(56) 9 – 9-219 7117

andes@andeswines.com

ANDES WINES SHOP OPENS IN SANTIAGO

Visitors to our store in Quilicura can expect to find the best sample of Chilean wine making and gourmet products all year-round.

(Santiago, February 2012) Andes Wines announces the opening of the Andes Wines Wine Shop, beginning this February, 2012, a service-oriented wine and gourmet products business with an emphasis on local brands.

Situated in the Mall Premium Buenaventura, in Quilicura, the Andes Wines Wine Shop features a wide variety of wines from all the winemaking valleys in Chile, and a myriad of gourmet products, wine accessories, artisanal beer and renowned spirits brands like vodka, rum, whisky, tequila, among others.

The Andes Wines Wine Shop offers sales prices that range from 10% to 60% discount on a wide variety of wines from renowned brands such as Concha y Toro, San Pedro, Tarapacá, Bisquertt, Casa Donoso, Casas del Toqui, William Fevre, Portal del Alto, Morandé, La Rosa, Anakena, Villalobos, Encomenderos, Via Wines, Ventolera, Lafken, Calyptra, Nerkihue, Cuve del Maolee, and Ventisquero.

The shop also features artisanal beers like Austral, Falken y DieM, and gourmet products such as smoked venison ham, venison and wild boar salami, olive oil, garlic pastes, lamb ham, fruit infusions, Mexican tuna, chutneys and sugar free jam, pates and quail eggs, artisanal mustard, dried fruits, natural juices, manjares (milk-based sauce or spread) and marmalades, gourmet cheeses and honey, Emu carpaccio, among other delicious alternatives.

The wine accessories found in the store range from tasting glasses in different sizes and formats, decanters, different types of corkscrews and bottle openers, etc.

To make this shopping experience even more enjoyable, the customers can have their shopping delivered to their homes or anywhere in Santiago by using our “Delivery Service.”

Opening hours:

Monday thru Saturdays from 10:00 to 20.00; Sunday and Holidays, from 11:00 to 19.00 hrs.

Location:

Mall Buenaventura Premium Outlet, Avenida San Ignacio N°500, Bodega 4, Quilicura, easily accesed from Autopista Nor-Oriente, Autopista Américo Vespucio Norte, Túnel San Cristóbal, Autopista 5 Norte, and Carretera General San Martín.

Andes Wines

(2)-3702997

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

THE WINE SHOPPING (IN CHILE) DILEMMA

Andes Wines asked its sweets and pastry writer Suzanne Taylor to embark on a very special mission: try having a stress-free wine shopping experience in Santiago. With more than 90 wineries and 15 different wine regions to show off for, it was all but a piece of cake!

For some, it can be an awfully daunting task to dare go into a wine shop. The pressure of finding that perfect bottle can make you freeze in your tracks. Try making a decision when you are not sure what it is that you’re looking for, never mind if you’re going into a shop in a foreign country, particularly if it´s a wine producing one.

Personally, I love walking into a wine store and gawking like a little kid in a candy store at the wall of wines. So imagine what’s it like to me here in Chile, when you have 15 different wine regions and more than 90 wineries being represented; Carménère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay… and the list goes on and on.

But before you start playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe let me tell you about some excellent spots to locate that perfect bottle here in Santiago.

Yes, you can find wine in the supermarkets, but forget about a varied selection or getting any service other than showing you to isle #9. However, I can tell you about a couple of boutique shops in the Providencia and Las Condes neighbourhoods that I would definitely give my repeat business to because of their incredible selections of some of Chile’s finest wines: El Mundo del Vino and Baco Vino.

Now, the name El Mundo De Vino may be a little misleading at first glance. It’s not that this shop has wines from around the world, but rather wines from one end of Chile to the other. The Parque Arauco location didn’t seem to have anything but Chilean wines, while the store on Isidora Goyenechea had a small selection of some French and Argentinian wines. But seriously, if you can’t find something here, you are being way too fussy!

Of course, with so many different terroirs and climates within Chile, there’s much to study. What makes a Chardonnay from the cool climate region of Limarí in the North different from a Chardonnay in the cool climate region of Casablanca in the central part of the country? In order to sell your product, you really need to know your grapes. Thankfully, the salespeople from both stores were very well trained and easily approachable.

In total, I visited El Mundo del Vino three times; twice in the Parque Aruaco location and the other time in the Isidora Goyenechea. The salespeople in the first spot knew enough English to tell me stories behind the labels and I liked that. I knew that I wanted to try something different and that I might not possibly be able to acquire back home. The lesser known winery, at least to me, of Odjfjell appealed because of its background of a former Norwegian shipper that fell in love with Chile and brought over horses as a gift to his adopted new land.  It appeared as if we had a love in common; Chile and horses. So the bottle of Odjfjell’s Orzado Syrah 2006 with the label of the horse easily made its way to the cashier.

At the Goyenechea location, I had to practice my Spanish a little more. The woman serving me didn’t know English, but could recommend various types of wines depending on what grape I was looking for. She did look up various vineyards and grapes in a wine book for me.

But beyond that, I would say it would be a little difficult for someone who doesn’t know any Spanish to try and get a sense of the true service that I think can be available here. In all fairness, there may have been someone else who knew more English but wasn’t available at the time. Only because the location is definitely a tourist hotspot, I would expect there to be some spoken English.

Now be prepared, as these stores may try to sell you on Chile’s signature grape, Carménère. It helps to know if you have had the chance to try it before. This is where Baco may have the advantage because they sell only what is available in their restaurant.

You can find a very good list of approximately 20 wines available by the glass in the Baco restaurant. But back in the store, their service was terrific. In English, they were able to describe flavours of various grapes and the distinctions between the same grapes but from different valleys, which I thought was very interesting. I can really appreciate when someone takes the time to help me learn something new. That day in particular was quite warm and I was recommended a nice bottle of crisp and clean 2011 Sauvignon Blanc from the Casablanca winery of Matetic. A repeat customer came in at the time I was there and asked for a selection of 6 bottles to be ready for air transport, which I thought, was a plus as well.

And don’t worry if Carménère isn’t your thing as there are at least ten other types of grape deliciousness to choose from. This is where the trained staff can really help guide you through the maze of labels.

At both places, they didn’t try to push the more expensive brands. Instead, they tried to narrow in on what type of wine I preferred in order to find the wine best suited to my taste. They were also very good at food and wine pairing or suggesting wines that were good for sipping on their own.

It was only after a week researching and visiting specialized wine stores that I could fully grasp Chile’s diversity in wine growing regions, grape varieties, flavours, and textures. I wish I had time to try them all. But realistically, nobody can. For the sake of my liver, however, going to these shops helped to narrow my choices. It is in their best interest to make sure that they give you the service and information that you need to receive so that hopefully you’ll be a return customer and can be more at ease when facing that wall of wines.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

RABOBANK: 2012 WILL BE “THE BEST” AND “WORST” OF TIMES FOR THE GLOBAL BEVERAGE INDUSTRY (PREVIEW)

Five megatrends will lead the consolidation of the sector this years, warns the Dutch bank.

(Santiago, February 2012) Volatility, the emerging market demand, the bifurcation of value, the convergence in distribution, and sustainable sourcing, will be the key trends in the Global Beverages sector this year, making this both the “best of times” and “worst of times” for industry players, warns Dutch bank Rabobank in a recent report by its Global Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory department.

The bank cautions that those “beverage companies that have the vision and resources to take advantage of the five key megatrends are likely to see brighter days ahead in 2012.”

For the wine sector, the bank expects tighter global inventories and weaker currencies in Europe and North America, which could bring shifts in competitive sourcing.

Rabobank believes that growth expectations will contrast sharply across product segments and global regions. The bank also discusses the emergence of new global players in the convergence between soft drinks and beer, and expects developing markets such as India to see dramatic growth in the spirits segment.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

ANDES WINES’ INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD HEMMING

The wine & drinks writer -whose work appears on the Jancis Robinson-MW website- applauds Chile and Argentina for their wines, but warns that they have yet to show their full potential as wine producing countries.

(Santiago, February 2012) Richard Hemming currently works as wine & drinks writer at Sainsbury’s Magazine and for the renowned wine critic Jancis Robinson’s website. Before that, he worked for six years as Senior Manager for the leading UK retailer Majestic Wine, period in which he earned his Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Diploma. He also worked in 2008 at Kangarilla Road Winery at McLaren Vale, one of Ausralia’s renowned wine regions.

In an exclusive interview with Andes Wines.com, Hemming talks about his passion for wine, how he came to work with Robinson, and warns that although their wines are good and reliable, Chile and Argentina have yet to show their full potential as wine producing countries.

AW: When did you start to work with Jancis Robinson and how did you come by this opportunity?

RH: I wrote my first article for Jancis in February 2008. It was a chronicle of how the vintage was going. I simply emailed her with some things I had written, and she got back in touch. Following that, I travelled around Australian wine regions and kept sending her some articles; at first, it was an informal arrangement but when I came back to London in the Summer of 2008 we met in person and she offered me more tastings opportunities and press trips to cover. A lot of the time we work separately -going to tastings, writing up notes and publishing them online. There is no office space as such, so we all work from home.

AW: Which wine country have you visited in the New World? Any favourites?

RH: I’ve been to Australia, California, Chile, Brazil, New Zealand, and South Africa. I suppose Australia is the country I know the most about, and I do think they have some phenomenally good wines there. I was very impressed with Chile, too, when I went there last year. I believe wine regions like Limarí and Leyda are making some fantastic wines.

AW: What’s your opinion of Chilean and Argentinean wines? Are they well focused on the UK market?

RH: I think they are both well focused. Chile can look too branded and mainstream at times, which is a shame because the consumer doesn’t get to see the full potential of smaller producers. Generally though, I think the quality is good and reliable. Argentina, I would say, needs to diversify slightly: Malbec is a great style, but too much of it tastes too similar. It would be great if there were some other alternatives. I have seen people experimenting with Touriga Nacional and other varieties; perhaps this will encourage more variation.

AW: Are there enough wine events in the UK, particularly for consumers rather than the specialized media?

RH: Yes, there are. The trade is very active. Consumers have lots of choice from Decanter, the Wine Gang, as well as other wine fairs and exhibitions. Plus, retailers are very good at running tasting events for their customers. As for advice, the single most important thing is getting the basics right: enough room, enough spittoons, correct information in the catalogue (price, vintage, percentage vol, etc.) It’s amazing how many events don’t get this right! AW

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

APERTURA TIENDA DE VINOS DE ANDES WINES

Establecimiento ofrece una amplia variedad de más de vinos, cervezas artesanales, licores y productos  gourmet.

Esta semana Andes Wines abrió su Tienda de Vinos para ofrecer durante todo el año una amplia variedad de más de 25 viñas y 25 productores gourmet, cervezas artesanales y diversas marcas de licores y espirituosos como vodka, ron, whisky, tequila, entre otros.

La gran fortaleza de la Tienda de Andes Wines radica en descuentos todo el año entre 10% y hasta 60% en los precios de diversas líneas de vinos de reconocidas marcas nacionales como Concha y Toro, San Pedro, Tarapacá, Bisquertt, Casa Donoso, Casas del Toqui, William Fevre, Portal del Alto, Morandé, La Rosa, Anakena, Villalobos, Encomenderos, Via Wines, Ventolera, Lafken, Calyptra, Nerkihue, Cuve del Maolee y Ventisquero.

La Tienda cuenta también con cervezas artesanales como Austral, Falken y DieM, además de productos gourmet como lomo de ciervo ahumado, salame de ciervo/jabalí, aceite de oliva, pastas de ajo, jamón de Cordero, infusiones de frutas, atún mexicano, chutney y mermeladas con y sin azúcar, patés y huevos de codorniz, mostaza artesanal, frutos secos, jugos naturales, manjares y mermeladas, quesos especiales, mieles gourmet, paté y carpaccio de Emú, entre otras deliciosas alternativas.

En cuanto a accesorios vitivinícolas, destacan las copas de degustación en diferentes formatos, decantadores, descorchadores para vinos y espumantes, y novedosos cortagotas.

La Tienda de Andes Wines ofrece también un servicio de “Wine Delivery”, despacho a domicilio, que busca facilitar aún más el acceso a la variada oferta.

Fecha y horario:

Lunes a Sábado de 10 a 20.00; Domingo y Festivos, de 11 a 19.00 hrs.

Ubicación:

Mall Buenaventura Premium Outlet, Avenida San Ignacio N°500, Bodega 4, Quilicura, con fácil acceso por Autopista Nor-Oriente, Autopista Américo Vespucio Norte, Túnel San Cristóbal, Autopista 5 Norte y Carretera General San Martín.

Andes Wines
(2)-3702997
andes@andeswines.com

CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE TO SUSTAINABILITY IN THE WINE SECTOR

Since ancient times, viticulture has been one of the agricultural practices most vulnerable to variations in climate. Current Climate Change patterns are intensifying this connection.

Por Marta Lillo y Sandra Vargas, AndesWines.com

(Santiago, February 2012) Climate Change is one of the most debated scientific phenomenons of the past century.

The issue has given way to a global trend of sound environmental, social and political practices denominated Sustainability. This trend is not uniform, let alone accepted by everybody, but it´s one of the global solutions that have emerged to face a reality that has become evident in the past 50 years: the climate of our planet is changing, for better and for worse.

Unlike previous millennia, however, when adjustments in climate took place also at planetary levels, this time the human influence has had a role to play in the process. Our part has consisted mostly in increasing the normal volume of greenhouse gases (GHG) emission sent to the atmosphere and the unrestrained use of finite natural resources, both distinctive human practices markedly executed since the Industrial Revolution.

Gradual but rising global temperatures are the most palpable result of this transformation. It is having irreversible impacts on our biodiversity. And grapes are one of the natural resources that are showing most of the symptoms.

Diversity in the production of wine has always depended on even the most subtle changes in climate. Viticulture is therefore particularly sensitive to the current situation. That is why an industry so traditional and rooted like wine making, which depends so much on planting and harvesting seasons, has seen many opportunities both open up and close because of climate change.

From France to Chile, no wine producing region has been left intact. But the impact has not been, nor will become, uniform. Planting and harvesting times have either come earlier or have had to be pushed back, depending on the terroir where the grapevines are located.

While some regions seem threatened, others have become the new wine frontiers. A very good example is Great Britain, an island where nobody would have risked producing wine not even half a century ago. Climate just wasn’t good enough, not even for ice wine. Not until the 1960s, when gradual rising temperatures and variations in climate started to cause longer and warmer days. Today, the British market has become a leader in the international sparkling wine and Sauvignon Blanc markets.

Article 4.8 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change places Chile among the countries most at risk of being affected by changes in prevailing global climate patterns. Because of its geographical and climatic conditions, the country reluctantly complies with seven of the nine characteristics of vulnerability indicated by the framework.

Wine climatologist from the University of Southern Oregon, Gregory Jones, warned in 2006 that the temperature in the Chilean central valley would rise 1.8°C during harvesting times for the next 50 years, going from a Mediterranean climate to a much hotter one. He then recommended that national viticulture should adapt by migrating to regions higher in altitude and father down to the South.

These warning were matched by an extensive research conducted by Chilean technological wine consortium Vinnova and PricewaterHouseCoopers in 2009. It revealed that as a result of the current climate change patterns, less rain would fall in continental Chile; rainfall in the Central zone would decrease by 30%, less areas would be able to rely on non-irrigated cultivation (secano) between the VII and VIII regions, the Mediterranean climate would expand to the South and temperatures would rise from 1° to 1.5°C by 2050 and between 2° and 4° by 2100.

As climate change advances, Chile faces important climatic and biogeographic transformations and its emblematic wine industry has begun to pay attention.

Flattening the land

For the past ten years, the industry has adopted a series of activities and initiatives in sustainability for adaptation and mitigation purposes; the first, to adapt to the impacts of climate change with the resources at hand; the second, to mitigate their contribution of GHG emissions to the atmosphere.

Most of the projects, public and private, concentrate mostly in the Central valley of Chile.

The most ambitious effort so far is a comprehensive Sustainability Program led by the national wine association Wines of Chile, and its technical branches Vinnova and Tecnovid, consisting of four projects that respond to environmental, economic and social sustainability issues.

