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

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

Grez now works at one of Greek´s most important vineyards thanks to Andes Wines “Job Wine Search” service, which provides assistance in the search of job opportunities in the competitive wine industry all over the world. After months of intense lookout, his efforts certainly paid off, running today one of the key cellars in Greece.

Tell us about your current responsibilities at Domaine Porto Carras.

They gave me total control over the cellar. Among my tasks as enologist, I survey the production of the new wines, oversight of the entire chain of production, manage the personnel, the selection and acquisition of the materials, cost control, productivity, sales, etc.

I’m also in charge of controlling the level of grape maturity. In whites we have right now Malagouzia, Athiri, Assyrtico, Roditis, Sabbatiano,Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. While in the reds we are working with Limnio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Cinsault.

What’s it like to work with Greek grapes?

I had never worked with Greek grapes before, so I had to learn from scratch about the varieties and apply all my previous experience in vinification. Everything has worked out fine so far and the new wines produced under my charge, according to sommeliers and my own impressions after tasting different harvests, are of a superior quality compared to previous years.

The whites are more fresh, fruity, smooth and balanced, while the reds are more mature, softer and have rounder tannins, very pleasant and much more balanced than previous productions. In general Greek wines, and the ones used to be produced in this cellar in particular, are of very rustic taste and too dry, very different from the Chilean varieties. So I can say with much pride that Domaine Porto Carras is back in producing fine wines.

What wines are you currently producing?

In reds, the production is lead by Chateau Porto Carras, Syrah, Limnio, Limnio Cabernet and a Nouveau. While in whites you have Malagouzia, Assyrtico, Athiri, Blanc de Blancs, Melissanthi, Amathouse and a Rose.

On November 8, the wine journalist Dimitris Koparanis introduced two of our whites 2010, Malagouzia and Amathouse. He was very impressed by the quality of both, and highlighted the new style and categories of wines we were starting to produce; even predicted that once our competitors started tasting our wines, it was very likely that different cellars would start reaching out for some assistance.

What are your plans for 2011?

I was invited to be juror at the “11th International Wine Competition of Thessaloniki”, which will take place between March 8 and 10 next year in the city of Thessaloniki. This will be a test but also an acknowledgment of the silent work I have accomplished here in Greece.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
twitter: andeswines

andes@andeswines.com

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The abstracts will be published in their original lenguages in http://www.andeswines.com, founding the first on-line viticulture and oenology thesis registry having open access documents to its users. In spite of Andes Wines is a Chile-based website, it is visited by more than 95.000 subscriptors of 12 countries in english, italian, portuguese and spanish.

To date, interested agronomists and oenologists should send a word file with the abstract (2 sheets maximum), and requires the name, profession, university where he graduated and e-mail.

The countries that have been called to participate are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and United States

Andes Wines Communications ™
(56) 9 – 9-219 7117
andes@andeswines.com

Translated by César Gonzalez Fernandez.