This is a story overtly about wine, so you might not care, and about trends, so you might not care.
Rather than revisiting the discussion about if we want our beer hip or sick I will simply argue that trends matter because they may determine what’s available for us to drink. After all, hipsters managed to slow the demise of Pabst.
So consider this report last week from the annual Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento, the largest conference of the year for the U.S. wine business.
The wines you’ll be savoring five years from now are being picked today by enological trendsetters barely old enough to drink.
Is it possible we might substitute the word beer for wine (and enological)?
The story reports that “what they’re looking for – wines that are quirky, regional, with rich background stories – isn’t what the mainstream domestic industry seems to be selling today.”
Can you think of a mainstream domestic drinks industry that seems to be struggling with growth?
Go give it a read. You may also enjoy the direction of this commentary: When the Young Eat the Rich.
You’ll find fodder for both sides of the “extreme beer” debate, for instance, but I’ll leave you with two takeaways:
– SABMiller may not yet have figured out how to wow the Gen Y millennials, but is right about their impact. They want products that are handcrafted, unique . . . “authentic.”
– Sommeliers, or Cicerones, are important.
And I also have to repeat the final quote of the story: “We way overestimate the knowledge of the American consumer.”
Is he talking about us?
“We way overestimate the knowledge of the American consumer.”
based on my own experience (mostly at brew-pubs serving the freshest, most diverse beers available), I think we could replace “knowledge” in that sentence with “enthusiasm” or “interest.”
“What do you mean you don’t have Miller Lite? I thought this was a bar!”
“They want products that are handcrafted, unique . . . “authentic.””
The generation that has been over-marketed is tired of being marketed to. They read blogs instead of newspapers. What they’re looking for is that which isn’t marketed, but is available.
The best part is, they’re fickle. They’re the generation that buys stocks for the short quick ride. They’ll love it and leave it just as quickly. The best way that you can grab their interest is to give them a new flavor every week until they trust your name for that.
Good piece; I like this guy’s stuff. And yeah, I agree that we probably overestimate the knowledge of the American public…wait a minute. Weren’t we also overestimating the knowledge of the German public just one post ago? Maybe we’re all just too geeked out.
All that the last line says to me is that trends in the vast ocean of the American market move relatively slowly. It would pay to remember that wine sales plummeted in the mid-80s (the kind of drop that would have been trumpeted on the front page if it had been beer), and we’ve seen a steady rise from there, just about the same time we saw the phenomenal rise of imported beer from 1.5% to almost 15%.
Trends among the trendy move quickly: malternatives, fruit beers, low-carb beers, dry beers, all flashes in the pan. The only thing that keeps malternatives alive is constantly changing flavors (Acai berry anyone? That pomegranate slush you’re drinking is so 2007). But the trendy and young are the ones who drink the most.
It’s a killer circle for marketers: leave them to it. There is a growing market for solid beers: IPA, hefe, witbier, yes, even pilsner. Maybe that’s another danger of the extreme beer movement (he says, just to yank chains): constantly promising and delivering more more more just leads to customers that want more more more different stuff. That’s fun, but…it isn’t a formula for long-term growth. The growth in the craft segment continues to come from flagship beers.
That said, stodgily, I know we’re drinking more imported wines at home. I want to like American sauvignon blanc and cabernet, but I find myself gravitating to New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Argentina, and Australia. Just like ’em better. Maybe I’m not so stodgy. Although I’d just as soon not have some silly back-story. Just let me taste the wine.
I like those articles for many reasons. If we want to apply it to beer, though, we’d need to answer: what makes a beer ‘handcrafted’? Authentic? Unique is pretty easy to figure out.
Unique seems to be out of place with those other descriptors, doesn’t it? Maybe I’m looking at it wrong…but I think of what Lew describes when I see the word ‘unique’ applied to beer…just some concoction that is different. For unique, it doesn’t matter where it comes from or how it is produced.
So that begs the question (in my mind), how important is production (place, process, brewmaster) on the final flavor of the beer? If unique matters, do the other things matter as much?
You see beers get labeled ‘farmhouse’ for various reasons. How important is it that they are produced on a farm? At what point does a beer cease to be ‘handcrafted’? Authentic? Maybe this is something that is just intuitive and not objective…Does a story make something authentic? Seems not.
Cheers
matt
Matt,
Good points…but to whom? To us, certainly. But while a story doesn’t make a drink “authentic,” a bullshit, made-up story, a good one, does sell booze. I’ve seen it happen too many times to doubt it. And as much as we talk about “beer education,” trying to educate people to see through horseshit seems to be a hopeless task. It’s how con men make their living. It’s why you keep getting e-mails for p3ni$ enlarg3meNt!!! and millions from Nigeria (although I’ve noticed more of those from Ivory Coast lately). At times, I despair.
But it’s also the reason that when I do find a good story, I love to tell it. I’m a big proponent of all the reason to buy a beer or a whiskey being contained in your mouth…but I also encourage Pennsylvanians to choose Yuengling over BMC because it’s local, to choose Iron City over Coors Light because it’s Pittsburgh’s heritage, to choose Old Forester because it’s…because it’s been around a long time and doesn’t get any respect even though it’s good. I will choose one beer over another because I want to support a particular brewery.
What the hell does all that have to do with taste? Nothing. Yet I submit that all of us have done it, and probably continue to do it. There are many reasons for purchase decisions. Taste is only one, and even it’s subjective, and affected by the other.
I could end there, but I wanted to talk about “authentic.” Actually, you know what? I think I’m going to do that on my own blog…you know, where I can edit, and make it more authentic and hand-crafted in my traditional one-man blogging shop, located deep in the hallowed blogging regions of Pennsylvania, home of the ancient bloggers. (Ed: He has, and here’s the link.)
Lew – I’m anxious to read more on your thoughts about “authentic” and will add a link (above) when you post.
Back to the wine. My understanding is that there a good American examples fermented with the grapes you mention. Problem is they are too darn expensive. Granted wine real estate in Chile and Argentina is cheaper, but given the condition of the dollar is seems crazy that it’s far easier to find enjoyable French wines in our price range than American.
There’s a back story that’s broken.
You know, Stan, I haven’t actually noticed the prices, although I am actually buying them…I haven’t hooked up with the free wine gravy train yet (look for more wine reviews on STAG soon…). I just like them better. Probably haven’t had the right Cabs, but the Sauvignon Blancs from NZ just taste better to us. I really like the Cab/Shiraz blends from Oz, too.
Can’t argue with you on any of those (and consider a Shiraz with maybe 10% Viognier). You should do the tasting thing in Sonoma County (cheaper than Napa and you are closer to Bear Republic and Russian River).
Good stuff, but then you notice the bottom end is twice what you are paying for south of the equator . . .
OK, back to beer.
Notice also that in some instances you pay twice as much as north of the border when it comes to certain quality wines from commonwealth or Chile.
You know, we should start a joint blog on wine for craft beer lovers. It would be fun to write on wine without the snobbery.
There are plenty of snobbery-free wine blogs already. A couple that focus on value: Godo Wine Under $20 (still well above our target price) and Quaffability, looking for writers because the lead author apparently will be doing even more wine blogging.