Its cornerstone is the Sustainability Code, which establishes parameters for the production chain and national practices in wine production. According to Wines of Chile, wineries have now the opportunity to measure their progress toward the use of more sustainable practices and receive recognized and validated accreditation or certification for their efforts. It’s scheduled to be fully implemented this year (for more click here).

The Program also intends to have wineries in Chile issue their Sustainability reports following the methodology of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which addresses aspects of Social Responsibility in the individual companies as well as industrial association.

A third important aspect of the Sustainability Program is the Network of Meteorological Stations for Chile’s winegrowing valleys. This pioneering project has already established more than 15 meteorological stations. It aims to expedite the adoption of sustainability practices by understanding the weather and climate conditions in the wine regions, allowing the implementation of bioclimatic indicators to characterize the terroirs found in the country, detect the climatic variations that may cause health-sanitary problems, and support the decision-making process in the wineries.

A fourth part of this Program concerns the practices of energy efficiency in cellars and production locations. The project aims to record the best practices available in the sector to create a protocol for the national industry.

Another important nation-wide project is the “Wine, Climate Change, and Biodiversity” led by the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity at the Universidad Austral de Chile, co-funded by CONICYT and the Chilean government entity Millennium Science Initiative (MSI). The project is studying the uses and impacts of biodiversity in the production of wine, with climate change as center point. The wine regions represented in the research are Leyda, Aconcagua, Alto Cachapoal, Colchagua, Maipo, Bío-Bío, and Casablanca.

Meanwhile, the wineries at Colchagua valley lead most of the private efforts to reduce and/or neutralize CO2 emissions in their chain of production and in the use of glass bottles, while others also have started to experiment with solar panels and wind turbines.

Also, a project in the Itata valley aims to develop a more sustainable agricultural policy for the region and the country. The Group for Technology Transfer in Wine of the Itata Valley, coordinated by INIA Bío Bío, is congregating small, medium and big producers of traditional grapes such as País (red) and Moscatel de Alejandría (white), characteristic in the area, besides the incorporation of “fine varieties” such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Merlot, and Syrah.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

CLIMATOLOGIST GREGORY JONES: “THE TIE BETWEEN CLIMATE AND WINE IS UNIQUE”

Gregory Jones is one of the few climate scientists in the world to study the “intriguing” relationship between wine and climate. His research shows that viticulture is capable to adapt to changes in climate, but only to a certain point. Climate Change today is challenging this 20,000 years romance, warns the scientist.

(Santiago, February 2012) Agriculture is directly dependent on climate, more than any other human-led activity.

Yet the natural and man-made processes that are giving shape to the current pattern of Climate Change such as rising temperatures, more frequent extreme weather, greater greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced water availability, among others, are overrunning the conventional capacity of this sector to adapt to changes in climate. And for viticulture, the situation leaves a particular after taste.

However, to understand how climate change adds further challenges to the many economic and social challenges that viticulture must traditionally face, at AndesWines.com we found necessary to first understand the relationship between wine and climate.

A relationship that climatologist Gregory Jones finds “intriguing”. This is because of the unique blend of climatic, geological, and biological conditions that have allowed the development of a limited and relatively narrow number of geographical and climatic regions in the world that can support wine growth and production.

But how did this scientist from Southern Oregon University come to study wine? Twenty-five years ago, Jones’ father asked him where it would be a good place in the West Coast to grow Spanish wine grapes. To his astonishment, Jones was not able to find much scientific data about the relationship between climate and wine. An idea ripened in his head.

Today, he’s one of the few leading scientific figures in the world to focus his studies on the climatology of viticulture. Decanter magazine even placed him among the 50 most influential people in the wine world in its 2009 Power List.

And climate change has been keeping him busy this past quarter-century. His studies show that the phenomenon has the potential to impact every form of agriculture, with viticulture at a greatest risk than any other type of crop.

His work put him under the spotlight in mid-2000s as the international wine industry began to fully realize that adapting to the phenomenon was a mandatory step in its survival.

However, this impact is not uniform, warns Jones. For greater part of the 20^th century, the observed warming of global temperatures has been largely beneficial for viticulture in many regions, particularly the coldest climates in Europe, by allowing longer and warmer growing seasons with less risk of frost.

Yet, as global temperatures continue to increase, his projections and that of his colleagues show both beneficial and detrimental impacts; on the positive side, it could set the conditions for new wine regions. On the negative, it has the potential to hinder the ability of some grape varieties and current terroirs to adapt to more extreme variations in climate.

In this interview with AndesWines.com, Jones warns about why climate and wine make a particular assemblage, the risks of climate change to wine production, and the need of further studies in this field.

AW: How challenging was for you to become a climate scientist specialized in viticulture?

GJ: I have been doing climate, viticulture, and wine production research for about 25 years now. The tie between climate and wine is so unique and full of interesting physical and cultural influences that, along with a wonderful history, made for an easy choice of what area of agriculture to study. While I do not find it particularly difficult, I do find that it is very challenging in terms of new issues and means of understanding the relationships.

AW: Why did you start guiding your studies towards climate change and its impact on wine?

GJ: In my early studies of climate and agriculture I was initially interested in broad scale crops such as corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans, but I found the complex inter-relationships between the physical and cultural environment that together produce wine (terroir) so intriguing that I was drawn to the wine industry. People find wine interesting because of the romance, the geography, and the history and I guess that is what pulled me toward it as a scientist.

AW: How would you define viticulturists’ and winegrowers’ relation with climate? What issues concerning climate do you think worry them the most?

GJ: Growers are intimately aware of their weather and climate, if they were not they would not stay in business long. The planting of any crop is strongly tied to what the climate will allow and its productivity and quality is tied to short term variability. Growers are clearly most concerned with the short term effects of individual weather events that could damage the crop (e.g., heavy rain, hail, etc.), but are also concerned with vintage to vintage variability, which can be large in wine regions worldwide. However, growers do not produce in a climate environment in isolation; they do it in a multi-risk environment where markets, economic influences, government regulation, and other external pressures put added pressure on climate issues.

AW: Regarding climate change, where lays the vulnerability of wine making?

GJ: There are three areas: changes in average conditions, changes in variability, and changes in extremes. While we often hear the most about changes in average conditions, I think that growers have more adaptive potential to deal with average temperature changes. However, increased variability in the weather/climate, from week to week and vintage to vintage, is much harder to predict and manage. Furthermore, changes in extremes, which we are already seeing, bring much greater risk to productivity. However, a grower/producer who is aware of the changes and manages the crop system well in terms of the changes will likely reduce their vulnerability and increase their adaptive capacity in the face of more change.

AW: Is there evidence on the effects in vine and fruit composition of elevated CO2 levels and higher temperatures?

GJ: Yes, there is plenty of evidence of the impact of temperature on vine phenology and fruit composition. We are seeing mostly higher sugar levels, lower acidity, and general balance issues across many regions, varieties, and wine styles. The issue of CO2 is less clear. We know that more CO2 means likely leads to a larger plant, bigger leaves, and potentially higher production. However, very few studies have looked at the combined effects all the way into the wine and how it ages. So, more work needs to be done in this area.

AW: How adaptable is viticulture to changes in the environment and climate? Is climate change modifying this ability in any way?

GJ: Wine grapes do offer a wide range of adaptive potential, both in the plant system and how they are managed. For the plant system we have numerous varieties that all have different climate requirements and changes to other varieties provide a tremendous amount of adaptation. However, management provides a tremendous amount of adaptation without having to change varieties. Vineyard management strategies of row orientation, vine canopy structure, soil and cover crop management, irrigation strategies all have room for managing some level of a change in climate.

AW: Yet, there is a trend in Europe to replace indigenous varieties by more popular, mainstream varieties. What impact could this have on the climatology of wine?

GJ: I think the trend is not universal in Europe. Many regions are still focused on local varieties because these clearly grow best. They might also hold the keys to genetic material that could better help breed new varieties, and they have unique market niches. However, many producers all over the world are still planting the more mainstream varieties due to the ease of marketing them. AW

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

ENJOYING THE CHILEAN COFFEE SCENE: BYE, BYE NESCAFÉ!

FOOD AND SOCIAL MEDIA: EVERYBODY IS ENTITLED TO MY OPINION

Andes Wines’ sweets and pastry writer Suzanne Taylor writes about how social media has transformed our relationship with food, connecting us at a whole different level with our appetite and foodies alike at the cyber-table.

I can remember when I was working in the Canadian Rockies in the early 90’s and I was told that I would have to take some computer training. At the time, I thought “Why? I have cheesecakes to bake.”

Ok – so I was just a little naïve back then; I was trying to learn my craft and understand the science behind why my eggs curdle rather than think about how to use a PC. Obviously, my crystal ball wasn’t working or I would have seen the explosion of what has become a behemoth food industry with an online audience to match.

Fast forward to 2012 and here we are in a world obsessed with food and drink. I have so much choice in where to get my information with just a click of a mouse. But perhaps technology is playing a bigger role in the guise of Facebook, Twitter, and the countless number of food blogs and apps that are popping up all time.

Fan pages from Facebook and Twitter feeds are connecting groups of people that may live at opposite ends of the earth or from their own backyards. The current wave of “food trucks” connects with its followers by sending out their GPS via Twitter. New web apps are being developed to cater to every whim in the food galaxy.

Most of the early food bloggers started out by just posing a question online or they just wrote what they loved to talk about in the world of food. “Chowhound”, for example, wanted to know about the best place to eat on the way to a particular destination. Gradually, locals would weigh in on their favourite places. That was culinary tourism in its infancy.

In an industry where a new top chef is treated like a headlining celebrity and food critics seem unapproachable, food blogging has become an area where the average person has the chance to have their say about a new restaurant or current food trend.

Some people feel slightly intimidated asking questions to chefs because it may seem as if they’ve been put on a pedestal. But each time the food bloggers write, a new connection develops between themselves and their readers. Because they tend to write as if they are talking to a friend, their readers start to connect with them on a different level. People are able to respond in a more personal and informal manner.

While reading one of such blogs, it occurred to me why a) there are so many and b) why people read them. We lead such sedentary lifestyles these days compared to say even 50 years ago. Technology has taken off to heights not imagined even 15 years ago. We are supposed to be connected and plugged in more than ever before, but perhaps there is something missing.

As much as we need technology, we need something more and that’s a human connection. Reading blogs allows us to connect with the author and vice versa. I can’t think of any other industry that has had such an impact on every day life. In a world that is turning faster all the time, what it boils down to is getting back to what connects us all- the food.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

ANDES WINES AND NORWEGIAN FIRM nLINK TO DELIVER WEB APPLICATIONS TO THE WINE INDUSTRY

Firms will work together to develop and deliver high-definition web tools to wine industries and consumers in 15 countries.

(Santiago, January 2012) Chilean wine marketing and strategy firm Andes Wines announced that it has signed a strategic alliance agreement with Norwegian web applications developer nLink, as part of its new spin-off project “WineAmix: Digital Laboratory”.

Wine Amix’s main objective is to fuel innovation in the winemaking, food, tourism, and entertainment businesses with the use of digital tools. For this purpose, it will offer a custom-made service in the design and implementation of digital tools to improve customer relationship management initiatives, as well as generate and/or increase sales using the Web as a tool.

Through this alliance, Andes Wines and nLink will work together to develop and deliver high definition web applications starting with an interactive “wine-quiz,” a game platform that will bring together winemakers and consumers in 15 countries.

Halvor Gregusson, co-founder of nLink, said: “This partnership combines two successful industries in the San Francisco region. The wine industry can leverage from the market communication provided by well designed applications. In return, tech-consumers will gladly spread the word about their new app when they find good tasting wine in their physical mailbox. Working with Andes Wines, which possess the logistics for branding and exporting wine, is a vital part in the future of Word of Mouth marketing.”

In the meantime, the companies have jointly begun to search for investment partners in Silicon Valley and San Francisco in order to raise around US$ 2 million in start-up capital, all the while they have begun negotiations with wineries in Chile and the United States to offer this service.

Andes Wines’ spin-off emerges as a result of the firm’s ten years of experience in the international markets after becoming the first wine marketing firm in South America, with an office in Santiago led by the company’s CEO Maximiliano Morales.

“We are currently making US$ 1 million in gross sales through our wine, beer and gourmet products sales, which motivated us to set up this ‘spin off’ due to our knowhow in selling, marketing and promoting Chilean wine abroad,” said Morales from Andes Wines”, CEO Morales said.

The agreement was signed in December 2011 in San Francisco, California, in parallel to Morales’ participation in a two-week Silicon Valley Immersion Program California, at the University of San Francisco, after being awarded a grant by Chilean economic development agency Corfo- Innova Bío Bío.

For more information, contact:

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

(56)(2) 370 2997

HOLIDAY FEASTS, CHILEAN STYLE!

Andes Wines’ sweets and pastry writer Suzanne Taylor shares her impressions about some food traditions that surround Christmas and New Year’s in Chile, and reveals a secret about the once, the quintessential Chilean meal, that will leave many wondering…

One of the best ways to learn about a different culture is to share food and drink. Some of the Christmas customs in Chile may mirror those in the north. But then when you factor in the summertime heat, it all goes south from there, but in the best way.

Let’s start with a local must be. Throughout the year, Chileans enjoy a light snack called “once” (pronounced “own-say”) in the late afternoon. At Christmas time, this snack becomes especially important because they won’t have dinner until 9-10 on Christmas Eve. Because let’s face it, no one wants to cook a turkey when it’s sweltering outside!

Rumour has it that once started long ago when men wanted to have a drink at 5pm. Happy Hour back then was considered taboo. So they devised the code word “once” which means “eleven” in Spanish and is also the exact same amount of letters in the alcohol “aguardiente”. I see a bit of a pattern here.

Now, this same alcohol is in the seasonal drink, “Cola de Mono,” or monkey’s tail. Don’t worry; no monkeys were harmed in the making of this drink. It consists of milk, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, coffee, sugar and aguardiente; it’s the equivalent to drinking eggnog.

The typical feasts include roast turkey, chicken or beef, potatoes and crisp salads. For dessert, there are fresh fruits and Pan de Pascua. Some say it is like fruit cake, but I would say that it is a closer cousin to the Italian Panettone. It is not commonly made at home because, again, who wants to spend all that time in a hot kitchen when you can be by the pool with your Cola de Mono.

However, for me it just doesn’t feel like Christmas unless there are shortbread cookies around. So I decided to give it a try here, using local ingredients…

In my defence, I can tell you that back in Calgary, I would make thousands of cookies leading up Christmas. But of course, I had a huge mixer to help. In my rented furnished apartment here in Santiago, I had a bowl and a spoon.

All I wanted to make was a small batch of cookies! At one point I started to have one of those moments… you know, one of those What was I thinking? moments, when all I had to do was look at the butter and it would melt. Not the consistency I wanted in my cookie dough.

In the end, the cookies looked great but they had a bit of a crumble problem which I rather suspect is because of the flour difference down here. I’m sure I’ll find some volunteers for my next experiment.

There are interesting food traditions that are more common for New Year’s, as well. One is eating a spoonful of lentils, which supposedly will bring prosperity in the New Year. Considering the financial crisis over the last year, better make that two spoonfuls! Also, eating 12 grapes and making a wish with each grape. Lastly, my favourite, is bringing in the New Year with a glass of champagne and a scoop of pineapple sorbet inside! Yum!

So I bid farewell to 2011, and look forward to the delicious surprises I will write about in this hot Chilean summer. A hint: think fruit!

All the best for a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

Twitter @andeswines

SOME CHILEAN CULINARY GEMS

Andes Wines’ sweets and pastry writer Suzanne Taylor visited the VIII Andes Wines Gourmet Food and Wine Sale, the largest of its kind in Chile … and was in for a big surprise!

To many North Americans, knowledge of Chilean foods may only lead to the produce section where fruits like blueberries, blackberries, grapes and apples are abundant during the winter season. But dive a little further and you would be surprised at just how much more there is to this extremely diverse country. And why not, when you have such extremes in climate and geography from top to bottom.

You can see it for yourself at the Andes Wines Gourmet Food and Wines Sale in the Buenaventura Outlet Mall in Quilín, until December 31 at San Ignacio 500, Bodega 18, Quilicura. It was here that I found culinary gems from all different areas unique to Chile. Locally grown olive oils, cured deer meats, jams, artisan cheeses and seafood are just a few of the things you will find, not to mention amazing Chilean wine. You just have to love assignments like these!

