1 First wine and first flight: judge carefully
The calibration wines are very good thing of CMB missing at Vinitaly, for example. It let’s your palate get ready for the big tasting and also sets you right among other judges — since most jury members prefer to discuss the calibration wine in more detail and compare scores. Hence, if you gave a calibration wine 75 points while others gave it 87 — a reason to be alert that you might have a problem with sensing the wines further. This might not even be something you can control — due t sickness or personal factors. As a matter of fact it really helps in critical situations, especially if you’re doing CMB judging for the first time.
Of course, people who sent wine samples to CMB don’t expect that their wine gets worse score because it was first in the flight. So be careful with these fist wines and prepare your mind and senses to possible problems of being too generous or too strict.
2 Long flights: judge steadily
Long flights of 10-15 wines can be a problem for a judge especially when they are very similar or far from being good wines. Bad wines wear you out and irritate you fast. Still, it’s your goal not to get overwhelmed by a flight of those — because it’s quite probable that the last wine in this flight will be quite better — and you won’t pay enough attention to notice that.
3 Mind the other judges, but stand your grounds
You don’t have to take others’ opinion into consideration while judging. Still, it’s a good idea to know where you are on the scores. As a newcomer you might not know the usual boundaries of scores and you should know that you score will be eliminated by the system if you judge too strict or too advantageous compared to the others. Still, you will find yourself many times in position when you’re the one who gave a very different score to a wine. No problem here, it’s just you have to be sure that you can objectively support your opinion and that being too strict is not what you do all the time. Points below 75 are very low and should work only for wines with serious flaws, I suppose.
4 Mind the vintage change in the flight
Sometimes you don’t notice the change of the vintage which is stated on your tasting list. Vintage is normally helpful to get ready to a change of wine aromas and taste within the flight and will influence your judging.
5 Guessing the wine origins: good or bad?
Some judges believe that you have to take into consideration the style of winemaking that you think this wine reflects. For me taking into account your educated guesses is not a very good thing, because 1) you always might be wrong 2) you don’t judge wines based on what you think their tipicity to the specific region is. This point is very subjective and unsteady. Regions can produce hundreds of wine styles and it’s not your task to try to guess where the wine comes from. What you think was a Bordeaux blend will come out as a flight of Chinese cab sauvignons and you will not be able to change your score when you discover that after the tasting.
For me the major question for each sample is: does it taste good? Is there a a harmony? Is there a structure, tannin and acidity (for the reds)? I don’t care what region it really is, which country. If the wine tastes good, it gets a good score. Yes, I do take into consideration the style of wine — because pinots are very different from cabernets — but, other than that, I leave the tipicity aside from my judging.
6 Calculation hell: what comes first — overall rating or separate elements points?
An Interesting question by itself. Sometimes you will find that you have a score in your head right after you tasted the wine — and then trying to give the specific marks to match this score. I really don’t see anything wrong about this — the overall impression is not always easy to divide into its parts. Sometimes I find that summing up all the parts will give a high score which I do not feel tight for the sample. This means you will have to amend your score on the sheet — not always a good idea, especially when there a lot of amendments that you make. As my president told me once — it’s better to spend 30 seconds more with a sample than amending the score afterwards — very true.
7 Points calculation trick for a novice
Unlike the last Vinitaly competition where the perfect IPad judging technique was successfully presented in 2014, the Concours is still dealing with paper — with all its disadvantages. And the first one on your list will be scores calculation. It’s not officially required to put the score mark on the OIV evaluation sheets, but unofficially you will be doing this in 100% of times — partly to give the medals and partly to correlate yourself with other judges on your panel (“hey, how much did you give this one? 78? Are you kidding?”).
