No question about it: there's too much Bordeaux on the market. The answer: find new ways to sell it. Howard Goldberg, who once wrote for the NewYork Times, thinks the answer is for Bordeaux estates to sell shrink-wrapped, powdered wine, which could be reconstituted (with designer water, to be sure) into vino. Great idea, Howard; we'll get back to you.
Seriously, it's time for international action. Justin and Andy, what's your plan?
"Cut a hole in the box ... Put your straw in that box ..."Now you're talking! TetraPak (the juice-box people from Sweden) have been hired by a Cordier (a French wine merchant) to "bottle" a line of boxed Bordeaux called Tandem. Reported sales in in their test market (Belgium): 1,000 units a week. Anywhere else, that would be considered a flop, but Cordier tells Decanter (the British wine mag) that they plan to expand into Canada and France next year.
It's all about the most elusive of consumers: "the young people." The French regional marketing director for wine tells the Wall Street Journal that France needs to change the image of wine. "We have ignored young people and now we are paying the price."
Says The Independent,"The wine trade needs to encourage young people to come into wine and trade up. So long as it's quality wine, selling it in a carton with a straw is one way to encourage newcomers, who may otherwise just drink alcopops, to try wine instead."
Right, at $2.50 a pop (as it were).
A more predictable reaction from the venerable London merchant Berry Bros & Rudd, whose spokesman huffed, "I don't think it is a hugely good idea. It brings wine to the level of fruit juices and you don't want to bring young people into wine in that way."
Certainly not. Good lord, no.