Despite its name, the Chilean palette tends to prefer foods that are not too intense or spicy. This is not Mexico! Having said that, the indigenous people, the Mapuche, have been using their own blend of smoked dried chiles for years called “merquén.” Now this English background girl doesn’t normally appreciate really spicy things, but is has an incredible flavor that just cries out to the “asados” (barbeques in Chile.)

Because merquén is becoming more main stream, there is the introduction of other slightly spicy sauces and preserves to the Chilean kitchen such as Productos Toty. They make a wonderful chopped olive spread that comes in various levels of spiciness. This is great on crackers, in dressings for salads, sauces for roasting or with rice dishes.

Of course it wouldn’t be Chile without salt and Sal Gourmet makes a line of salt products to tempt different taste buds. Various spices, herbs or even vegetables are dried with the salt and then later ground up to produce a more flavorful and colorful salt.

Gourmet mustards, pasta de ajo, -a garlic paste that has been delicately infused with seasonings or herbs from the Island of Chiloe- as well as cebollas al Merlot (onions in a Merlot wine reduction) are just some of the examples of spreads and sauces that would enhance sandwiches, roast meats or cheese trays.

From the far south, on Isla Fresia, comes the new product of salami de ciervo from Bauser. These salamis of deer or boar would be perfect for light lunches or an enticing appetizer.

Let’s not forget the dessert course. Sweetened condensed milk or “manjar” as it is called in Chile, is almost a national treasure. It can be found in all kinds of desserts and ice creams. But the ingenious founder of Doña Vicky decided to do something different with it. She created a series of recipes that included rice, beans and fruits so that her children would eat manjar without realizing they were eating something good for them.

There are lots of preserved papayas, peaches and cherries. The day I was there, the owner of Dulce Patria was handing out samples of the syrup like dessert that has the essence of almonds with a touch of cream that just melted away on your tongue.

These were just a few of the many examples of the tastes of Chile. Being able to talk with some of the producers, you could see how proud they are of their products. The pride of Chile always comes shining through!

Of course wine is the star too, considering the 8th Wine Sale has over 35 wine brands, plus three beer brands and several spirits, tequila, vodka, whisky, etc.

Opening hours: Monday to Saturday from 10 to 20.00, Sunday and holidays from 11 to 19.00 hrs.

Location: Avenida San Ignacio N°500, Edificio 2, Bodega 18, Quilicura, with easy access coming from Autopista Nor Oriente, Autopista Américo Vespucio Norte, Túnel San Cristóbal, Autopista 5 Norte and Carretera General San Martín.

CAMPOGATE BRINGS THE INDEPENDENCE OF WINE CRITICS TO QUESTION ONCE AGAIN

Formal legal investigations and the resignation of Jay Miller to The Wine Advocate are the most recent developments in the Campogate scandal.

The debate about how independent can wine critics really be added another chapter with American critic Jay Miller leaving The Wine Advocate, and both his former employer, Robert Parker, and the Institute of Master of Wine starting formal investigations on the alleged cash payments charged by Pancho Campo MW to secure access to Miller during his visit to Spanish wineries in 2011.

Miller´s decision to leave the magazine took place a few months after Decanter wine writer Jim Budd reported that winemakers in Spain were being told to pay 20,000 euros in management fees to have Miller visit their wine cellars while he toured the country during a visit organized by the Wine Academy of Spain, institution founded and directed by Campo (to read Budd’s report click here).

Budd’s extensive investigation, which revealed the e-mails that show Campo requesting Spanish winemakers to pay these fees to get Miller for a 2-day visit to their wineries and lead a wine tasting, has brought the legitimacy of the independence of wine critics to question once again.

In a public statement, Miller insisted that his departure from the magazine had been planned well before the scandal. While announcing his resignation from TWA he reiterated that he had never “accepted (or requested) fees for visiting wine regions or wineries”. He said that up until now he had felt “constrained” to respond to his critics by being part of the TWA staff. “While the office has defended my actions, justifiably, now it is time for me to speak for myself… I leave The Wine Advocate with a clear conscience,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, the publisher of the Wine Advocate and leading wine critic, Robert Parker, has defended Miller’s performance while working at the magazine, insisting that he “clearly and irrefutably has taken no money for a wine review or winery visit.”

Nonetheless, he will await the final report of the law firm Cozen O’Connor, which he asked to “determine whether our strict policy of independence in the review and tasting of wines for publication in The Wine Advocate or posting on www.eRobertparker.com was compromised by any conduct of The Wine Advocate or any other party associated with tastings in that region.”

The Institute of Masters of Wine has opened an investigation after receiving a formal complaint against Campo, as well.

Campo has denied the accusations and insisted that the management fees were destined to organized paid speeches by Miller, an not paid wine reviews.

In his blog Jim’s Loire, Budd has insisted that his reporting of these irregularities has no hidden agenda but to demonstrate how Campo was using Miller and the TWA brand for his own benefit.

He has insisted that his investigation shows “that the bodegas are being charged both for having their wines rated and assessed by Jay Miller for The Wine Advocate/erobertparker and for the opportunity to have their wines included in the master class as well as a possible visit to their bodega”.

The wine journalist has warned that “one aspect of this scandal that has yet to be explored is whether public money was used to pay Campo, The Wine Academy of Spain and Miller’s substantial lecturing fees”.

By Marta Lillo
Andes Wines Journalist

andes@andeswines.com
(56 2) 370 2997
twitter: @andeswines

MERRY CHILEAN X-MAS!

Andes Wines’ sweets and pastry writer Suzanne Taylor shares her impressions on spending Christmas for the second time in Chile… and leaves us hanging for a delicious treat!

Christmas always conjures up many memories and, of course me being Canadian, this usually involves snow; Santa Claus and Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer are usually factored in there as well.

This will be my second Christmas in Chile after last year, and I almost feel sorry for Santa Claus, known here as the Viejo Pascuero (Old Man Christmas). He doesn’t get top billing like he does in the northern hemisphere. There is a lot of other stiff competition out there that he is up against, not to mention having to wear that huge, heavy suit when it is more than 30 degrees outside. It’s like carrying around your own personal sauna.

It seems that in the past few years, stores in the United States and Canada have been stocking earlier and earlier for Christmas even before Halloween costumes have been decided on. But down here, decorations start to come out sometime in November and not to very much fanfare. There isn’t this barrage of commercials on TV trying to lure people to buy, buy, and buy some more. There is a scattering of decorated houses and apartments, but there are just too many other things to finish off before the end of the year.

People scurry around on their lunch hours; the streets are filled with tacos (Chilean for traffic jam). It’s enough for me to want to sit back and reach for a glass. Good thing there’s is plenty of choice for liquid refreshment in this country.

For Chile, the end of December does not only bring Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. This time of year also means end of the fiscal year for business, the start of summer holidays for students and other planning for family vacations and get-togethers. It always seems like there are not enough hours in the day. Well, imagine trying to organize Christmas parties and your child’s graduation ceremonies from school all in the same month.

To add more icing to the cake, a local university football team (that’s right America, not soccer!) has just won a major title, the South American Cup. This is like winning the Super Bowl, World Series and Stanley Cup all at once. I thought the New Year’s fireworks were being set off a little early after their win. Not to mention all the celebrating in the streets. Sorry Santa. You don’t stand a chance this year.

But no matter what side of the equator you’re on, one common factor always comes out on top. Getting together with family and friends is always what you will remember the most.

So I wish you a Merry Christmas! Stay tuned for my next column on Chilean Christmas holidays’ eating and drinking traditions, because there’s more to roasted turkey here. And for those feeling nostalgic, there’ll be a special treat for you: I will be making traditional Christmas desserts, Canuck style, using Chilean ingredients!

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

AH! THE SWEET (CHILEAN) LIFE

We introduce you to our newest addition to the Andes Wines team of writers, Canadian sweets and pastry critic Suzanne Taylor. Her mission is deliciously simple: getting to know Chile’s sweet side!

To some people it may have appeared as if I snapped and began a midlife crisis: I sold my house, fortunately at just the right time, and I quit my Baking and Pastry Arts Instructor job in Calgary, Canada, to come live in Chile. Here I am three years later, and I’m not freaking out. In fact, I am having the time of my life.

Why Chile? In my last year of teaching, it was decided that there would be a culinary tour to this long and narrow country. Something told me that I had to be on that trip. Little did I know how life changing it would be.

Initially, my plan was to go to Asia, but my first trip to Chile would alter everything afterwards. Normally, when I go on a vacation, I research the history and the area to death to make sure I understand more about the people and the culture. However, the time leading up to the end of my last school year went by so quickly that basically all I knew about Chile was that it was in the southern hemisphere, next to Argentina, and that it exports “a little bit” of wine and fruit to Canada. It would be an understatement to say that I was blown away by the rugged beauty of the landscape.

I was fortunate to see other countries in my time off, but there was that pull to keep coming back to the land of empanadas, pastel de choclo, and pisco sours.

Since that fateful first trip, I have come back several times to venture North, South and West of this long skinny country; there’s not really an “East”- you’re pretty much into Argentina then. It is a land of such extreme contrasts from the driest desert in the world in the North, to the daunting mountains of Patagonia and the mystical Moai statues on Easter Island. Every time I turn around, there is always a spot that leaves me breathless.

This time around, however, I will taste my way through Chile’s sweet side and bring my observations on the many cultural happenings that are at hand.

Because you only have to walk off the plane to notice that Chileans have a serious sweet tooth. There have been different influences throughout the years to mould the dessert scene throughout this country. Immigrants from France, Germany and Italy have brought over their style of cuisine and melded with the Chilean flavours. It seems that if there is a way to incorporate sugar into the food, the Chileans will find it. I’ll be happy to discover when they do it. So stay tuned…

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

(562) 370 2997

WINE SPECTATOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR EXPLAINS CHILE´S ABSENCE FROM 2011 TOP 100 LIST

Tom Matthews, the executive editor of Wine Spectator, tells us why Chile needs not to worry about not making it to this year’s ranking.

At Andes Wines we got curious about the absence of Chilean wines from Wine Spectator’s 2011 Top 100 Wine List. This is a referential ranking among winemakers worldwide, and not being on it for the first time since 2008, when Clos Apalta 2005 from Casa Lapostolle made it to the first place, got many in the industry concerned.

Let’s go back a little. From 1988, this influential wine magazine has been reviewing wines and compiling a 100 best list reflecting significant trends, outstanding productions, and successful vintages around the world. The ranking selects four criteria: quality, value, availability, and Wine Spectator’s own excitement about the wine producer, the vintage or the region, something they call “X-factor”. In their words, “these choices reflect our editors’ judgment and passion about the wines we tasted”.

So we asked Wine Spectator executive editor Tom Matthews why Chilean wines had not raised enough passion this year. His answer was very simple and toned down: Regions rise and fall every year.

“It is not a comment on Chilean wine quality in general; it has nothing to do with the change in our lead taster; it has no larger significance at all. It reflects only our editors’ judgements about the high points in wine during the year just past. Remember, we select this list from among the more than 16,000 wines we reviewed in 2011. That’s a lot of competition for only 100 spots,” he said from his office in New York.

Matthews compared the performance of Bordeaux and Chile over the past three years to explain the situation further. “In 2009, Chile had 2 and Bordeaux had 4. In 2010, Chile had 4 and Bordeaux had 1. In 2011, Chile has none, while Bordeaux has 2. So over the three years, Chile has had 6 total wines, while Bordeaux has had 7. And in 2008, Chile earned Wine of the Year honors with Clos Apalta 2005; the last time a Bordeaux was Wine of the Year was in 2004, with a Sauternes, Chateau Riussec 2001. So you could argue that in the recent past, Chile has done just as well as Bordeaux. In the future, who knows?” he said.

There is so much the wine industry can control, adds Matthews. Much will depend on factors like vintage variation, changes in the exchange rate, shifts in consumer demand, for Chile to make it back in the list. “But I believe that Chile will continue to be a major player in the US wine market, and a significant factor in our Top 100, for many years to come”, he insisted.

Andes Wines

andes@andeswines.com

(56) 2-3702997

twitter: @andeswines

ANDES WINES PREPARES DIGITAL SPIN-OFF AND TRAVELS TO SILICON VALLEY

Digital Laboratory aims to fuel innovation in the local winemaking, food and tourism, and entertainment businesses.

After 10 years developing wine sales & marketing strategies in Latin America, Chilean consulting firm Andes Wines will launch a “spin off” project to fuel innovation in the local winemaking, food and tourism, and entertainment businesses with the use of digital tools.

To speed up the implementation of this “Digital Laboratory”, Andes Wines’ CEO, Maximiliano Morales, will be among the Chilean entrepreneurs that will participate from December 3-16 in the Silicon Valley Immersion Program California, at the University of San Francisco, after being awarded a grant by Innova Bío Bío.

The Digital Lab’s main objective is to offer a custom-made service in the design and implementation of digital tools to improve customer relationship management initiatives as well as generate and/or increase sales using the Web as a tool. A secondary goal is to develop game applications to promote brands and businesses.

Andes Wines will implement this start-up firstly in Chile and later with clients across Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia, due to the strong expansion of Chilean wine and tourism in the international markets. The firm aims to gather more than 3,000 wineries, about 4,500 wine and food traders and more than 90,000 wine consumers and leaders of opinion in winemaking, food and tourism, and entertainment industries across the ten most important countries in those regions.

The project emerges as a result of Andes Wines’ 10 years of experience in the international markets after becoming the first wine marketing firm in South America, with an office in Santiago led by Morales and in Buenos Aires, Argentina by Gabriela Luna Romano.

“We are currently making US$ 1 million in gross sales through our wine, beer and gourmet products sales, which motivated us to set up this ‘spin off’ due to our knowhow in selling, marketing and promoting Chilean wine abroad,” said Morales from Andes Wines.

Andes Wines is currently negotiating with two potential investment partners to finance this new area of digital business, in order to raise around US$ 2 million in start-up capital.

The company’s commitment with entrepreneurship and start-up efforts in Chile has been from the start. The firm was among the city founders of the Concepción chapter of the knowledge and business network for innovation and entrepreneurship platform First Tuesday, and is now media partner to First Tuesday Santiago.

Andes Wines also started in 2011 its own start-up networking forum under the name of Wine After Office, in order to facilitate relationships and developments in leading and emerging industries, with wine tastings as the meeting point. Among the key speakers invited to this event was James Bond´s Quantum of Solace producer in Chile, Bud Theisen. Founder and CEO of Straightforward Films, Theisen provided an insightful analysis about the challenges ahead for Chile to become a strong destiny for international motion picture filmmaking.

In that sense, Andes Wines is exploring business opportunities in the promotion of Chilean wine and beer in international movie and advertising productions; among them, the creation of a film private equity fund to attract local and foreign investment to finance international motion picture productions in Chile.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
9-2197117 / (2) 370 2997

DISCOVERING THE MYSTERIES OF WINE THROUGH HUMAN SENSES

AW International Director, Pamela Villablanca, tells I Love Chile readers how to enjoy the mysteries of wine through smell.

(Click here to read the original column)

It’s official: springtime has arrived to Chile and its vines are waking up, showing the first buds. This might mean that some of you will be looking to visit wineries or explore the vast universe of wine to choose “the one” for the coming holidays. Whichever your case is, we will cautiously dive into the secret world of smell contained in the glass in front of you. Are you ready?

Great discoveries on human senses were awarded with Nobel Prizes; in 1961 the sense of hearing and in 1967 the sense of vision. However, the sense of smell had remained a well-kept secret until 1991 when the New York Times’ science section published an article about smell. Linda Buck was searching the G-protein class in a paper about smell receptors with Richard Axel. An astounding 1 percent of human genes are devoted to olfaction and approximately $20 billion is generated every year by industrially manufactured smells.

Virtually all of these smells are made by only seven companies—the Big Boys. With wine, smell is one of the many aspects we use to recognize grape varieties, denomination of origin and even the vintage. Let’s review the scientific facts and dive into a wine glass to discover how powerful our sense of smell is.

