What if you're not Chateau Margaux, Veuve Clicquot, or Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, with international renown and worldwide demand? What if your name is Luc Luyckx, for example, and your property, Chateau Famaey in the Cahors appellation of southwestern France, is unknown to American importers, distributors and consumers?
The answer, for some 15 French wine producers, was the classic one: go on the road, pour your samples for whoever shows up...and hope for the best.
Proprietary red wine from Tramier; buyers from Ray's Boathouse taste Alsatian wine.
Back in France, Maison Tramier sells three million bottles a year of a blended vin de tablecalled Secret Royal, and not a drop of it from supermarket shelves, either. Instead, it's literally marketed door-to-door, by shoe-leather reps who come right into kitchens and living rooms with their samples. Export manager Laurent Dufouleur knows he can't duplicate that business model in the US, but he's hoping the wine's modest export price, 2 euros, will help him build a market. Great wine? No, but decent enough, especially if it can come in at a shelf price under five bucks.
But there's the rub. Importers and distributors won't take on a new line unless there's a demand; retailers and restaurants already have a wide range of choices. Which is where the French Trade Commission comes in: setting up trips like this for producers, organizing tastings, "facilitating contacts" between visitors and home team.
Luc Luyckx and Jose Salinas at dinner for visiting wine producers.
Puzzled by our quaint customs, our complicated regulations, our bizarre tastes, our foolish pride in homegrown vintages, they do what they can while they're here to make an impression. They visit Chateau Ste. Michelle and Costco, then "Au revoir, merci," and they're gone.
Posted by Ronald Holden at January 25, 2006 12:01 AM
The International Kitchen
Cooking school vacations in Italy, France & Spain.
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