So this is the easy way to know the score without wasting your precious time summing up all the individual segments like intensity, quality, harmony, etc. First you sum up the “perfect scores’. 100 points is of course is when you checked all the maximum boxes. The middle score with the second row of boxes checked is, thus, 86 points (we assume that you will always score the visual evaluation at maximum — almost a rule for every sample — not to judge the wine by its visual presentation). So what you will be mostly summing and subtracting from 86 points for still wines and 87 points for sparklings. So, for example if the wine is quite good and you gave all the scores in the second row — and for example gave a quality rating in the third row — you now just have to deduct 3 points from 86, resulting in 83 score. The same way of fast calculation applies to all other scorings. Saves much tiempo!
8 “People’s choice” vs taster’s personal opinion
During CMB I saw several times when judges take into consideration some “people like it” factor. I dismiss this practice totally — we are not here to give wines scores based on what we think the “crowds might think” about this wine. This is out job as professionals to judge wines strictly with no attention to their probable success in the supermarkets. “I don’t like it, but people’s gonna like it” makes this judgement not yours and not “people’s” because you cannot talk about “people” of the world — in each country there are its own “people” and their choice and opinion you don’t really know.
9 Drink water, don’t eat too much bread
It’s essential to clear your palate, especially from strong tannic and *bad* wines. The more you drink — the better.
The bread thing is much less useful in my opinion. If you eat bread, don’t forget to clean the mouth with water afterward to remove the crumbs. And yes, bread has taste, so be careful. Personally, I try to avoid eating bread during the tastings at all.
10 Give yourself time to rest
Do not use yourself up. Rest during the breaks. Do some exercises, take some fresh air outside, drink a coffee. During CMB you can even take short breaks during the flight if you’re tired — nobody will normally stop you.
11 Dress yourself : it’ll be freaking cold!
Both reds and whites are normally served at chilly temperatures — which is good for tasting bad bad if you come dressed for the summer. It may be hot outside the venue, but you are going to freeze inside. The last day I was sitting in both a jacket and a light springtime coat. Take some warm clothes with you.
12 Take essential medicine to prevent allergy and flu
CMB is always held in the spring period where everything is starting to blossom. If you have an allergic reaction to this — judging will be a nightmare, and you can trust me on this one. Take precautions several weeks in advance to fight your condition and take essential meds with you to the tasting. Keeping you nose clean is the most important thing to do, because 80% of judgement comes from smelling the aroma and analysing retronasal vibes coming from the wine when you take a sip and spit.
13 Consult you panel president, but also other jury
This is your major source of help and support during CMB. Still, over time you will find that different presidents give different advice, sometimes conflicting each other. You will have to deal with that yourself and use your brain to select the right advice.
14 Take the last bus
It’s always less crowded and more relaxed 
Especially if you want to get some rest during a long trip to the dining venue.
15 A mobile toothbrush will do you good
Your teeth will suffer at first place. Not only literary — but also visually. Red wine will make ‘em, eh, bluish. So — brushing your teeth in the local bathroom is painful but very useful for a good CMB picture!
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Turn off your personal taste
Although the organisers declare their statistics calculation system should protect the results from any serious trouble, the taster should come prepared to judge as objective as possible. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re from Sicily, Mendoza or Mexico. Surely, one cannot turn off his palate and historic attraction to our local styles of wine, but defining a good wine and defining the wine “I like” is quite different. Good wine has objective parameters at high levels — such as acidity, intensity, balance and harmony — no matter which wines you like. It’s completely wrong to “recognise» the wines of your region and score them higher, of course. First, you might be wrong. Second, it’s not fair Third, it’s not why we do this job — and it’s a job to be objective.
Show consistency
Judging several very similar wines in a row sometimes require more brain power than judging completely different wines. In my experience a flight of 15 very similar wines requires much more efforts to judge, than 15 wines that are very different. With the similar wines you’re struggling to distinguish the minor differences, unlike the easier task of discovering the bigger ones. For the purpose of self-control and — I assume — the CMB judges selection, the same wine is tasted twice during each day by each of the judges. Although it’s always very uncomfortable to discover that you gave this control wine very different points — one can’t always avoid this due to the mere physiology of wine tasting and the human factors that influence you during the tasting including such as time of the day, place within the flight, closeness to the coffee-break (before, after, how close) and so on. Even the position of your table among the other many tables matters — as well as the distance to the tasting hall entrance. Disturbance from the fellow CMB judges passing and stopping by could be quite severe.