The English scientist Malcolm Dyson in 1938 had become conscious of a specific, outstanding human power: we can smell and instantly identify the actual atoms hidden inside a molecule. Faster than our digestive system, our nose is capable of instantly identifying atoms and its vibrations. This has been key to human’s survival and evolution. Dyson wrote a paper called “The Scientific Basis of Odor,” which was inspiration for Canadian R. H. Wright’s paper in 1977.

But there is one man whose dedication and obsession led to the writing of a work that would open doors for him into the vast, secret world where perfumes are created: Luca Turin. From the French Riviera, he wrote about wave numbers and described odor as almost entirely nominative. He wrote the first perfume guide.

With hearing, there are 88 vibrations for us to notice—every combination of atom-and-bond, its tone to its one particular frequency, is what scientists call wave number and they run from 0 to 4000. Shall we apply this to a wine tasting?

First, always hold the stem of the glass and never the body. Your hand transfers temperature to the glass and its content, and temperature aspects the smell: if too cold the wine is shy, if too warm you would smell alcohol. The visual examination helps us determine variety, style and age, among other aspects. There is a rich vocabulary to describe the wide spectrum of colors. Believe me; brick red is not good enough because it depends on where the bricks are made.

Hold the glass at a 45-degree angle. Look at the rim variation and colors in the horseshoe shape of the glass. With 4,000 wave numbers or frequencies to discover, there are no bad smells, and it is definitely as subjective as color or sound. Recognizing all of these smells is the quest of a lifetime.

To do this, explore the scents of the world around you. When traveling, never miss the opportunity to visit local markets and wander in nature. Be aware of the smells on a sunny day or when it is raining, by the ocean or in the mountains. There is nothing better than linking a smell with a great story, which is the true spirit of wine.

Wine is a result of nature and culture, and therefore we should never forget the celebration of life and sharing our discoveries and experiences. We are all learning about wine, glass by glass.

THE DIFFICULT ROAD FOR WINE IN CHINA – TIM ATKIN

By Concha y Toro

Among those present in Hong Kong was one of UK´s and Europe´s leading Masters of Wine, Tim Atkin. His main conclusion after two days of analysis, comradeship and tastings is that China continues to be difficult to invest in, that the lack of regulation is not to be taken lightly, and that those in the wine business that keep thinking this is the place to be must have patience, lots of patience (read blog here).

Even more so, with China projected to grow both demographically and economically at rates that are expected –and hoped as well- to compensate a fall in total world consumption due to the recent international crisis. Among the figures juggled is that if China imported 16.5 million cases in 2010, the number it is expected to reach 22 million this year. The outlook is that the Asian dragon will surpass the 100 million mark by 2020.

However, this optimist scenario doesn´t mean the wine business should overlook issues that may end up being mere “siren songs,” warns Atkin. A customs system lacking regulation concerning wine trade is not facilitating shipments; the fact that most fine wines are sold in Hong Kong due to its condition of free trade zone is helping to smuggle wines into the mainland to avoid the 48% rate imposed on any liquor sold on central China; local wines are uplifting their packaging and image, but this doesn´t necessarily mean they better quality, a warning that goes particularly to the foreign investment funds and businesses that are trying to buy local wineries.

To Atkin, that wealthy Chinese (particularly investment funds) still prefer fine Bordeaux such as Latife, Latour or Margaux doesn´t

By Concha y Toro

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997

VIDEO BUD THEISEN FILM PRODUCER IN CHILE

andes@andeswines.com / Gentileza de Chorrillana Estudio

JANCIS ROBINSON: AUSTRIANS THRILLED WITH 2011 VINTAGE

by Julia Harding MW

‘One of the greatest vintages in Austrian history.’ This upbeat assessment of 2011, just coming to a close, comes from Josef (Pepe) Schuller MW, founder and managing director of the Austrian Wine Academy and recent chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine, after he had joined Willi Bründlmayer’s team to pick Riesling in the Heiligenstein vineyard near Langenlois in Kamptal.

Schuller’s passing comment to Jancis came on Friday, the same day as the official harvest report from the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB), in my opinion one of the best generic wine promotional organisations around. As with all bodies whose main role is promotion, they are inclined to focus on the positives but if Schuller is right, then perhaps the Austrians didn’t need to resort to air brushing this year.

2010, by contrast, has been described as ‘the year of challenge’ in Austria, including rain and cold during the flowering season, rain in August, cool and damp in September and wet weather at the end of October, such a crucial time for the top-quality Rieslings, dry and sweet. The result was a harvest 14% lower than average, following the very short vintage of 2009. Which is why the producers are particularly relieved to have in 2011 not only a healthy harvest but also a generous one: 2.45 million hectolitres in the cellar, a massive 41% up on 2010, and this despite the volume reduction caused by hail and frost damage in some regions.

This year the weather was far kinder: ‘Even though there were cold winter temperatures, frost damage at the beginning of May, a dry period in July and even some hailstorms, there was still plenty of optimal weather to be had. The beautiful flowering period led to a good fruit set, and the sunny and warm weather of late summer delivered a good ripening phase. The continuous lovely weather conditions allowed for the luxury of choosing a harvest day according to the ripeness sought, and of “waiting it out” periods if desired. This resulted in a varied and long harvest – for example, by the beginning of the main harvest period on the Wagram, already the first bottled young wine from the Seewinkel in Burgenland was on the table. Thanks to the dry weather, there were very few fungal diseases. There was some heavy wasp infestation in a number of regions.’

The main concern, mentioned several times in the regional summaries below, seems to have been potentially low acidity levels, making canopy management and accurate harvesting times particularly critical.

Here’s the AWMB’s round up of the regions. (The photo shows vineyards in Leithaberg, Burgenland.)

Burgenland
The weather here was similar to that in other wine-growing areas. The earlier-than-usual flowering and harvest dates as well as good weather conditions allowed for well-planned work without any of the stress that was so prevalent last year, when the danger of rot had propelled the harvesting to be undertaken in the shortest time possible.

There were some problems with regional dampness and winter frosts, the cold at the beginning of May and the hailstorms on 23 June – which hit 1,600 hectares very hard. But the sunny and dry weather nurtured the healthy, undamaged grapes that were brought into the cellars. Because of the acidity, however, good nerves were required for optimal maturation to be reached. The harvest here was status quo with an estimated 715,200 hl – up 54% from last year. This is just as pleasing as the wine quality itself: firm fruitiness and pleasant acidity accompanied by – in the red wines – a distinctive deep, dark colour.

Niederösterreich
Taking into account the varied conditions in the different regions during the year – frost and hail, for example – an average volume of 1.5 million hl is estimated. The Weinviertel and the Thermenregion are showing volumes lower than their long-standing averages (Weinviertel down 9%; Thermenregion down 3%). Throughout Niederösterreich, wasps were a very disturbing element for the grape pickers as well as for the wine quality. In fact, some of the harvest was completed early because of wasp damage. Otherwise, the acidity became the main focus, as warm temperatures sparked a partial rapid decrease – to achieve just the right balance between physiological ripeness and good acidity backbone.

Steiermark
This year, the Steiermark was favoured by the weather. There was little frost and, even despite some hail damage, the average volume increased by 19% in comparison with the five-year average. The estimated 226,600 hl reflects a 28% increase over last year. Because of the early and relatively short flowering period, also the harvest began somewhat early and was completed rather quickly in order to ‘catch’ the right acidity and sugar content. The main harvest was over by mid October, and good leaf management brought fruity and full-bodied wines.

Wien
The hailstorm on 4 June is now a bad memory for the vintners of Döbling and Stammersdorf. Damage and yield loss were left in its wake. Nevertheless, Vienna boasted very good quality and a yield just slightly below the long standing average. As in other regions, the work in the vineyards determined the high gradation and acidity content. A multi-faceted selection of fruity and bodied wines is expected.

I’m looking forward to finding out if Pepe Schuller is correct.

Originally published at: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a20111107.html

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997

ARGENTINA BEATS CHILE AT SIXTH VERSION OF VINOS DE LA CORDILLERA BLIND TASTING

Argentinean wine “Gran Enemigo” received the highest score at the sixth trans-Andean wine tasting “Vinos de la Cordillera”, event organized by the Argentinean wine writer Enrique Chrabolowsky, which took place on November 5th at the Viña del Mar Sheraton hotel.

The tasting gathered around 75 wine professionals from Chile and Argentina who sampled a total of 24 wines in an original online blind wine tasting that used a sophisticated software that recorded the reviews and scores of each participant.

Andes Wines was among the wine makers, agricultural engineers, journalists and writers who tasted 12 samples from Chile and 12 from Argentina selected by Chrabolowsky and Cristina Pandolfi from the National Viticulture Institute (INV) in Argentina, and Chilean wine journalist Mariana Martínez from Planeta Vinos together with a wine panel run by Martínez.

This gathering is held in Chile and Argentina alternatively every year, and in this case the location chosen was Viña del Mar, in the Valparaiso Region, in order to promote cool climate wines produced in the area.

Gran Enemigo, produced by wine makers Alejandro Vigil and Adriana Catena, was awarded a score of 92 points. Other Argentinean wines that received 91 points are Bodegas de Belasco de Baquedano, Lindaflor y Trapiche. Chilean wines Tabali, Casas del Bosque and Morande received 91 points each as well.

The fact that very few wines received above 90 points caused great debate among the participants. The rules at the Vinos de la Cordillera contest state that the samples that receive less than 90 points are not mentioned in the final review, while the judges who award the highest and lowest scores must explain the reasons behind their decision.

Wine journalist Mariana Martínez commented that “the tight scores awarded since the contest began in 2002 and the quality of the varietals sampled in each occasion, show that both South American countries must continue working on the quality of their wines, but at the same time act as one great South American wine bloc”.

SCORES:
92 (Arg.) Gran Enemigo Malbec 2008, Mendoza
91 (CH) Tabali Reserva Especial Ensamblaje 2009, Limarí
91 (Arg) Bodega Belasco de Baquedano Swinto Malbec, Mendoza
91 (CH Casas del Bosque Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2011, Valle de Casablanca
91 (Arg) Lindaflor Malbec 2006, Mendoza
91 (Arg) Trapiche Single Vineyard Villafañe Malbec, Mendoza
91 (CH) Morande Edicion Limitada Golden Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2007, Casablanca
90 (Arg) Kaiken Mai Malbec, Mendoza
90 (Arg) Cheval des Andes Malbec-C/S-PV, Mendoza
90 (Arg) Bodega El Esteco Cabernet Sauvignon Serie Fincas Notables, Cafayate
90 (CH) Kankana del Elqui Syrah, Elqui
90 (CH) Bressia Profundo Malbec-C/S- Merlot-Syrah, Mendoza
90 (CH) San Pedro 1865 Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo
90 (Arg) Cobos Bramare Chardonnay Marchiri Vineyards, Mendoza
90 (CH) ConoSur 20 Barricas, Valle de Casablanca
90 (Arg) Alta Vista Premium Torrontés 2011, Salta

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997

MOVIE LOGISTIC EXECUTIVE AT III WINE AFTER OFFICE IN SANTIAGO

This November 7th the story of StartUps & Expats doing business in Chile will premiere at the networking and entrepreneurship event III Wine After Office. The event will host a very special guest, James Bond: Quantum of Solace logistics producer and owner of boutique film production services company Straightforward Films, Bud Theisen.

Theisen will provide a first look about his experience as a logistics and executive movie producer and his role as promoter of the country in the international movie scene. He will also talk about the pros and cons of filming in Chile, providing behind the scenes scoops about the challenges the film crew had to face when filming Quantum of Solace in the Antofagasta desert.

Entrepreneurs and business executives from the financial, real estate, gastronomy, tourism and winemaking sectors are invited to this third edition of Wine After Office, which aims to develop and strengthen new platforms for business in Chile.

More on Bud Theisen

Theisen is a Bsc in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who arrived in Chile in 1997 to work as an English teacher. Later on he began to work for the Economics Department at the University of Chile. He was introduced to the film industry by one of his students who happened to be a movie director at the production company Rojas Films.

At present he is focused on promoting Chile as a film destination for great international motion pictures productions.

Date:
Monday, November 7th at 19:30 hrs.

Venue:
Gran Central, Las Urbinas 44, Providencia.

Price:
Pre-sale at $ 7.000 (chilean pesos)
$ 10.000 on the day of the event. (chilean pesos)
Includes 2 wine glasses for each guest
Sampling of venison and wild boar from Bauser

SPONSORS:
- First Tuesday Santiago
- ACTI (Asociación Chilena de Empresas de Tecnologías de Información A.G.)

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997

WINE MEETS START-UP BUSINESS IN SANTIAGO

The latest entrepreneurial effort in Santiago brings Chilean wine, beer and gourmet food to the internet, in a fortuitous pairing with Start-Up Chile graduates.

Chilean wines partner with online business.

Three Chilean entrepreneurs are a step away from launching the next big website to sell their country’s wine, beer and gourmet products online, thanks to a push from a pair of Start-Up Chile alums from Portugal.

Chileans Pamela Villablanca – the international director at Andes Wines – along with José Miguel Sotomayor and Maximiliano Morales are heading the new company, which will be launched in collaboration with the online store Vendder.com.

The new Andes Wine spin-off represents the type of international, technology-based entrepreneurship that Chile has become famous for in the past few years, earning it the label of “The Silicon Valley of Latin America.”

In this instance, the Chilean entrepreneurial effort is being supported by the two Portuguese entrepreneurs who started Vendder.com: Tiagos Matos and Filipe Conçalves, each with a masters degree in software engineering.

Matos and Conçalves came to Chile last year as part of the pilot project of the now-famous Start-Up Chile program. After working the requisite six months in the capital, they decided to abandon their plans to return to Portugal and relocate permanently to Santiago, where they can continue to work shoulder to shoulder with other entrepreneurs attracted by the Chilean government’s innovative program.

The project with Andes Wine will provide personalized service to online customers looking for some of Chile’s hottest wines, best beers and most delectable gourmet foodstuffs, making use of Vendder.com’s international platform and tri-lingual hosting services in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

“We made up our minds and decided to work with Vendder.com thanks to their vast international experience, as well as the fact that they are well-positioned in Chile, which makes us feel sure that we are working with a leading company in electronic commerce,” said Morales of Andes Wines.

Originally posted at: http://www.thisischile.cl/7196/2/wine-meets-start-up-business-in-the-chilean-capital/News.aspx

AndesWines
andes@andeswines.com

CINE

ANDES WINES AUDIOVISUAL ANDES@ANDESWINES.COM

Casa Lapostolle – Clip 30 seg from Amapola on Vimeo.

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WINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA: A GOOD PAIRING?

“The first rule is, there are no rules…”

Wine journalist Jamie Goode of wineanorak.com gave a presentation earlier this year at a London wine conference that included the advice, “Social media is not magic, nor is it just a fad.”

Though they can’t solve all your problems, Twitter and Facebook are here to stay (at least for the foreseeable future), and wine producers, importers and vendors can use these tools to add some personality to an otherwise often intimidating…and dare I say, stuffy…business.

Yet Goode’s presentation also highlighted something that can be difficult for businesses investing time and money on maintaining a Facebook site or building up a following on Twitter. “It resists measurement,” Goode says. And: “You can’t do social media well under the pressure of achieving results.” Okay, but we’re bound to ask next: isn’t “achieving results” the purpose of any marketing strategy?

The strange thing about social media, though, is that it’s not just a marketing strategy, nor is it just branding. Social media, as it functions in the business world (and, arguably, in the personal world), is some sort of branding-marketing-communications-outreach hybrid for which we don’t yet have rules (weirdly quoting “Fightclub,” Goode also tells us, “The first rule is, there are no rules). That makes people very excited and very nervous at the same time.

In wine, more than most other industries, traditional tastemakers such as famous critics (Robert Parker, etc) and established news sources (Wine Spectator, the New York Times food and drink page) have long dominated opinion. But social media evens the playing field; all of a sudden, anyone can have their say—and people just might listen.

According to a 2010 study by Seattle social media marketing firm Lift9, there are over 7,000 wine tweets a day and over 1,300 wine-focused blogs. In addition, 700,000 people watch wine-related videos each month, though most are of the humorous variety, like “Borat’s Guide to Wine Tasting.” So there are a lot of folks out there looking to learn about wine and share their own experiences. What does this mean for wine producers, importers, and vendors?

