Chapter 3 Section 2 Low-end Wine

According to the production country, it can be divided into the New World and the Old World. The Old World refers to the wine-producing countries represented by traditional European wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain, and the New World refers to the countries outside Europe represented by Australia, the United States and Chile. wine producing countries. So far, the article has mentioned the scenery of French wine many times. In fact, the authority of old world wine led by French wine after the "May Revolution" in 1976 has been frequently challenged by "houlang" new world wine.

In the early days, New World wine was a representative of cheap and low-quality wine, which was far inferior to New World in terms of quality and output.But in the past 20 or 30 years, it has begun to emerge suddenly and grow stronger day by day.Overall Old World wine exports have grown by only a fifth over the past 15 years.However, the export volume of "New World" wines in the same period has increased by 18 times compared with that of "Old World". Volumes are declining, while imports have increased by about 10%.Taking the British wine market in 2006 as an example, in terms of market share, Australian wine ranked first, accounting for 24.3%; the second and third places were France (17.7%) and the United States (16.4%), respectively. At the same time, American wine sales are growing rapidly, and it may only be a matter of time before they surpass France.Of the ten best-selling wines by volume, five were from Australia, three from the US and none from France.When the financial crisis came in 2008 and the global wine consumption fell by 0.8%, the wine export volume of the New World countries still soared by 30%.

There is no doubt that the rapid expansion of New World wines has indeed formed a huge threat to Old World wines.According to a rough estimate, the production of New World wine is increasing at a rate of 10% per year, while that of Old World wine is backlogged at 15% per year. However, it would be one-sided to conclude that the old world is in full decline based on these alarmist news alone.Although the overall sales volume of New World wine has grown rapidly, its selling price is still at a low level.Taking the United States as an example in 2008, the total amount of wine exported that year was 55 million cases, and the total revenue was 1 billion US dollars. The average revenue per case was only 18 dollars. Calculated based on a case of 6 bottles of wine, the revenue per bottle was only 3 dollars.This shows that New World wines mainly occupy the middle and low-end wine market, and have little impact on the high-end market.

So, why is New World able to overturn the cloud and rain in the mid-to-low-end wine market and defeat the old world wine in a row?Still close the distance between man and nature.However, the middle and low-end wines in the New World take a different path from the Old World.The old world wine is a "guardian" and sticks to the philosophy of "let nature make wine"; while the new world wine completely breaks away from the rules and regulations of the predecessors and shows new thinking. They understand what kind of wine consumers want and try their best Do everything possible to create that kind of wine to satisfy them, so as to narrow the distance between man and nature.The old and new world wines discussed below refer to the middle and low end wines.

First of all, of course it is delicious!Alcohol is also a kind of beverage!What?Does the wine have a sour taste?it's not good.What?How many years do you have to wait in the wine cellar?Who has that patience?As for complex, layered, full-bodied, mellow and other inscrutable professional vocabulary, it is better to leave it to winemakers, connoisseurs and other insiders-I want refreshing taste, strong fruity aroma, delicious taste, and instant wine. drinking wine. A French Burgundy winemaker once called New World wine a "lollipop". It is suitable for all ages and is delicious, but it has no connotation. It loses the life bestowed by the earth, and only the flavor prepared by artificial technology remains.This remark is not very pleasant, but I believe that the winemakers of the New World will not deny it.Yet this is one of the reasons for the success of New World Liquor: artificially transforming jerky, less than perfect nature into a smooth and pleasing one, and then delivering it to a large number of people who just want a lollipop.Because most people really don't have enough money or thought to savor the twists and complex flavors of handmade chocolate, all they want is a lollipop.

People love fruity wines, and New World brewers have eighteen weapons at their disposal.For example, Australian winemakers use lactic acid fermentation in large quantities, so their red wines are full of fruity aromas and full-bodied; while white wines have an obvious thick and creamy aroma in addition to tropical fruit aromas.Low-temperature fermentation can also be used to prolong the fermentation period of wine, thereby increasing many ester substances, thereby increasing the fruity aroma.In addition, there are reverse osmosis concentration method, freezing extraction method, screening of fermentation strains, etc., all to bring different fragrances to wine.