Forget about the others — for a minute
Whether you’re comfortable on your panel of 5 judges or not — this shouldn’t interfere with your judging. Still this question of staying on your own line is complicated for me and it depends a lot on the each panel president and his / her style of judging. One will almost insist that you share your opinion about the wine you’ve just tasted and give you a hint of whether your marks fall in line with those of the other judges, the other will even tell you not to favour or be too strict to the wines. And it’s always a good idea — as a judge you should know that if you’re the only one on the panel who gives wines low scores your rating will perhaps be eliminated. Which means you’re a useless on this “celebration of life” — a white crow, so to speak.
Learn from the others
It’s always something you can learn during CMB tastings. Although it’s officially not welcomed if the panel members discuss the wines, the fact is that it’s almost unavoidable. Even if we were completely silent during the judging — the body language will tell you a lot about others’ opinion of the wine. That’s especially true, if you’re well connected to the other panel members. And it’s almost 100% true for the panel president that faces you all the time during the competition. You see the impression of each and every wine on their face, depending on the nationality could be from subtle to very obvious. You could even guess a score the panel head gives to a wine! Still, this is crucial for a newcomer to learn the boundaries of scores and the rules of judging the wines. Organises probably assume you know all about that from your first time, but it’s far from being the truth — this is from my own experience during the first time at CMB several years ago.
Judge in every condition
Whether you are suffering from the allergy, influenza or just an ordinary hangover — you go out there every fucking morning and you get yourself to taste another 50 samples. You nose might not work properly — just get on the pills and nasal sprays. Pro taster will rather die than skip the tasting.
Give wine a second chance. Always
It’s the last tasting day, you’re fed up and it’s just 30 min left to end the show. At this very moment your jury bumps into three faulty wines in a row — cork, oxidation, whatever. “Gosh”,- you think, — “not now, please!” The desire to simply dismiss the wine and finish the freaking day hits against a pro-taster’s motivation and the ruddy professionalism. Second (and sometimes third) samples are called for — no way you will put your comfort ahead of your professionalism.
Take the last bus
It’s always less crowded and more relaxed. Especially if you want to get some rest during a long trip to the dining venue.
Read this second part too!
]]>“Oh my God”, — was the first unhappy remark I heard from the fellow Italian winemaker when we were presented the new scoring process on the 26th of March 2014. The thing is all built with an IPad application. No more papers, pens, no more mistakes and painfully amending marks, no missing sheets of paper, no live signatures — all of that is the matter of the past with the new Vinitaly competition technology. After a short confusion the participants got a quick grip of the new toy.
New Vinitaly International Wine Competition app in IPad: as easy as can be
With wine judgement as elementary as moving a finger on the Ipad screen Vinitaly competition leaves the jury mostly sitting and staring at each other, rather than judging the wines — so fast it has become. The only old-fashioned thing preventing from increasing the number of participating wine samples seems to remain the human factor — sommeliers bringing and pouring the wines. When asked what would happen if the main server which collects all the data from a hundred of IPads goes down, Giuseppe Martelli, the President of the Italian Enologists Association exclaimed: “No way!”. Well, he’d know but I still think that Vinitaly should be ready for things like electricity malfunction or other technical problems. Or maybe I just had too much of that Russian experience in my life?
The new comfort comes with a bundle of new capabilities: you can re-judge the wines of the current flight at any moment while these wines are on your table — no need to go through tens of sheets of paper any more. You can put yourself into any position — even hide below the table and judge from there — all iPads are communicating with the main server wirelessly.
The next big thing with the app are certainly the ratings themselves — Ipads calculate them in real-time while you fill them in. Calculations of the final score has gone to the past — every Vinitaly judge knows immediately how he rated the moment he finishes. Even if your math skills blow your Vinitaly experience will still be great.