In one sense, it’s an advertiser’s dream: self-selecting consumers receive targeted information that leads them to your company’s website, your company’s news, and your company’s products. And for those who believe in the power of branding, social media is the ideal way to turn your brand or store into an online entity that communicates with its costumers, press and others in the field in a way that reflects its own “personality” and ethos. As Goode says: “People get a more rounded view of who you are.”

But in the wine industry, this all plays out a little differently. The most important wine-buying sector—baby boomers—isn’t the same sector that’s spending all their time on Twitter and Facebook (namely, college students and twenty-somethings). But establishing a presence in social media now will not only lure in a new generation of wine lovers, but it will also make it easier later on as the platforms become more crowded and those for whom Facebook is more natural than face-to-face age, and presumably, start buying wine.

Founder of UK supper club “The Underground Restaurant,” Kerstin Rodgers, (also known as Ms. MarmiteLover and named one of London’s 1000 most influential people this year by the Evening Standard), encourages social media users to expand outside their own industry. “Don’t just talk to people in the same business as you,” she says. “Make your tweets varied and cultivate people who are geographically local to you.”

One drawback—a drawback I don’t necessarily see people discussing in their articles hailing social media as the future of all communication—is social media’s constant demand and rather addictive nature. At what cost to their marketing and communications employees are wineries “building a virtual buzz?” Rodgers also writes: “The best blog posts are often written at 2am in your pyjamas.” For those of us who’d rather be sleeping at two a.m. in our pajamas, this 24-hour schedule of around-the-world updates can be difficult to keep up with.

If you leave the office at five p.m. and don’t tweet until the next morning at 9:30 after settling in at work, you’re certainly missing some important conversations and updates. (Those in Napa Valley may feel especially behind when the workday in France is long gone by the time they arrive!) But if you do bring your work home with you, social media style, you’ll end up feeling like you’re never finished. There’s always one more person to tweet at, one more post to “like”… Building an online presence is time-consuming, but it shouldn’t be life-consuming.

The main point of all this: businesses like rules, and social media doesn’t quite have them—yet. It’s better to have personality on Twitter and Facebook, but too much personality can make those in charge of your “brand” very nervous. In the wine world, the main audience isn’t as “plugged in” as in many industries—but that doesn’t mean social media is unimportant. Remember Twitter isn’t just a marketing tool, so don’t use it that way. Finally: once you do “plug in,” remember to unplug every once in a while, too. Maybe leave the two a.m. blog posts to those who are doing that for a living. You can comment and re-tweet it in the morning.

Written by Erin Becker, Research and Innovation for Andes Wines, graduated with a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina, where she was also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Campus BluePrint magazine and co-founder of an Arts and Cultural Policy think tank.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

21 COUNTRIES AND 280 BEERS COMPETE IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEST

“Copa Cervezas de America” awards 64 medals and has become a key part of the Latin American beer world

The contest, held for the first time in Chile, has become one of the most important beer industry events in the region. Brands from Belgium, Brazil, the Netherlands and Chile all won gold medals in the competition.

SANTIAGO, SEPTEMBER 9 – Beers from Belgium, Brazil, the Netherlands and Chile all won gold medals at the awards ceremony of the international beer competition “Copa Cervezas de America 2011.” The event brought together 21 countries and 280 beer brands, which were tasted and evaluated by an expert jury. The cup was organized by the magazine Alma Cerveza and Maltexco, and was also sponsored by Pro Chile, Duoc UC, Mundo Cervecero and Puracerveza.cl.

Gold medals were won by the Belgian beer “Blonde Ale,” made by Augustinj; “Weizenbier” from the Brazilian company Cervejaria Bamberg; “Dubbel” from Dutch company La Trappe; and “Stout” from the Chilean brewer Cuello Negro.

Among the 64 awarded medals, Chilean brands won first place due to 31 awards, among which included Cervecería Guayacán, which one a silver medal with its stout; Cervecería Szot, which won a bronze medal with its Negra Stout and Rubia al vapor; and Cervecería Kross, which won a bronze medal for its stout, Maibock, and golden ale.

During the five days of the competition, in Duoc UC (Antonio Varas headquarters), the competition also held nine seminars with the aim of analyzing specific themes of interest to beer producers. These were led by well-known brewmasters and beer-world authorities, such as Asbjorn Gerlach, Kevin Szot, Jay Brooks, Matthew Brynildson, Lyn Kruger, Martín Boan, Rodrigo Sánchez and journalists from Mundo Cervecero, as well as other industry experts.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

FROM AC/DC TO LIL JON: WHY CELEBRITY WINES ARE HERE TO STAY

By Erin Becker, Research and Innovation

The recent announcement that AC/DC will be releasing a series of wines based on their famous singles (“Back in Black Shiraz,” “You Shook Me All Night Long Moscato,” and “Hells Bells Sauvignon Blanc,” among others) has led to both ire and fascination in the wine community. What will come next? The audacity! Does anyone think they can make wine? They say money can’t buy love, and it seems it can’t quite buy prestige among winemakers, either.

Yet this is far from a recent phenomenon. In fact, celebrity winemaking goes a long ways back. And AC/DC’s move isn’t unprecedented: Kiss, Motorhead, and Whitesnake all have wines of their own.

For some, it’s a labor of love. The family of Francis Ford Coppola, for example, has a long history of winemaking. British singer Cliff Richard has always been a wine enthusiast and used his massive earnings and celebrity clout as an opportunity to explore this passion. For French actor Gerard Depardieu, wine is a vocation, while the screen is just an occupation. Depardieu is involved in all aspects of production and business dealings for his wine label; in fact, his passport lists him not as an actor as a vigneron.

Unlike Coppola, Richard and Depardieu, other celebrities are simply wine dilettantes, exploring the enological world simply because they can. Sting, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, and David and Victoria Beckham all own vineyards and wine estates strictly for personal use. They’re growing wine grapes the way most of use grow chives.

There are also a good number of celebrities producing wine as a charity venture. Former 49ers quarterback Joe Montana partnered with Ed Sbragia of Beringer to make the Cabernet Sauvignon Montagia, initially raising $210,000 for a charity auction that transformed into a successful yearly project. Like Mike Ditka, who simply owns a brand rather than a winery or an estate, Montana’s main contribution is in promotion and name recognition rather than the technicalities of winemaking. He does, however, work with the “vision” of the wine, as well as participating in blending and tasting trials.

And of course, there’s also a business side to all of this. Rather than producing wine themselves, some celebrities lend their name or image to a wine label—for a small fee, of course. Among stars that have allowed a special one-time wine to bear their name are Carlos Santana and Bob Dylan. Martha Stewart, in a similar set-up, collaborated with Gallo to produce a series of low-cost wines for K-mart, but has little oversight in the winemaking process.

But let’s return to Coppola, who was dubbed by Forbes “The Godfather of Grapes.” The Hollywood director/producer is now selling more than 750,000 cases a year, and a few years backed was ranked the number two table wine by Information Resources. He also produces premium wines through a separate venture at Rubicon Estates.

Other notable celebrity wine names include: Mario Andretti, Dan Aykroyd, Antonio Banderas, Drew Bledsoe, Mick Fleetwood, Arnold Palmer, Jeff Gordon, Wayne Gretzky, Terry Hoage, Lil Jon (the rapper is re-imaged, rather humorously, as the owner of the upscale Little Jonathan Winery), Madonna, Dan Marino, Dave Matthews, Olivia Newton John (owner of Australian label Koala Blue).

For those who doubt the quality of celebrity wine, it may be interesting to note that Lil Jon’s Central Coast Chardonnay won a silver medal at the L.A. International Wine & Spirits Competition just two years ago.

However, for those who doubt the wine’s class, a subsequent tweet by Lil Jon may confirm your suspicions:

“FOR ALL YALL SUKKAS THAT WERE HATING ON MY WINE CHECK THIS OUT!! WE WINNING AWARDS TWITT!!! GET U SOME.”

Yet his winemaker, Alison Crowe, says there’s more to “Jon” than he lets on: “Let me just say that Jon is one complex man and is not to be underestimated—like the wines we make together!”

Can anyone make quality wine? Probably not. But if we swallow our pride and buy it, we may be pleasantly surprised by the number that can.

Erin Becker, Research and Innovation for Andes Wines, graduated with a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina, where she was also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Campus BluePrint magazine and co-founder of an Arts and Cultural Policy think tank.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

LIEB FAMILY CELLARS: THE FINE LINES IN “CAUSE” MARKETING

By Erin Becker, Research and Innovation

In case you haven’t heard—and if you follow any US wine blogs, you surely have—Lieb Family Cellars is selling a 9/11 Memorial Commemorative Merlot and Chardonnay to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The wine retails for $19.11 per bottle and a portion of the proceeds will help support the National September 11th Memorial and Museum through the September Mission Foundation.

A quick Google search of “September 11 wine” is enough to demonstrate the outrage this act of kindness/marketing move is causing. Out of 472 million+ results, the top few are “Is a 9/11 wine in bad taste?”; “Memorial 9/11 Wine?!? WTF?!?”; “NY Vintner Releases 9/11 Wine to Give Back, Critics Cry ‘Distasteful’”; and “9/11 wine leaves bitter taste in many.”

9/11: A CASE STUDY OF MARKETING AND CHARITABLE CAUSES

Many of the articles are actually more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Salon.com makes an especially good point—Lieb is not the first to do something like this, nor will it be the last:

“In the days after 9/11, seemingly faster than the New York City police started letting people back downtown, a cottage industry of memorabilia sprang up on the streets. The air, still thick with dust, was thick with consumerism as well, as vendors began hawking flags and ‘United We Stand’ T-shirts.”

The list of September 11th gear is lengthy. Event supply and flag store flagandbanner.com has “9/11 Tribute” listed under holidays, next to California State Birthday and WNBA Playoffs. Among this holiday’s products: a printed stars and stripes polo shirt, a pull-down purple and black mourning flag, and a bald eagle beanie baby. And remember those American flag pins? Someone must have made a buck off of those.

All advertising appeals to emotion of some sort; mourning, pride, and anger can motivate people to purchase, just like happiness or desire. Perhaps the guy selling flags on the street corner on September 13, 2001 felt it was his patriotic duty. But it’s more likely that he just wanted to make some money. Lieb’s wine is really no different, except a portion of the proceeds is helping the memorial products. In a special released statement, their hearts seem to be in the right place:

“Having lost friends and colleagues in the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we at Lieb Cellars feel strongly that it is everyone’s responsibility to support the 9/11 memorial. […] We appreciate all of the kind support we have received this past week from first responders, active duty military, families of the victims of September 11th and the public in general, and very much look forward to the opening of the September 11th Museum and helping to preserve the memory of those lost.”

NOT JUST LIEB CELLARS: A SURVEY OF CHARITY WINE

The fact lost in much of this discussion is that Lieb Family Cellars is far from the first company to make a buck off 9/11, or the first winery to sell wine for a cause or partially for a cause. At greaterpurpose.com, for example, you can buy wine knowing that 55% of the profits will go to fight hunger in places like Haiti and sub-Saharan Africa. The wine says “GREATER PURPOSE” in giant pink-and-white letters vertically down the black label. When you tease out the implications, this, too, creates some discomfort. While we are worrying about pairing, there are people out there who don’t even have food, the wine reminds us. Does that make the wine distasteful, or can we drink it a little easier knowing we’re at least doing something to help? In the end, that depends on the person holding the glass.

And the list of charity wines goes on, some partially for profit, some 100% for their causes. The owners of Rivera Vineyards in California give all their wine to charities, from United Friends of the Children to the John Muir Health Foundation, who auction them off to raise money for their respective non-profits. Charity Wines gets sports stars to lend their images to wine labels and then donates the proceeds to a charity of the athlete’s choice. At ONEHOPE Wine, you can buy a Zinfandel to support the troops, a Merlot to fight AIDS, or a Pinot Noir to help children’s hospitals.

Lieb Family Cellars itself also sells a limited edition Syrah at their winery, which helps support kidney disease research at the NYC Animal Medical Center. They also at one point sold a white Merlot to raise money for breast cancer research.

Lieb has been raising money for the 9/11 memorial with their “September Mission” wine since 2002, yet it’s only in the last few weeks that people have decided this is an “outrage.” Rather than Lieb acting in bad faith, this public scolding by the media seems to be a question of timing. With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 just around the corner, wounds still feel a little fresh. It’s an extremely sensitive topic, even more so this time of year. If many New Yorkers aren’t in the mood to uncork this wine, that’s certainly their prerogative.

Yet on Lieb’s part, it was a miscalculation and nothing more. As interest in both wine and the non-profit sector grows in the US, we’ll probably see more and more wine-for-a-cause. One person’s philanthropy is another person’s opportunism, but knee-jerk reactions and name-calling do no one good.

Erin Becker, Research and Innovation for Andes Wines, graduated with a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina, where she was also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Campus BluePrint magazine and co-founder of an Arts and Cultural Policy think tank.

Photo from liebcellars.com.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

ANDES WINES LAUNCHES WINE PRIVATE EQUITY WITH PAN AMERICAN REAL ESTATE GROUP

In a joint venture with Pan American Real Estate Group, Andes Wines, a Santiago-based strategic wine management and media company, is launching the first wine private equity service in Chile.

The objective of the venture’s first stage will be to allocate $20 million of private investment dollars to Chilean vineyards with medium-term growth potential, strengthen the vineyards through strategic management over a period of two to five years, and then sell them at a higher value. This process will benefit investors, vineyards and the larger Chilean wine market, growing the prestige of this already-burgeoning industry.

Investment strategy will be headed up by Sebastián Hoppe, investment director of Andes Wines, and Pamela Villablanca, international wine manager of Andes Wines. The company was founded 10 years ago by general manager Max Morales and has since gained a reputation as a significant player in several aspects of the Chilean wine industry.

“We are very excited about our relationship with Andes Wines,” Matt Scoggins, marketing consultant at Pan American Real Estate Group, said. “Timing is everything. With the continued growth of the region, as well as the expanding global market for quality grapes and wine, we believe our clients will be properly positioned to take advantage of this exciting and unique opportunity.”

Andes Wines will offer multiple methods of investment, including “turnkey” investments in existing vineyards and “start-up” investments in vineyards that are just getting off the ground. Investors will be able to put their money into multiple aspects of the vineyards, from the land to the varietal, making the opportunity entirely personalized to each investor’s convenience.

Morales underscored the attention and expertise that Andes Wines will offer to investors. More than just another addition to the client’s portfolio, the company will provide support during all parts of the process.

“This is not a transaction; it’s a partnership,” Morales said.

Scoggins believes this venture will be of special interest to his clients who are looking for an opportunity off the beaten path.

“Chile is an extremely ‘hot’ market right now,” Scoggins said. As an emerging market, Chile’s budding growth is exciting for investors. Scoggins is keen to share that potential with his clients. “We have the ability and desire to market this unique investment opportunity, and marry some of our investors with Andes Wines.”

Scoggins added: “This is truly something special.”

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

THE BUZZ ON START-UP CHILE

Plus: AndesWines soon to debut expat networking group
By Erin Becker, Research and Innovation

Start-Up Chile has been in the news lately thanks to Vivek Wadhwa of Harvard and Duke. Wadhwa had initially thought that growing Chile’s tech start-up industry so rapidly was impossible, due to cultural and economic constraints. But now he is pleased with the rapid transformation that this country has been able to make, due to what he praises as “an open economy and a vibrant democracy.”

Start-Up Chile is a government program here in Santiago that sponsors foreign and Chilean entrepreneurs who want to start their companies in Chile. It’s designed after the philosophy of former minister of economy Juan Andrés Fontaine: “Instead of changing the world through revolution, we can change it through innovation.” The idea is that entrepreneurs use Chile’s business-friendly economy as a platform to “go global,” which is both good for Chile and good for the start-ups. The ones who make it through the admissions process received $40,000, a work visa, and access to key business and social networks in Santiago. The program hopes to have 1,000 participants by 2014.

Wadwha is especially pleased with Start-Up Chile’s focus on the innovators rather than just the innovation. He makes a good point: “buildings and industry don’t make innovation happen—people do.” Though he acknowledges it is “too early to declare success,” Wadhwa is pleased with the people-centric aspect of the program.

The story was picked up by US radio station NPR (National Public Radio) and re-broadcast by at least six other local US radio stations. Rather than just praising Chile, NPR focused on Wadhwa’s not-quite-implicit critique of US immigration policy that came along with his kind words for the start-up program:

“Chile has been taking advantage of American stupidity,” says Vivek Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studies the economic impact of immigrant entrepreneurs.