Another example is that people like the taste of oak in red wine (from the oak barrels used to age fashion wine), but in fact it is too time-consuming and space-consuming to ferment in oak barrels. Smart New World businessmen do not do it. They add wine to the wine Oak sawdust or oak essence will do the same.It’s okay to want a good taste. The new fermentation method mentioned above can be used, and glycerin can also be added to the wine. When it comes to the taste of wine, we have to mention a key factor that affects it - the year.Don't underestimate the year.In fact, for old world wine regions, because they pursue the winemaking concept of nature first, all artificial behaviors that interfere with nature are strictly prohibited, so the quality of a bottle of wine depends on the grade of the wine and the production of the winery. In addition to technology, the most influential factor is the year.The temperature, rainfall, and sunshine time in different years are different, which will lead to different tastes of wine. For example, if there is too much rainfall on the eve of picking grapes, the wine produced will have insufficient sugar and a weak taste.If the vintage conditions are good, the quality of the wine is excellent; if the vintage is really bad, even the best winery and sour wine maker can't recover.Therefore, the French pay attention to the year of wine, just like the Chinese pay attention to the horoscope of a person's birth date. The rich and poor are determined at the moment of birth, and it is purely dependent on the sky.This situation is really annoying at times: the wines of the same winery may taste very different in different years. High-end wines rely on excellent nature and superb winemakers and bartenders to maintain high quality, but the taste of mid- and low-end wines is excellent. It just depends on luck.

In sharp contrast to the old world's style of looking at the sky and eating, it is the new world that believes that man can conquer nature.They will never allow bad years to ruin the quality of their wines, but try to use artificial methods to reduce the negative factors brought about by natural climate change.If the sun is not enough, they will adjust the grape leaves to receive more sunlight; if the rain is not enough, they can use irrigation equipment to water the grapes; if the night temperature is too low, they can also use large heaters to "warm" the grapes.In addition, the new world will even be further modified in the brewing process.If the grapes are not ripe enough and the sugar is not enough, they add sugar during the fermentation process; if the acidity of the grapes is insufficient, they add wine acid; Mentioned some.

These practices are simply unthinkable for traditional wine producers.For high-end wines, the brewing method of the old world is suitable (the high-end wines of the new world are also made in the same way), because the foundation (natural conditions of the production area) is strong enough, and there are skilled winemakers and bartenders. The year is adjusted accordingly to ensure high quality; however, because the producers of low-end and mid-end wines do not have enough conditions to maintain high quality and good taste, and for mass consumers, they are more demanding taste, stable quality and cheap price good drink.By doing so, the New World not only eliminates the influence of the vintage to ensure the stability of quality and taste, but also ensures high yields, which is why the New World can be half cheaper than the Old World for wines of the same quality.

Ready-to-drink is not only reflected in the approachable and pleasing taste, but also in the convenience of drinking.As a result, people in the new world also began to work hard on product design, and various portable packaging came out: boxed, bagged, flexible packaging, etc.; the cork with a sense of opening ceremony was canceled and replaced with a more convenient and more routine and civilian screw caps.Who can not be amazed by such ingenious ideas? Secondly, in addition to pure drinking, a large part of wine is served with food, but various foods do not necessarily match the tastes of various wines. Wine food pairing is actually a profound knowledge among professionals, and it is definitely more than just "red wine". It's as simple as red meat, white wine with white meat".Thoughtful New World wines have reinvented themselves once again with new clothes (wine labels) to make food pairing a breeze—describe the flavor of the wine (such as oak, butter, or green apple) Give food suggestions to pair with the wine.