With all respect to the new technologies, Vinitaly International Wine Competition is no place for a newbie wine judge. Unlike many other big wine competitions this one’s regulations tell you not to communicate to other judges while in the process — even to your team members. As a judge you have to come prepared in battlefields like Concours Mondial de Bruxelles or others — to be capable of producing scores that will actually fit and correspond with the other’s scores. Otherwise, if you are mostly strict to the samples or too generous — your marks could easily be eliminated from the judging process by the competition rules. Brave judges — be aware — and cautious. Of course, if you want your score to influence anything.
The other thing is that you mostly never know what others thought about the wine unless your team is communicative enough to share the scores afterwards and discuss, which most times isn’t the case at Vinitaly competition. Sailing on your own it is.
This sense of judging privacy has its advantages. As Sr Martelli noticed you’re mostly not being influenced by strong experts or opinion leaders as in theory could happen in events like Concours Mondial. It gives you enough freedom to judge a wine whatever you like. Still, I’d argue that judging in isolation is a good thing. Current judgement panels in events like Concours are normally headed by experienced judges who know that independence and freedom of judgement are the key elements of any wine competition. Moreover, newly coming judges might not have enough experience, they do come from different countries, cultures and have different backgrounds. It’s almost a necessity to brief them on how the competition works, how the wines are judged, what are the scores that correspond to actually good wines and what scores can describe the bad ones.
As Jamie Goode noticed recently in his short video on wine ratings (starting from something like “I hate ratings, but I have to use them”) is that wine ratings 10 years have been completely different than they are now. The scale of “good” wines has significantly shortened and most consumers were led to the idea that a wine below 90 points does not deserve the right to exist. While at wine competitions ratings like 85 would actually be very good ratings. At this point new coming judges do not always have this feeling.
Ultimately, judges are human beings too — they need to learn, they need to see how it is done by those who has experience. And — by the way — how to defend your opinion publicly, even if it happens just within your team.
It’s also a bit frustrating that Vinitaly’s judges do not get serious brief on the interpretation of the statistics gathered during the event. In other words — we are not given an idea of internal mechanisms of data analysis before the event — while at other events those things are essential.
Still, Vinitaly’s judgement rules are different from those of other competition. This, for example, refers to the practice of assigning medals only to wines that have been tested not only by just one, but by several completely different panels of judges.
I’d also strongly suggest Vinitaly to not only give a detailed explanation of how their statistics work, but also update each judge about his/her performance in comparison to the panel. With this amount of IT ideas behind the current Vinitaly it could simply be a piece of cake.
One last things to ask the Vinitaly bright team — please, oh, please, add Angry Birds to the judges IPads!
]]>Russians are considered to be among the wealthiest people in the world. And still we don’t really see them buying fine wines at major wine auctions. What is your feeling and experience with the Russian market?
We are making progress. Russia has a long history of appreciating fine wines. Wine is something that makes sense to Russians when they have some disposable income. It’s an extra enjoyment in life and definitely not an alien culture. The client base was small when we started and now we are making progress each year and I’d like to make it even bigger. It appeals more to Russians who have houses outside of the country whether it’s London, Vienna or South of France, because it’s very easy if they buy in London whereas getting it to Russia is something we do not touch because the whole importation business is so difficult and protected. Still, many Russians have homes elsewhere in Europe. I think sometimes they just do not realize how much advice and help we can give. We are not there to make them buy masses of wine the first time when they make a bid. We are about helping them buy, helping them form a cellar, giving advice. One doesn’t tell them to come and buy everything at once, we just don’t do that. It’s all about long-term relationship.
Did you have a personal experience being wine advisor to a Russian client?
