Branding a Wine

Why do you buy a particular bottle of wine? You've had it before? Your friend recommended it? It has a cool name? You love the label? It's a Moscato and you love Moscato?

Those are all very common reasons that people do buy particular wines. But, there thousands and thousands of different wine SKUs out there. For some of those SKUs, there are millions of bottles sold every year. For many others, there are hundreds of thousands. That is a lot of choices for the consumer ... the buyer.

I was prompted to write this piece because I was at a wine dinner. The food was excellent and the pairings were good. There were three wine professionals, or so they claimed, in attendance. One repped the wines in the US while the other two were with the Georgia-based distributor that has the local rights to the wines. They had a captive audience of nicely socially distanced diners who were enjoying an evening of food and wine. And, surely, they were there with the goal of selling their wines.

Well, I don't think they did.

Let's consider what they did and what they didn't do. After all, there were some quite attractive wines there. I think I could have sold five cases or more to that crowd on that evening.

They poured wine and served it. The US rep spoke briefly about each wine as it was served, probably for a good 30 seconds. As these were all Italian wines, he told us where each was from and which grapes were in it in which percentages.

Period.

Nothing else.

Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nihil.

They had an opportunity. They had a captive audience of people who came to a wine dinner. 

Let's consider one of the wines and the food it was paired with as an example. The wine was a 2016 Castello Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva. It was paired with a marvelous raviolo of spinach, ricotta, and egg yolk.

Here is what we heard about the wine. It was aged in Slovonian (there is no such thing) oak for 18 months (no mention of why). It was 90% Sangiovese, 5% Canaiolo, and 5% Colorino. We also learned that this wine was made by the Bianchi family. The winemaker is the daughter of the owner. And, we heard a claim that this wine has been in the Wine Spectator Top 100 for 7 of the last 10 years (I couldn't find it in anywhere near 7 of those years this morning although this was a very enjoyable wine).

Let's present this wine again. Let's give you a sense of place. I can sell you this wine.

What we have selected for this course is the 2016 Castello Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva. As you may know, Chianti is a DOCG in Tuscany. That is the highest classification in the Italian structure of wine regions. It's in the north central part of the country just to the south of Florence. 

The hills in Tuscany tend to run from the northwest to the southeast. The soil is a galestro schist, gravelly near the surface providing for excellent drainage. On the south slope, where most of the Sangiovese is planted to ensure maximum sun exposure, the soil, while not extensive, is loose and a bit sandy. This allows the roots to dig deep and produces a grape with a considerable tannin structure. But, at 300 meters/1000 feet, the nights are cool enough that the tannins while bold enough to produce ageworthy wines are quite rounded. The Canaiolo, a deep black grape, is added to enhance the color and depth of the Sangiovese while the Colorino gives a more pronounced structure.

This wine was aged a total of 18 months, anout half in new French oak barrels and half in the much smaller barriques (barriques are more slender than traditional barrels and in this case about half the size) followed by bottle aging for another 2 years before release (note that there is no Slovonian or any other non-French oak). 

This wine is packed with dark fruit, black currant, black cherry, violet, and juniper. As it ages, expect the floral notes to dry and local herbs to come through as the tannins soften.

While this wine is quite approachable today, it will drink well for at least the next 10 years and likely more as both the 2015 and 2016 growing seasons were ideal in Chianti. 

We'll be walking around to the tables to answer your specific questions. In the meantime, please enjoy this special wine.

You tell me; who would you buy from?