However, European wine producers, especially French winemakers, mostly disdain to do these kitsch things out of cultural pride and sense of superiority.For them, because the styles of wine produced in different production areas and different wineries are different, consumers want to know the taste and style of a bottle of wine, and they only need to understand the characteristics of the production areas and wineries.The problem is that there are more than 400 traditional wine producing regions in France, more than 600 grape varieties, and there are countless wineries.In addition, the year and grade of wine will also affect its taste characteristics.Such a complex wine culture makes the new generation of consumers at a loss and discouraged.Do they have to spend hours or even days researching these regions and wineries before buying a bottle of wine worth a few euros?The old world who prides itself on being nobles and seniors, look at other people's new world wine!This is the attitude that a democratic world should have. Very delicious, absolutely convenient, quite cheap, and thoughtful design, what more can you expect from a bottle of wine that is less than 100 yuan?of course can! For many consumers who don't like alcohol itself, even so, they still don't buy wine, but prefer to choose beverages and fruit juices as drinks.Traditionally, such people would not be included in the target market by vintners, but New World vintners do not want to miss this piece of fat. In order to attract these consumers, they launched a new product in the 1980s and 1990s: fruit wine.The so-called fruit wine, as the name suggests, is to mix fruit juice into the wine to make it taste sweeter and more delicious, suitable for all ages.After the fruit wine was launched, it has been favored by consumer groups such as young people and women. Let's see how Arbor Mist, the No. 1 selling fruit wine in the United States, does it. In terms of product appearance, Arbor Mist has transparent packaging, bright colors, and beautiful shapes. Arbor, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, etc.) and different fruits (including strawberry, peach, orange, green apple, etc.) have developed a variety of wines to meet the needs of different consumers; in terms of marketing, Arbor Mist's slogan is "Great tasting wine with a splash of juice!" It mentions wine and juice at the same time, and highlights "greattasting". Its various posters (Figure 1-3) also focus on creating Delicious, natural and healthy images are in line with the needs of the younger generation of consumers.In addition, most of Arbor Mist's products are priced between US$2 and US$4 (less than RMB 30), which is very cheap and even young people can afford it. Arbor Mist wine conveys this message to consumers: I can give you everything you want, including delicious, healthy, convenient and cheap! Through the above description, we can clearly see how the middle and low-end wines of the old and new worlds are very different. These differences can be traced back to their completely different winemaking philosophies, which is also the reason for the rise of the new world and the decline of the old world. Middle and low-end wine makers in the old world still believe that making wine is to let the wine interpret the flavor of nature, rather than trying to change the natural style.In their minds, wine is sublime and people are humble. People should respect, understand and appreciate wine with an open mind, instead of changing wine to adapt, accommodate and satisfy people.They regard themselves as noble, continue to brew low-end wines in the same way as high-end wines, and follow their "wine-based" winemaking philosophy to the end. The New World winemaking philosophy is the exact opposite.They reverse the status of wine and people. Wine is a drink and a commodity. Wine naturally needs to adapt to people, accommodate people, and satisfy people, rather than asking people to change something for wine.By implementing this "people-oriented" winemaking philosophy, New World has achieved great success in the middle and low-end wine market.The comparison between the two shows that the essence of the middle and low-end wine industry is to adapt to people by transforming nature, rather than attracting people by preserving nature like high-end wine. From the above description, we can clearly see that in order for wine to be successful, the distance between man and nature must be shortened.But middle and low-end wines and high-end wines must take different paths, telling two stories. The way high-end wine should go is a bit like Jiang Taigong's fishing. He tries his best to preserve the natural essence of talent, and then conveys this information through sommeliers, celebrities, and wine review competitions to attract consumers. However, mid-to-low-end wines cannot pretend to be high-profile, nor can they be arrogant to make people wait for maturity. If they want to successfully narrow the distance between nature and the public, they must step down from the high platform humbly, transform the shortcomings of nature, and become smooth. Pleasing to accommodate everyone's taste.