Yes, I had some really good experiences helping people including a few Russians. You start with them finding out what they want – if they want to have some for investment and some for drinking so you build up an idea and come out with a strategy for them, sometimes for several years in advance. Of course, they could buy all the wines much faster but in this case they would end up paying a lot. We would normally suggest not to go so fast, bid middle estimate. It takes a bit longer, but makes them buy at better prices. If they want to source everything in two months, they’d typically end up paying too much. Even if in terms of business it’s more profitable for us to make it quick, we don’t go for it.
What is stopping Russians from being more engaged with auction houses?
Sometimes I see that psychologically they feel like they don’t want to show their lack of wine knowledge. Or they feel that if they’d ask for advice they’d be taken advantage of. In fact it’s the opposite. If you make a personal contact it’s in your interest in forming a long-term relationship, not making a quick buck as Americans say. I don’t know much about nuclear physics – so what? We are still to make more connections with the Russian audience.
Talking about you personally, what is it about wine you’re currently interested in? After all these years of experience is there anything that you don’t know about it?
What fascinates me above all is tasting wines when they are young and watching them develop. You’re starting to see certain patterns. This always makes me very interested. It’s like watching a child growing. I like seeing new great wines coming out from places that used not to produce decent wines. Countries like Austria, Greece for example. That’s fascinating!
What do you do after you earn the top degree in wine world – Master of Wine?
You go on learning. A few years later you realize you know nothing. That’s my case. I had no problem with the exam, I got it from the first attempt. I thought – ah, fantastic! Ten years later I was thinking – gosh, I know nothing! There is an English phrase: you mustn’t fall in love with your own product. You have to keep steady and be objective. But personally in my home life I’m passionate about wine and my husband is also a Master of Wine and every time we drink great wines around the kitchen table – not always very expensive ones, by the way. But good wines. Wine is not my whole life – music and art both play a good part in it, particularly music. But I couldn’t live without wine, seems like it’s a part of my DNA.
Wine writers often try to match music to wines. What do you make out of it?
It’s a good press when someone says: “This Lafite makes me think of Schubert”, but this is a very personal thing. Having said that – a lot of top musicians love wine! And we’ve got many friends among them and they do, they do love wine.
Would they write better music if they had a glass of wine before them?
Well, Mozart would drink a very nice wine, I am sure
So you drink fine wines every day. With all your experience you must like blind tastings?
Mostly my husband gets me to blind taste at home. Still, I cannot bear dinner parties – you know – lots of wines, all blind, they talk about wine non-stop. I don’t want to talk about wine non-stop all dinner. I want to talk about politics and music and the theatre. And the problem is when you taste blind you spend so much time concentrating and guessing and everything – you often write not such good notes. And then you want to re-taste the wines to understand – why, on Earth, didn’t I think of it? So it takes double the time. Well, people say it’s good because in case of blind tasting you’re not prejudiced, but for my part I am not prejudiced either when I have a label before my eyes. The wine is either good or bad.
Your first glass of wine must be long time forgotten?
Actually, just the opposite, I remember it very well. My grandfather gave me a sip of Veuve Clicquot Champagne. I was six then. He always ordered Veuve Clicquot, people of his generation called it “The widow”. And it was one the two big champagnes in Russia – Clicquot and Roederer. And so he’d always order a bottle of “The widow” in restaurants, I loved the way it gave a prickling sensation on the nose, I thought “Oh!”. I loved the taste and I was hooked! And Champagne still remains my passion.
]]>Exhibition held on February 10-14, 2014 was especially interesting in terms of studying perspectives and issues associated with Georgian wine. It’s not only about number of contracts signed by distributors, but also about looking at the overall presence of Georgian wine, which would enable me to judge marketing strategies selected by Georgian producers to enter Russian market.