The articles all report that Chile’s economic climate and open-arms attitude to international entrepreneurs make it a perfect place and time for a program like Start-Up Chile. According to the World Bank, Chile’s economy grew by 5.5 percent between 1985 and 2009. The World Economic Forum ranks it the most competitive economy in Latin America, Portfolio.com reports.

Of course, all these media accolades don’t mean the program can count its chickens before they’re hatched—and of course they won’t. Well-connected, well-respected, well-funded and with an awesome website to boot, Start-Up Chile knows that in the end the true measure of a program like this is ultimately how many of the start-ups become more than just that. Yet it’s nice to get the buzz going—and keeping it going will be key.

AndesWines plans to stoke this culture of networking and entrepreneurial chatter by launching an expat-networking group. The group will meet monthly or more often for good wine, good conversation, and to make connections with other foreign entrepreneurs, expats working in Chile, permanent travelers and all others who have found themselves living in Santiago.

Check back into AndesWines.com and AndesOne.com soon for more information as the expat group gets under way. We’ll also be featuring a continued conversation about entrepreneurship in Chile.

The international buzz on Start-Up Chile:
National Public Radio says:
Andrew Nicol is a young entrepreneur who was born in Australia and attended law school in the U.S. After graduation, he got an employer-sponsored visa that allowed him to work in New York. But when Nicol wanted to leave his day job and start a company, he was stymied. Leaving his job meant losing his visa.
So Nicol decided to go to Chile.
“I’m basically leaving New York to come to Santiago to start a business that targets New York consumers — just because it’s so much easier to do it from here, and there is so much more support from the government here,” he says.

Portfolio.com says:
Some facts to consider: According to the World Bank, Chile’s economy grew by 5.5 percent between between 1985 and 2009. The World Economic Forum ranks it the most competitive economy in Latin America. And Chile’s corporate income tax rate is normally 17 percent, but has risen 20 percent in 2011 (it will lower to 18.5 in 2012 as part of the country’s earthquake reconstruction program), one of the lowest corporate income tax rates worldwide.

Washington Post says:
“When I arrived in Santiago, I found that Start-Up Chile entrepreneurs were holding nightly meetings to review one another’s business plans and product ideas. They were teaching one another skills, and were building the friendships and global networks that stand to increase their chances of success. The gatherings could easily have been mistaken for ones in Silicon Valley.”

Nearshore Americas Blog says:
Three months later, Wadhwa’s perception has undergone an incredible change. Tweeting from a Start-Up Chile meetup this week, the professor was decidedly glowing in his remarks. He told us that “When I advised the Chilean government to try something like this, I was optimistic that we could do a pure “people play”—in other words, focus the entire investment in people rather than infrastructure and industry as is the norm for regions. I am totally blown away—as are the Chileans—with its success.”

Erin Becker, Research and Innovation for Andes Wines, graduated with a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina, where she was also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Campus BluePrint magazine and co-founder of an Arts and Cultural Policy think tank.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

7TH WINE & GOURMET SALE IN BUENAVENTURA PREMIUM OUTLET

Attention wine lovers and connoisseurs: Until September 17th, Andes Wines will host the 7th Wine and Gourmet Products Sales in the Buenaventura Premium Outlet. More than 19 national vineyards are participating and will offer a wide variety of wines from all the winemaking valleys of Chile. In addition, Andes Wines will sell a myriad of gourmet products, wine accessories and beauty products, including wine therapy, snail and Chilean mosqueta products.

According to Patricio de la Cruz, sale manager of Andes Wines, “We have wines from every valley, including Bio Bio, Cachapoal, Casablanca, San Antonio, Colchagua, Curicó and Maule, and some of the participating vineyards include Balduzzi, Casas del Toqui, William Fevre, Portal del Alto, La Rosa, Anakena, Villalobos, AguaTierra, Encomenderos, Via Wines, Casa Donoso, Bisquertt and Nerkihue.”

Guided wine tastings will also be held for restaurant buyers who are buying products for their menus or special packs for the upcoming Independence Day.

As for accessories, the sale will offer wine glasses of all kinds, decanters, corkscrews for both wine and champagne, and furniture made from French oak barrels.

Highlights of the gourmet products include Agroches (sheep and goat cheece), Oliva Bogaris olive oil, De Camacho (garlic pastes), De Pampa (lamb), Directo del Productor (fruit infusions), Los Montes (tuna), Majo (chutney and jams), Nahual (pate and quail eggs), Nobleza Artesanal (artisan mustard), Omni Nuts (dried fruits), Rayún (spreads and chuntey), Rucamalal (chocolates), Sofruco (natural juices), Doña Vicky (manjar and jam), Los Tilos (special cheese), Pulltex (wine accessories), Scandik (glasses and decanters), Apisu (gourmet honey), desserts from Dulce Patria, pate and carpaccio from Emú, smoked lamb shanks, sugar-free jams and preserves, and soda from Frutas Francesas and French beer.

The sale format is based in boxed of 6-12 bottles, in addition to individual bottles for varietal, reserve, and grand reserve wines. The wine ranges from $1.200 to $50.000 per bottle. For the gourmet products, the discounts run from 20% to 30%, in boxes or packs of 3-4 products, in addition to being presented without frills (as contrasted with the average supermarket shelf).

PARKING AND HOURS

The mall has a modern infrastructure, parking spaces for more than 1600 vehicles, and an ample security system included a fenced-in perimeter, guards, security cameras and a partnership with the police for constant guarding.

Hours are: Monday through Friday 10am-7pm, Saturday 10am-8pm, and Sundays and holidays 11am-6pm.

Location: Avenida San Ignacio 500, módulo 9, in the industrial neighborhood Buenaventura, in Comuna de Quilicura. Easy to access from the Autopista Nor Oriente, Autopista Américo Vespucio Norte, Túnel San Cristóbal, Autopista 5 Norte and Carretera General San Martín.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: andeswines

THE WORRYING SITUATION OF ARGENTINEAN WINE IN THE US

AndesWines.com news analysis

For many months, there have been worrying signals coming from foreign markets—especially the US—about the condition of Argentinean wine sales.

Although, according to official statistics, sales are increasing and the median price has been relatively stable, this doesn’t tell the whole story. The sales statistics only apply to shipments, not sales figures from buyers and consumers. And currently, many distributors’ warehouses are building up an alarming stock of economy-price wine from wineries that have opted to enter the market at the lower-end price range.

Thus Argentinean wine, according to some specialists, is beginning to follow the pattern set by Australian brand Yellow Tail. The label dramatically increased its exports, to the point where it couldn’t sustain its median value. The price dropped dramatically, which of course affected Yellow Tail, but also affected the country’s image as a quality wine producer, as well as the image of Syrah, as discussed in another report by AndesWines.com.

The worrying figures that should have set off Argentina’s alarms include that generic bottled wines fell by 19.8% while bulk increased by 695%, according to http://www.areadelvino.com/articulo.php?num=22637. This sends a clear message about what’s going on in the foreign market for Argentinean wines. It’s crucial to intervene before a complete meltdown affects even the most select of Malbec wines.

In many specialized wine stores in the US, you can see lots of wines that were formerly $9.99 selling for $7.99 or $6.99. This is a worrisome trend. This situation is compounded by the economic crisis in the US, which has caused problems for many American distributors and importers.

“To think that the Malbec varietal enjoys some kind of special protection is a fantasy,” Pamela Villablanca, International Director of AndesWines, said. “The number-one selling wine in the US is Franzia, and the second is Santa Margarita. Unemployment is growing and the unemployed are going to opt for Franzia. Major players in the wine industry can market wines by increasing the stock in their bodegas and lowering prices, in order to regulate sales and ensure that they rotate all of their product clusters. But what’s been happening since 2008 is that Argentina, naively, just continues to increase their volume.”

Villablanca, also a specialist in Latin American wine sales, continued discussing possible solutions to Argentina’s problem.

“I made a call to the trans-Andean Export Managers, in order that they begin formulating a plan to protect the branding of Argentina and Malbec. It’s crucial to support importers and distributors, given that many medium and large wineries are forgetting the Three Tier System. The system inevitably involves three actors to make each sale. This is controlled by mantaining a balance in volume and price, ensuring the wine is on sale for only a limited time.”

By Pamela Villablanca
Pamela Villablanca worked for 6 years in the US as a Brand Ambassador for Veramonte, which is owned by Huneeus Vintners. She traveled through the US conducting branding and wine education programs and positioned Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc as the number one “on premise” wine, as noted in the home page of Wine Spectator. Later, she served as Sales Manager in California for an importer and distributor of South American wines.

Translated by Erin Becker
Erin Becker, Research and Innovation for Andes Wines, graduated with a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina, where she was also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Campus BluePrint magazine and co-founder of an Arts and Cultural Policy think tank.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

CATA Y VINO EVENT AT HOTEL W

Cata y Vino 2011 will bring together more than 40 wine labels in its 12th wine tasting event coming August 26th and 27th to Hotel W. In a new and improved version of this viniculture fair, more than 40 Chilean wines and gourmet brands will come together in the halls of the Hotel W Santiago. In another new feature, the event will also be streaming live online.

The new edition of Cata y Vino will start at 4:00pm on August 26th and 27th in Hotel W. One distinguishing feature of this year’s event is that the fair began in July with the Noches Gourmet, a series of evenings of wine pairings premiering the event’s wines, which were planned by The Wine House. Featured restaurants included Zinnia, Casa Mar, Sukalde and Tierranoble. With this early premier, more than 200 people were able to try to wines that will be featured at the fair, which were accompanied by menus designed by well-known chefs.

Cata y Vino 2011 will include more than 40 national wine labels, demonstrating its evolution into an important event for the industry, where each vineyard has an opportunity to display its new wines and vintages.

This year, as in last year’s bicentennial edition, the Cata y Vino will host a tasting in which people from the wine industry will judge the wine of their peers and reward the best with prizes. A week before the event, the jury, which will include one representative from each winery and which will be led by journalist Alejandro Jimenez, editor of the magazine WAIN, will meet in the Hotel W to taste close to 300 samples and vote for the winners.

Medals will include Gold, Silver, and Bronze, in addition to Best Value.

“The results of the contest will be announced at the beginning of the fair, so that visitors will know which are the best wines at the exposition,” said Marí José Zañartu, commercial director of The Wine House.

In this event, as in all previous versions of Cata y Vino, there will be tastings of sparkling wine and gourmet products, in addition to hors d’oeuvres that visitors can enjoy alongside the wine.

Wine lovers can also watch the show live via live streaming at http://www.nirvino.cl, a specialized wine and gastronomy site by foodie journalist Daniel Greve.

If you want all the Chilean wine news in one place, you can’t miss this new version of Cata y Vino 2011.

Ticket sales begin August 10 in WAIN, El Mundo del Vino, and through distributor El Cielo, and can also be purchased directly at Hotel W on event day.

Program Cata y Vino 2011

Place: Level -3 Hotel W Santiago

General Admission $15.000
General hall, includes one cup Riedel
Friday August 26th 4:00pm-11:00pm
Saturday August 27th 4:00pm-12:00am

Premium Admission $25.000
General hall and wine icon hall, includes one cup Riedel
Friday August 26th 7:00pm-10:00pm
Saturday August 17th 7:00pm-11:00pm

http://www.catayvino.cl

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

INDIA LEADS THE WAY IN THE IWSR’s FASTEST-GROWING SPIRITS BRANDS LIST

PRESS RELEASE 3 JULY 2011

The top five fastest-growing spirits brands in volume terms are Indian and all are sold almost exclusively in their domestic market, according the The IWSR’s fastest growth spirits brands list, published in the August issue of The IWSR Magazine.
ABD’s Officer’s Choice whisky tops the list, closely followed by UB India’s McDowell’s brandy; both brands grew by more than 2.9m nine-litre cases in 2010. UB India is the leading producer in India and owns four of the five largest growth brands and eight brands in total in the top 25. The continued growth in India is attributed to its population growth, its increasingly important status in the world economy, and the consequences this has had on personal wealth.

Ten whiskies feature in the top 25 largest growth spirits brands, eight of which count India as its lead market. The leading market for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker, ranked 14th in the list, is duty free/travel retail, although at just 11% of its total sales Johnnie Walker is the most international brand featured in the top 25. Suntory whisky, whose main market is Japan, also features in the top 25.

Vodka also features heavily with eight brands in the list. As with whisk(e)y, the leading growth brands were concentrated in one area, in vodka’s case – Russia, the Ukraine and Poland. Synergy’s Belenkaya vodka is ranked sixth, having grown by more than 2.1m cases in 2010.

Belvédère’s Krupnik vodka is the fastest-growing vodka from Poland. Stock Spirits have two vodkas in the list, Zoladkowa Gorzka and Stock Prestige, both with Poland as their key market. Also, Stock Spirits’ low-strength flavoured vodka range Lubelska ranks 19th in the list. The success of Lubelska is derived from its appeal to younger consumers, although it is said to have also attracted regular vodka drinkers.

The article in the August issue of The IWSR Magazine also includes the following lists:
Top 25 fastest growth whiskies
Top 20 fastest growth vodkas
Top 15 fastest growth flavoured spirits
Top 20 fastest growth rums
Top 10 fastest growth brandies (including Cognac)
Top 5 fastest growth gins
Top 5 fastest growth tequilas

More information at http://www.iwsr.co.uk

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

BOTTLING A CULTURE

Drinking, identity and the mystery of selling Chile
By Erin Becker

The fashion industry likes to claim “you are what you wear.” But according to some current research, we are, in fact, what we drink.

In an Anthropology of Food article titled “Globalization, differentiation and drinking cultures, an anthropological perspective,” Thomas Wilson argues:

“[…] drinking alcohol has been an extremely important feature in the production and reproduction of ethnic, national, class, gender and local community identities historically, and there is little prospect that this will change. In many societies, perhaps the majority, drinking alcohol is a key practice in the expression of identity, an element in the construction and dissemination of national and other cultures.”

In this way, the article says, drinking—and even not drinking—is inherently a cultural statement.

Lining up a few pictures, we see how true this really is. A Panama hat and a Cuban mojito; a fine glass of Bordeaux in the shade of a French chateau; a keg and red cups in an American frat-house basement; a rich Italian red, spaghetti on the side; a mug of Guinness in Dublin; a rowdy post-rugby pint in an English pub.

Each of these images is integral to our vision of life in a particular society. I say Ireland, and you say pub. I say France, you say fine wine. Expanding past the realm of no-frills tradition, which could be traced back to the days when we simply made alcohol with what was at hand, these cultural-practices-turned-stereotypes have become a crucial part of what the marketing world calls branding.

With travelers (and drinkers) tightening their purse strings, the tourism market is transforming into an evermore-competitive bid for the traveler’s dollar. Locales and alcohols with a strong positive association in the consumer’s mind have a distinct advantage. Wilson calls it “the construction and dissemination of national and other cultures,” but a marketing expert would simply call it good business.

In his book “The Significance of Branding Within German Beer Culture,” Benjamin Marienfeld reports that a large portion of citizens from Germany’s neighboring countries answered the question “What is German?” with the simple reply: “Beer.” This reputation is deserved; he reports that Germany has by far the most breweries of any country worldwide, including 75% of the total breweries in the EU.

And this association has not gone unnoticed here in Chile: we see Austral emphasizing its German roots by publicizing the story of its German founder José Fischer, and Kunstmann playing up its German-ness with a yearly “Bierfest” in Valdivia and its slogan “Das gute Bier.” So, if Chile is capitalizing on Germany’s long-held association with good brewing, what does Chile itself have to offer as a “brand”?

In their article “Country Image in National Umbrella Branding,” Nina Iversen and Leif Heim explain more about what “country image” actually is. They define it as a commonly held “structure of knowledge” about a country that can include widely believed stereotypes, which affect a consumer’s response to products from that particular place. For example, a Swiss-made watch will be perceived as higher-quality than an Australian-made watch, simply because that is what we expect from the Swiss. For countries like Chile, with small populations, relative global anonymity and a penchant for exporting raw materials rather than final consumer goods, capitalizing on this phenomenon is more difficult.