It was predictable and nice to see producers like Telavi Wine Cellar, Khareba, Kvareli Wine, Tamada and Dzveli Tbilisi by GWS, Badagoni, Tavadze Wine, Tbilvino, Viniveria, Chateau Mukhrani, Sarajisjvili (please forgive me for incomplete list). Booths decorated according to international standards, large variety of products and professionalism of personnel made good impression and indicated innovative changes that took place in Georgian wine industry for the past 5-6 years. We can call this group “innovative producers”, as they are already successful entrepreneurs and I am sure they are able to develop their business on a Russian market as well. They have everything needed to achieve this goal: high quality wine, high demand and expectation, labels branded according to international marketing standards and correct pricing policy ranging from 300 to 3,000 Russian Rubles and covers average, premium and prestigious price segments. It was a pleasant fact that this assortment included a large portion of the last two segments. As I inquired price of Khvanchkara, it turned out it cost 1,100 Russian Rubles (approx. $35) and it is sold so quickly that they often lack stock.
I remembered reading opinions of various “experts” in Georgian press on how expensive Georgian wine is and the need for the price to go down in order to have chances on Russian market. I will dare to say that such opinion is at least unprofessional (or it could be dictated from business interests of specific entities). As we talk about wines of two countries, it is necessary to compare the same categories, for example, ordinary table wine of Georgia should be compared with corresponding French Vin de Pay or Spanish Vino De Messa, while aboriginal Georgian wine should be compared to French AOC or Spanish DO or DOC category of wines, etc. Let’s start with aboriginal wines and first of all look at Khvanchkara, Kindzmarauli and Akhasheni of red semi-sweet category. It is difficult to compare these wines with similar western wines, since red naturally semi-sweet wines are rarely produced in the west. Considering legally limited area and demand existing for such wines in different countries, it is impossible for wines of this category to be cheap. This could only happen if there is a large portion of falsified wines on the market, as it happened before embargo in Russia. This fact needs no further proof, but I guess I should note what I saw in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia in 2000-ies – Red Sparkling Wine (!) Khvanchkara.
Any brand of premium segment, which has limitation in production, is demanded and well sold on the market, and is destined for premiumization. A good example of this is Champagne, Cognac and wines of AOC category. There are other ways as well: if the environment in which the producer operates enables illegal manipulations to artificially increase volume. Unfortunately, Russia is an ideal market for such manipulators. This fact requires no further evidence and we cannot hide from it. Even though there is a much better situation in Georgia in this regard, we should still consider experience of the western countries, who impose strict control measures on local wines and difference in volume in certain special zones is few kilograms only. Georgia has very few local wines. For example, in Spain there are 68 such wines, while just Bordeaux in France has 57.
More efforts are needed for local dry white and red wines in Georgia like Mukizani, Gurjaani, Tsinandali, etc. But as they are well-recognized and limited in volume, problems are less likely to occur in case of well-planned marketing campaign.
As for table wine segment, it is one of the largest in terms of volume and overloaded with competition. This, first of all means new country wines. Success of wines of new countries is a large topic on a global scale, but it could be summarized as follows: price – good indicator of quality, which is first of all determined by the use of innovative technologies and innovative marketing. Even though there are modern enterprises in Georgia, with the first indicator above Georgia cannot compete with the new world, simply because modern innovations are not as cheap and its use for price purposes is only valid in case of a large production volume. Example of Australian Jacob’s Creek is a good illustration: this Australian brand sells 75 million liters worldwide, which is almost twice as much as total Georgian export at the moment. This does not mean that ordinary Georgian wine requires reduction of price. These Australian producers spend tremendous amount of resources to increase awareness of their brands and create appropriate image. Georgian ordinary wines have sufficient recognition, but as for the image – as soon as there is more of so called “Sovok” style, the irreversible process of lumpenisation of this segment as well as Georgian wine in general will start.
Unfortunately, my visit to Prodexpo exhibition halls was not limited to pleasant discoveries only. My 15 years of experience of working on Russian wine market prompted that I would most likely see unforeseen surprises, for which Russia is notorious. Unfortunately, it exceeded my expectations.