Yet more difficult does not mean impossible. A steadily developing reputation as a solid New World wine producer, as well as an accidental leap to international notoriety with a non-fatal mining accident—and, as some say, any press is good press—means that people worldwide have been talking about Chile. ProChile’s slogan “All Ways Surprising” is not perfect, but at least does try to get the most out of on that “unknown” element of the country at the edge of the map. With no associative equivalent to Argentina’s tango and beef or Peru’s Machu Picchu, Chile resorts instead to what it does best: geographical diversity and a sense of exploration.

Unlike German beer, Russian vodka and Swiss chocolate, Chilean wine has to fend for itself, and earn a loyal consumer base with quality and, yes, a little bit of branding. Wineries would do well to market themselves internationally with stunts like 2005’s Carmenere Adventure, where Chilean wine lover Cristián Muñoz took a 21,000-mile motorcycle trip from Santiago to New York City, three-liter bottle of Carmenere in hand.

Chile may not have the pub scene of England or the wine aristocracy of France, but a country stretching from the Atacama to the Torres del Paine can more than make up for that with the ancient allure of adventure.

Erin Becker, Research and Innovation for Andes Wines, graduated with a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina, where she was also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Campus BluePrint magazine and co-founder of an Arts and Cultural Policy think tank.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

WINE SPECTATOR CARMENERE ADVENTURE HIGHLIGHTS

Wine Spectator, in their “Unfiltered” section, recently highlighted the arrival of Carmenere Adventure 2005 to New York. Cristián Muñoz, who was the driver of the CA 2005, completed the unbelievable trip around the American continent in 77 days, all to promote the Carmenere varietal.

A section of the Spectator article reads: “He made it. Three months and 21,000 miles later, wine fanatic Cristián Muñoz has completed his journey from Santiago to New York on an 1150cc BMW motorcycle, accompanied by a 3-liter bottle of Carmenere. His mission: to raise awareness of Chile’s unique varietal. The journey began on July 4, and finished on Chile’s Independence Day, Sept. 18.”

The Carmenere Adventure 2005 was the first international campaign organized by Andes Wines to promote Chilean wine abroad. The route through the Americas, from Santiago to New York City, was completed singlehandedly by Muñoz, a commercial engineer.

Muñoz presented the emblematic Chilean varietal Carmenere in a series of promotions as he traveled, beginning a new phase of marketing by launching the wine in many of the countries he visited. The Adventure’s mission: that importers, retailers and distributors will begin to look at Chilean wine as a wine with history, passion, and a sense of adventure—a crucial branding for the Chilean product.

The journey of 30,000 kilometers (about 18,650 miles) passed through Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and many cities in the US. After beginning with optimism on July 4, the “Road Marketing” expedition ended successfully on the intended date, Chile’s national day September 18.

In New York, a group of American motorcyclists escorted Muñoz as he entered the Big Apple, which ensured this “epic journey” would have the visual impact to get Americans talking about this wine.

Once inside the city, the schedule of meetings and visits began with two official photographs, one in front of the Statue of Liberty and the other in Tribeca Grill, the latter with sommelier David Gordon, Jorge Perez, and Thomas Byrnes, owner and president of Tedward Wines Ltd.

Before New York, in Washington D.C. Muñoz had been received by the ambassador of Chile to the U.S., Andrés Bianchi, who gave a clear signal about the importance of this campaign in influencing the country’s image.

Earlier, in Texas, Muñoz had prepared for the last section of this journey, which included more than 8,000 kilometers (about 5000 miles) through the cities of Montgomery, Miami, Atlanta, and finally D.C. and New York.

And there had also been many interesting steps along this way. In the Mexican capital, the magazine “Motociclismo,” together with a motorcycle club, received Muñoz and helped him change his tires and perform the necessary maintenance to carry on to Texas.

Earlier, in Bogota, the motorcyclist was greeted by a special reception. In Maracaibo, Venezuela, he dared to take the Amazon route, which definitely had its ups and downs.

In Brazil, the Carmenere Adventure 2005 had an unforgettable experience. Muñoz participated in interviews for radio and press alongside Daniel Geisse, commercial director of Cave de Amadeu, which is owned by Chilean winemaker Mario Geisse of Colchagua Valley.

In Uruguay, the land of tannat, the motorcyclist visited H. Stagnari Vineyard and together with Jeannie Fontaine, executive producer of Montevideo’s Channel 10, analyzed the importance of this emblematic varietal of Uruguay and the Chilean varietal Carmenere.

And on July 5 in Mendoza, the Carmenere Adventure celebrated its first stop at Argentinean vineyard Tapiz, which hosted a tasting of their wines, like that of the Carmenere of the Aguatierra Vineyard in Limarí Valley.

It’s also necessary to highlight this adventure’s central character: a three-liter bottle of Magnúm Carmenere. The three-liter bottle is the enologist’s chosen method of bottling a wine to ensure great aging potential, due to the smaller oxygen-to-wine ratio.

This bottle accompanied Muñoz throughout his entire journey and was a crucial part of the allure of this campaign, as the first bottle ever to participate in an adventure like this.

As an historic testament, the bottle was signed by important members of the wine world all along the Adventure’s route. In this way, the varietal Carmenere ensured that our country is known as a destination that’s safe, adventurous, and home to top-quality wine thanks to a huge diversity of valleys and terroirs.

For the first time, Chile has developed and pulled off a unique promotion, innovative and with high commercial impact, despite a market crowded with well-known countries like Australia, Spain and South Africa.

Right now Cristian married a wonderful Colombian Girl that met in this incredible adventure and lives in Chile.

The event was sponsored by Revista America Economía y Vendimia

andes@andeswines.com
twitter: @andeswines

WEEKLY WORLDWIDE WINE REPORT III

Weekly Worldwide Wine Report
8 August to 12 August

—- Business
Downturn to slow US wine consumption

Farmland Investments a Risky Business

http://westernfarmpress.com/management/farmland-investment-risky-business?page=2

A columnist says that though farmland investing is “hot” in the US right now, the business can be volatile and not always as profitable as predicted. If commodity prices were to decline, it could become a replay of the troublesome times of the farm crisis in the 1980s.

Oregon wine industry nearly doubles in four years, to $2.7 billion

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/07/oregon_wine_industry_nearly_do.html

The wine business of Oregon adapted to a recessionary economy and managed to almost double its contribution to the state economy over the last four years. Now the wine grape has become the state’s leading value-added crop.

CellarPass Reservations up 250%, Consumer Traffic up 63%

http://www.winebusiness.com/suppliernews/?go=getSupplierNewsArticle&dataid=90198

CellarPass, a major company allowing consumers to book and share Napa Valley wine country tour experiences, has announced record numbers of reservations for appointments booked in April-May 2011. Their new Concierge Interface has become increasingly popular with hospitality professionals.

—-Winemaking
Congress’s Man of the Vines, Including His Own

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/us/politics/04thompson.html?_r=1

The New York Times wonders whether Representative Mike Thompson, Democrat of California, has a conflict of interest as both a winemaker and a legislator, as he grows 20 acres of sauvignon blanc in Napa. Thompson denies the claim, as he made only $18,000 in profits from his small vineyard in 2010.

Kenya’s extreme winemaking high above the Equator

http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/news/article/-/9838375/kenyas-extreme-winemaking-high-above-the-equator/

At Kenya’s only commercial vineyard, Leleshwa, manager James Farquharson is trying to produce a quality wine at high altitude and almost on the Equator. The wine is described as “light,” “summery,” and “Kenyan,” and is selling locally for around $6 USD a bottle.

Oldest known wine-making facility found in Armenia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12158341

Archeologists say they have discovered the world’s oldest winemaking facility, in Armenia, complete with a wine press, grape seeds, dozens of dried vines and fermentation jars from 6,000 years ago. The seeds were vitis vinifera vinifera, the same type of grapes still used in winemaking today.

Global warming could significantly alter the US premium wine industry within 30 years, say Stanford scientists

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/june/wines-global-warming-063011.html

Increasing temperatures could alter the climate of California winegrowing regions and hurt the quality of the harvests within in the next 30 years, says a new study by Stanford climate scientists. Premium grape-growing areas in Northern California could shrink by 50% by 2040 due to a possible two degrees Fahrenheit temperature increase, according to the study.

SAC Packaging and Design launches new post pack

http://www.winebiz.com.au/dwn/details.asp?ID=5600

The first completely recycled, environmentally friendly, re-usable post pack, for use by cellar doors and retailers, was launched this week by SAC packaging and design.

—–Consumer
Jefford on Monday: Understanding Young Palates

http://www.decanter.com/news/blogs/expert/528996/jefford-on-monday-understanding-young-palates

Andrew Jefford of Decanter discusses how tastes change as we age, and decides that Merlot and Tempranillo are the best grape varieties for younger wine-drinkers who may not appreciate bitter or active-extract flavors. He asks for reader input on the topic.

Portugal’s reds show the bounty of native grapes

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/08/FDLR1K72RV.DTL&type=wine

Portugal remains faithful to domestically grown grapes while other European countries look to international varieties. Jon Bonné of the San Francisco Chronicle recommends Granadeiro Tapado do Barao and Quinta da Pellada Saes.

Merlot, the soft, ripe, “zaftig” wine

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/14/2312321/merlot-the-soft-ripe-zaftig-wine.html

The Miami Herald says that Merlot, as the “other” red wine, goes better with the “other” white meats like roast pig or pork chops. It is the “wine of moderation,” and this column recommends Bonterra Merlot, Shafer Merlot, and La Jota Vineyard Merlot.

Tickled Pink

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/14c8cb4e-ad01-11e0-9623-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1SDjmjJ6X

The UK has experienced one of its few wine successes of recent years with growth in the sale of pink wines. According to Jancis Robinson, rosé is now a “valid” wine style, and Provence makes the best of any region.

How to Ruin a Wine

http://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/wine/columnists/dan-berger/how-to-ruin-a-wine/article_6f5bee14-ae88-11e0-ab70-001cc4c002e0.html

Dan Berger of the Napa Valley Register says we are serving our wines at the wrong temperatures. Reds should be slightly cooler than room temperature, since often rooms can actually be quite hot; whites should not be kept in the same fridge as produce cold, as it makes them too cold; and rosés should not be too hot, nor too cold.

—–Events
The ultimate cult wine event

http://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/wine/the-ultimate-cult-wine-event/article_ddefcb8a-ae87-11e0-9af5-001cc4c002e0.html

The Homemakers Wine Event will be held July 16 in St. Helena, a tasting of the wine of 50-60 home winemakers, which has been called a hearkening back to old Napa Valley. It is the event’s 29th year.

—–Blogosphere
Being Proud of Your Country’s Wine Doesn’t Mean Anything if You Don’t Drink It

http://www.vinography.com/archives/2011/07/being_proud_of_your_countrys_w.html

Vinography laments the decrease in French wine consumption over the last two generations, and worries about its implications for the French wine industry.

Erin Becker
Research and Innovation
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

—

—

Diamandes and Bonnie Family of Château Malartic-L​agravière

French wine investors begin wine production in Argentina: AndesWines has been visiting the wine regions of Mendoza and the Uco Valley in Argentina for the past 10 years, but this time we were in for a special treat. Driven by curiosity, we traveled to Argentina to meet the owners of DiamAndes vineyard, the Bonnies, one of the French families who just became part of the Argentinean group Clos de los Siete.

Luck was on our side from the very beginning. Jean-Jacques and Séverine Bonnie, who came to Argentina to supervise the harvest, were able to show us the winery just a few days before they returned to France.

The Bonnie family is not new to Argentina. Jean-Jacques’ parents, Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie, went to live in Buenos Aires in the late 1960s as part of Alfred’s work at Coca-Cola and General Motors for the American advertising agency McCann Erickson.

The experience would eventually complement Alfred-Alexandre’s passion for wine, which dates back to his childhood, when he would help his father arrange the wine bottles at their home cellar. But it wasn’t until 1996 that Alfred saw his dream come true with the acquisition of the Château Malartic-Lagravière in Bordeaux, a Grand Cru Classé de Graves.

In 2003, Alfred’s son Jean-Jacques and his wife Séverine started working on Malartic-Lagravière after obtaining their University diploma in wine tasting (Diplôme Universitaire d’Aptitude à la Dégustation, known as DUAD).

Two years later, the family business bought the Château Gazin Rocquencourt and its 28 hectares, located beside Malartic-Lagravière.

Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie have been in charge of the business from the beginning. They conceived the architecture, the construction works, the philosophy behind the wine making process and everything involving the cellar, and they continue to call the shots in the company. Their son Jean-Jacques runs the technical aspects in the wineries in France and Argentina, and his wife Séverine is in charge of marketing at Vignobles Malartic. Both travel around the world promoting the French and Argentinean terroir. Veronique, the youngest daughter, joined the company in 2008 as the finance manager, while her husband Bruno is in charge of sales.

BONNIE FAMILY ENTERS THE ARGENTINEAN WORLD OF WINE

Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie have known enologist and consultant Michel Rolland for many years because of his work in Bordeaux. So when Michel proposed that they join the Argentinean endeavour Clos de los Siete, they did it without hesitation. So with DiamAndes, they returned to Argentina after 35 years.

At the time, many French wine families were also joining the group in order to diversify their investments. Today, Clos de los Siete owns 130 hectares in Malbecs, Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignons and Voigniers. DiamAndes joined wineries Monteviejo, Flechas de los Andes and Cuvelier de Los Andes, adding to the success achieved by this French investment group.

The DiamAndes cellar is a three-floor gravity-flow winery building designed to store the grapes by after harvesting, while they are awaiting placement in the tanks and later on in the barrel room on the lower floor. Its architecture was planned to optimize the time and tasks of vinification and handle the grapes in the gentlest way possible.

Such innovations made us eager to know more about DiamAndes, particularly their ability to break with the paradigm of Argentinean wines –overdone, over-extracted and rife with a wearing wood presence.

We were able to share our impressions of this “diamond in the rough” with Jean-Jacques and Séverine, at a pleasant barbeque our hosts prepared for us and a group of friends from France after our visit to the estate and cellar.

Why Argentinean Malbecs? “The Argentinean Malbec is having a lot of success in the world, so DiamAndes is arriving at the right time to introduce its wines through differentiation, which is very evident if we compare some of the wines that are in the market. We are betting on successful wines with long presence in the mouth and outstanding finesse and elegance,” said Jean-Jacques.

He added that “thanks to the Uco Valley terroir and the location of the cellar at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level, the grape achieves balance when ripe while maintaining the necessary acidity to keep it fresh. The harvesting dates are set apart to obtain the quality we want and avoid the over-maturation, which is what usually tires the wine, resulting in heavy and overcooked wines. We wanted to do something different.”

Jean-Jacques’ passion for wines is evident when he explains that “our harvesting process is done by hand and we have two selection tables to make sure that grapes are the only thing entering the tanks. We conduct very gentle over-pumps to collect what is already ripe so we can create fresher wines while still respecting the soil.”

Concerning the barrels in use by the cellar, he stated that “depending on the wine, we use 10-12 months for French oak barrels and 24 months for our reserve wines, helping to structure the wine so it doesn’t outdo the fruit, which is what we aim at.”

Regarding the harvesting season, DiamAndes enologist, Facundo Pereira, said to AndesWines.com that the this year’s harvest was “climatologically different to what is normal in Argentina, because of the El Niño effects, heavy rains falling in February and March, which reduced exposure to the sun and slowed down the ripening in general. In particular, our vineyards are healthy and our grapes have achieved good ripeness in a year with lower temperatures than normal, and it is showing similar conditions to the harvest of 2010 where there was good fruit, full-bodied wines and a lot of balance because of a slow and complete ripening.”

DIAMANDES GOES OUT TO CONQUER THE WORLD

The domestic Argentinean market represents 15% of DiamAndes’ sales, while the US and Canada concentrate sales of its varietal and reserve wines. Last year, they also started selling in Switzerland, United Kingdom, Asia and the rest of Latin America, with suppliers in Brazil and Uruguay.

The first vintage for DiamAndes was 2007. The DiamAndes Uco Gran Reserva 2007 went out mostly to the North American and Argentinean markets, a blend of 70% Malbec y 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Uco Valley.

A year ago, DiamAndes started to sell its reserve wines in the North American and Argentinean markets, and this year they will start offering their 100% varietals in Malbec and whites DiamAndes Chardonnay y DiamAndes Viognier. Later on, they will introduce their Malbec/Syrah at entry level, which will be named “Perlita,” as part of their strategy to open up new markets with different offers in varietals.

As the marketing expert, Séverine added that “the challenge is to obtain high quality wines with balanced fruits and elegance. We want to avoid the wood outshining the fruit so people can taste and enjoy its acidity and freshness, because these wines are made to be stored for a long time.”

WHY DIAMANDES?

The name DiamAndes came up during a family trip to the Diamond lagoon in the Cordillera de los Andes. Alfred noticed that in the mornings the Maipo volcano, lying on the border between Argentina and Chile, would reflect in the waters of the lagoon shaped as a diamond. During a barbeque, Alfred associated the words “diamonds” with “Andes,” and thus the brand was born.

In the coming weeks, DiamAndes will launch an exclusive boutique lodging service. Passengers visiting the vineyard will be offered the possibility to stay in three luxurious rooms and live a unique experience. The cellar is very close to the rooms and the offer includes access to the compound, adventure travel, trekking and horse riding, and other activities that are traditional in the area.

Photo Gallery:
http://www.andeswines.com/bodega-diamandes/

VIDEOS:
Sevérine explica en la Bodega DiamAndes: http://www.andeswines.com/diamandes-winery-at-the-cellar-in-argentina/

Grapes Selection at DiamAndes: http://www.andeswines.com/harvest-2011-in-diamandes-winery/

Jean-Jacques Bonnie:
http://www.andeswines.com/jean-jacques-bonnie-from-diamandes/

Sevérine Bonnie at DiamAndes
http://www.andeswines.com/severine-bonnie-from-bodega-diamandes/

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

WINE UNIVERSITY NETWORK TO BE LAUNCHED

In an effort to index all theses and studies related to viticulture and oenology worldwide, the marketing company AndesWines.com calls for all professionals with viticulture degrees and universities with wine-related programs to become part of the Wine University Network. This unreleased international registry began developing last year, and is now earning its place as a crucial database for the integration of all institutions and entities with wine-related programs. Its goal is to generate an improved exchange of information and strategies, for the benefit of all involved.

The WUN will create opportunities for the development of new studies and research that will easily transfer to all aspects of the wine business. Rather than remaining in University libraries, these studies will influence the industry at large, efficiently and profoundly.

This week, AndesWines made contact with all Latin American universities that have programs in agronomy and oenology. Next week, the company will continue its mission by contacting programs in Europe, the U.S., and Oceania.

The thesis summaries will be published in their original language in http://www.andeswines.com. When published, the site will become the first online registry of winemaking and wine research, all freely available to participating members.

To participate in the site, researchers must send a Word document with a summary or abstract of their findings (2 pages or less), including their name, e-mail, degree and university to andes@andeswines.com.

The countries invited to participate are: the U.S., Canada, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal.

Erin Becker
Innovation & Research

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

RESULTS OF THE CHILEAN BEER & DRINKS EXPERIENCE

Thirty-four Chilean and four non-Chilean artisan beers were put to the test in the “Chilean Beer & Drinks Experience” on June 28. The judging process and awards ceremony aimed to demonstrate Chile’s potential as a powerful producer of craft brews.

The judging panel included many names from the beer world: Daniel Trivelli of Maltexco, Franco Alarcón, sommelier with a specialization in beer, Antonio Aravena of the magazine Alma Cerveza, Jaime Ojeda of conespuma.com, Lucie Drahosava, head of Cervecera Checa, and John Holl, U.S. columnist specializing in beer and other drinks, who has written for a wide range of publications, including Ale Street News, Beer Connoisseur Magazine, craftbeer.com, and BeerBriefing.com, as well as working as the beer correspondent for the New York Times.

The results were:

LAGER DIVISION
1. Austral Lager
2. Volcanes del Sur

PALE ALE DIVISION
1. Austral Pale Ale
2. Rock Classic
3. Guayacan

PORTER DIVISON
1. Yungay
2. Leyenda
3. Kobold

STOUT DIVISION
1. Insular Robinson Crusoe
2. Bundor

SCOTTISH/IRISH ALE DIVISION
1. Tubinger Red Ale
2. Kobold Scottish Ale
3. Cerv. Del Puerto Scottish Ale

STRONG DIVISION
1. Gran Torobayo
2. Kross 5
3. Tubinger Tubinator

BOCK CATEGORY
1. Kobold
2. Volcanes del Sur Chocolate Bock

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Kross Abby Ale, golden strong ale
Austral Calafate, fruit beer
Cerveza Leyenda British Bitter
Tubinger Honey Ale

BEST NON-CHILEAN
Holsten Festbock

With the Twitter topic #chileanbeerexperience and @andeswines and the participation of attendants, the event generated a real-time discussion about the Beer Experience, which spread information about the entire community of Chilean craft beers. Among the highlights of the social media participation were Mariana Martinez, journalist from the well known Planetavino.com, food writer Rodrigo Martines, and Tatiana Hirsh of the magazine Platos & Copas.

The participating beers were: Desertica (Antofagasta), Vaguada Costera (San Antonio), Kona, Volcanes del Sur, Austral (Punta Arenas), Quimera, Kobold (Quintero), Kross (Curacaví), Kunstmann (Valdivia), Rock, Yungay, Bundor (Valdivia), Cervecera del Puerto (Valparaíso), Guayacan (Valle de Elqui), Insular (Isla Robinson Crusoe), Leyenda and Tubinger.

As part of the Artisan Beer Strategic Plan, initiated by Andes Wines, the event announced the creation of the first map of Chilean artisan beer. The map will feature the geographic location of 100% of the microbreweries and breweries in Chile, serving to support and encourage the development of the beer tourism industry, according to Maximiliano Morales, general manager of Andes Wines and creator of the Chilean Beer & Drinks Experience.

Among the companies, institutions and media that supported the event were Maltexco, Prochile, Atton el Bosque, Revista Alma Cerveza, Revista Platos & Copas, Revista City, Tomocerveza.cl, labuenavida.cl, conespuma.cl and Nirvino.cl.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

ANALYSIS LOGOS WINES OF ARGENTINA, BRASIL, CHILE, URUGUAY, GERMANY, SPAIN and PORTUGAL

The world has never seen such great and fast evolution of visual elements. A wealth of images associated with countries and companies fills the Internet and copyright records. The speed at which companies hire specialists and obtain a logotype is intimidating to aesthetic professionals. In the context of wine and export initiatives, there is an added challenge: countries and wineries must represent themselves with international promotion. It is in this sphere that we have seen the best commercial teams working with designers and advertisers. Here is a tour, in alphabetical order, of South America and its representative images.

Wines of Argentina recently changed its logotype. It left behind an image that included the colors of the Argentinean flag and moved toward a more modern style using two different typographies for the letters “A” and “W.” Visually, the effect is unsettling, since the perspective created in the triangle at the center is shifted. The prolongation of the outside triangle (the inside of the letter “A”) shows different widths and styles that attract the eye to the sides rather than making a strong natural center of attention.

The pink color does not seem to be suitable, especially because it is not neutral enough to represent both the red & white varieties. Finally, there is an aura of the pretentious, with a less-than-subtle allusion to a highly respected fashion design house that for the young followers uses the letters “A” and “X.” They are dancing at the edge of copyright law.

In contrast, Wines of Argentina achieved something great with the logotype for “Malbec World Day.” Everything happens around a wine glass: the blue color hearkens to the clear blue sky of Patagonia or the sky above the mountains and the image draws a map from the southern hemisphere as a geographic context. The two fonts and colors are a great choice considering the target audience of these events.

In the quest to find the image representing Brazil, we encountered the classic debate for the right translation: Wines of Brasil vs. Wines from Brasil. Just as expected from a Brazilian company, here we find the distinctive colors of the flag. The image includes a corkscrew, playfully inviting the consumer to open a bottle of wine.

The corkscrew is made with a light-hearted freehand drawing and the spiral serves as the axel element. The phrase they use, “open your mind” or “abra e se abra,” is provocative. If we already associate Brazil with soccer, Formula 1, Carnaval and beaches, clearly our expectations of their wines are the highest with this slogan, which capitalizes on these associations. The simple, modern and suggestive design reinforced with a phenomenal slogan (with a proper and contextualized translation) is a safe achievement. Brazil now has the great challenge of fulfilling this promise of offering quality and consistent wine to the international market.

The logotype for Wines of Chile is easily understood but is also naïve. It integrates the map showing the country vertically, which allows for a dynamic reading. The colors are modern and echo topographic and climatic maps, thus reinforcing the message of diversity in climates and elevations. Yet there must be a change. The entity and wineries have a huge challenge ahead due to the natural growth of the wines’ reputations. A change in the image is vital to support the initiative of increasing the presence and exports of medium and high range wines. It is imperative to develop a graphic concept that supports the increase of the price for the case of wine.

It is no secret that in the past few years, Chile has bet on making a difference. Wineries are applying strategies to avoid overstocking markets and therefore avoid the devaluation of these goods. There is a clear call for a mature image that matches this growth in prominence and price. A useful example of this is the logotype of the brands Swatch and Rolex; both watches work with precision and perfection, but their branding couldn’t be more different. Chilean wines are far from naïve. They require an image that shows this.

Wines of Uruguay is trying to deliver its message with a freehand drawing that lacks any structure. It is a loose and fluffy image that does not represent the potential of its producers and wines. The glass could establish a powerful axel with a more rigid and classic line. The blue color version is heavy and dark. It simply does not work for wine because it is monotonous and boring. The white version makes the sun look better and it is easier to recognize the location on the map.

There is another, totally different version of the logo that gives me serious doubts. It uses an empty bottle as a caramel-colored filter into a sunrise/sunset on the beach and handwriting that reads “Wines of Uruguay.” These are colors and ideas that could have worked three decades ago, but Uruguayan wines in the international trade are way ahead of that style. That image might work in tourism but does not support export initiatives to promote wines. The logo that has achieved the Uruguayan message most effectively is the one for the grape variety “tannat.” In this logo, a harmonic line draws a glass of wine and at the same time serves as the letter “T” at beginning and end. Together with “anna” in the interior, it creatively completes the word.

Germany

German design has been, and continues to be, a model of effective communication. This logo reinforces our positive preconceived notions about the country. The colors remind us of the country as a whole, rather than committing themselves to a particular region or variety of wine. Clear and raw, the image would even work without the text.

The text is written in an unpretentious font that does its job communicating and reinforcing the concept, identifying the entity and product it represents. Simply put, this is a design that’s complete, precise and functional.

Spain

The message of a Spanish fiesta is more than obvious; we just need to open the bottle! The words “Wines of Spain” are clear and achieve a successful dialogue amidst the two fonts and two colors, a bold risk that paid off. The text’s character integrates harmoniously with the solid color of the bottle, as though it extended directly from its surface.

The content is suggestive. The bottle’s position, as though it were being served, invites us to feel as though it is ours. The vibrant colors are representative and applicable to many white and red varieties. Flowing and pausing, the form achieves a rhythm. It seems someone applied a golden sheen—and gold was called “divine” by the Greeks. This bottle manages to represent all the wine regions of Spain, united as one country. It reinforces the consumer predisposition to think of Spain as happy and festive. A success, although my purist eyes would perhaps separate the black text and only permit the red to overlap, since the colored italics have always had a bit more permission to break the rules.

Portugal

The contents of the letter P evoke vegetable growth, a world of growth, complete with climbing vines and an invitation to sit on a balcony and enjoy the wine. The majority of the buyers must be women; clearly the feminine image is targeting that important segment that ultimately makes purchasing decisions.

This logo is an echo of the evolution of both Portugal’s labels and its styles, and the slogan “a world of difference” puts into words both the aesthetic and sensory experiences of the wines. The font is a success, with its first letter “W” playing at growing like a vine to put the dot on the letter “i.” To sum it all up, the design is understated, feminine, elegant and alive. The vintage style isn’t “in” in Portugal. Nevertheless, this distinctive line was inspired by those antique balconies, where one could sit and watch the sea and the vineyards, a view both romantic and evocative.

Though the world of images seems limitless, there are key concepts to delivering the right message. First and foremost, there are basic considerations of composition, color and shape. It should be enough to just take a look at the classics to begin to understand. By classics, I mean icons in the arts that have gathered international attention and acclaim: da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rosetti, Goya, Mucha, Constable, Turner, Monet, Picasso, Dali, Rauschenberg, Beuys, Klee, Miro, Warhol, and Mondrian, as well as many movements like Bauhaus and Art Nouveau, to name just a few.

In addition to these artistic masters, studying the shapes of nature and reviewing the Greek concept of the “golden ratio” can reveal some fundamental ways to add soul and power to a design. We invite those interested to review the solid world of images from Europe, the Middle East and Asia, so we can all understand the task we have ahead of us in the region.

The Author:

Pamela Villablanca studied Art in Universidad Finis Terrae, Diplomados at Universidad Católica de Chile and the Cinema School of Chile. Pamela is a Chilean professional who has worked in the United States since 2002 leading business missions for both premium wine companies and prestigious tailor made tourism. Pamela Villablanca performed various tasks in 20 Estates and nearly 60 cities as Ex–Brand Ambassador for Huneeus Vintners, Family group owning Veramonte in Casablanca Valley and Quintessa in California among other properties. She was recently the Estate Sales Manager for a Napa based start-up company importing and distributing South American wines in California.

AndesWines
andes@andeswines.com

Translated by Erin Becker
Graduate of the English and Creative Writing Program
University of North Carolina

WINE INVESTMENT CIRCLE IN CHILE AND CALIFORNIA

The creation of the Wine Investment Circle was announced this past week and will be officially launched at the II Wine after Office event July 7th. The company Andes Wines launches the initiative to generate a wide range of business around wine, tourism, cinema and gastronomy. Operations will start this month in Santiago and in August San Francisco to open United States.

The event is sponsored by Diario Financiero and Capital magazine, being the main motivation the creation of the first “Wine Private Equity” in Chile. This fund will work through a plan of attraction of private investors and will be activated in the United States thanks to the join venture with Pan American Real Estate Group which is leaded by US investor Matt Scoggins. The areas of interest are wine, energy, boutique hotels and Chilean movies.

The objective of the “Wine Private Equity” in a first stage is to administrate USD$ 20 M together to buy a set of vineyards in different valleys. These vineyards must have a great potential of growth on a medium term, so the company can make use of their potential, work on the value through an intelligent management for 2 and up to 5 years to then sale it for a higher price.

The Wine Investment Circle and the Pan American Real Estate Group have already generated a great opportunity to invest in the area of Chilean cinema, thanks to the contact provided by Andes Wines to link a local producer and an investor to analyze the ways of financing this type of projects.

The II Wine After Office event will launch the “Wine Investment Circle” starting at 8pm at the terrace & bar from Atton El Bosque Hotel and the sponsors are First Tuesday Santiago, Blue Company & Boldlab.com The media partners are Revista Capital, Diario Financiero, Nirvino.cl and labuenavida.cl targeting communication to executives of the stock market, equity funds, wealth management and finance offices from the real estate, energy, gastronomy, tourism and wine trade.

The hosts of the II Wine After Office will be Pamela Villablanca, International Director of Andes Wines, former Veramonte Ambassador for Huneeus Vintners, family owner of Quintessa & Veramonte among other properties; Maximiliano Morales, C.E.O of Andes Wines; and Sebastian Hoppe, Director of Investment for the company, who will share the initiative of the “Wine Investment Circle” and steps to follow in Chile and USA.
Dynamic of the II Wine After Office

The event is open to the community with the purchase of a rechargeable card for wine which will allow the entrance to the event, and also gives access to taste a great variety of wines available in the wine dispenser at Atton El Bosque Hotel. Tickets are available for purchase prior the event, contact us to arrange details of reservation and payment to the info below.

Assistants will select their Wines among a 16 red Wines at the modern “Wine Dispenser”, the card is sold for $ 7.000 and is charged so you can have pours of either 25, 75 or 150cc. Some of the wineries that offer their wines at the dispenser are Anakena, Botalcura, Lagar de Bezana, Casa Marin, La Rosa, Sutil, Miguel Torres, Nerkihue, Chocalán y Lafken del Valle de Maipo Alto.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-370 2997
twitter: @andeswines.com