There was a big number of so called “new wave” Georgian wines, but the brand names told me nothing as I have seen none of them in the shops of Tbilisi, apart from few exceptions. The first thing that caught my eye was a large number of clay bottles or pot sculptures, and I’ve struggled to find appropriate name for these items. To justify their existence you would often hear that such design is a true reflection of Georgian traditional wine. Until 2006 the clay esthetics was part of Georgian wine, so I more or less expected its reincarnation, but I had no idea that some of the producers would go so far in their creativity. I mean metal armor-bondages and strange epaulettes that still remain as mystery to me.
I advise “followers” of traditions to look at history, remember bottle decoration styles of prince Kipiani, Bolkvadze, Ivane Bagration-mukhranski and other producers of that time, even miserable labels of soviet period and they will be easily convinced that what they now call “Georgian traditional design” is nothing more than poor design created specially for Russia in late soviet and 90-ies bandit period, and which have nothing common with Georgian wines and I would personally call it “commoner style”.
Some exhibits justly deserved the title of the least and most uncreative. For example, masterpiece of Mimino. Due to my occupation I have tried great deal of wines: good, bad, average, strange, etc. But I think it was the first time, at the booth of Mimino, where I actually felt sorry for wine, when I saw wine bottles wrapped in cloths or overalls of unclear sharp color, and covered with royal crowns. On the right to this disaster, there stood a typical whiskey bottle covered in armor with “Kindzmarauli” label, while on the left there were Mukuzani and Tsinandali in bottles of weird shapes. I ask the reader to pay attention to half-naked woman on the front of this art. As I asked the owner of the booth, an energetic man of unclear nationality and gave a mock compliment towards this unique booth, he took it seriously and with great pleasure shared an important constructive know-how: metal sculpture is empty from inside and sufficient to be placed over Mimino bottles and pots. After such simple manipulation the neck of the bottle shows up in a tube coming out of the head of the woman… I leave comments to readers.
Trademarks Mikitani and Zedashe were presented at the booth of Driada Group. Promo brochure says: “Mikitan”i was the name of wine carriers in Georgian provinces until the 19th century” (!). It also provides an interesting historic fact: seems like Mikitanis were the biggest experts on wine. For information, in Tbilisi of the 19th century there was a network of “Siraji-Mikitani”, who bought wine from peasants in the villages for cheap price, then mixed it with water and sold to Mikitani for more. The latter, on their own hand, added more water and offered it to the public in their Samikitnos (“house of Mikitani”, like tavern). The problem reached such a huge scale that clerks of that time created a special committee to combat Siraji-Mikitanis. I want to tell “protectors of these ancient traditions” that phenomenon and psychology of Mikitani still have not disappeared from Georgian conscious and will exist for a long time due to them, unfortunately.
I was extremely surprised when I saw 2012 Цинандали (Tsinandali) and Алазанская Долина (Alazani Valley) by Shota Rustaveli. I am following the style here, which indicated the brand in English, while names of wines in Georgian and Russian languages. It is interesting whether Georgian legislation allows using Shota Rustaveli as a trademark.
It turns out, Mikitani and Shota Rustaveli brands are both produced by Georgian Wine Corporation. What can I say, a great Georgian poet ended up in a wonderful company.
РВД- Русский винодельческий дом (Russian winery house) which is part of MG Group offers the following trademarks in their booths and promo brochures: Грузинский стандарт (Georgian Standard), naturally associated with the Русский стандарт (Russian Standard) vodka, and Шато Гурджаани (Chateau Gurjaani). All of these wines are presented in bottles of strange shapes. Another exhibit of the same producer, Georgian Traditions wine is also interesting, which is, for some strange reason is bottled in cognac bottle. However, it all came together as I saw Бакинский Бульвар (Baku Boulevard) in their catalogue, in a similar bottle and similar design.
This is an incomplete list of masterpieces I saw at the exhibition, but some conclusions can be made:
The principle of business using methods and ways that bring material benefit works in every country and is a main driver for generating new business ideas. However, this does not mean all methods and ways, but only those allowed by general or sectoral legislation. It is difficult to imagine high classification French, Spanish or Italian wines bottled in clay pots in the shape of Eiffel Tour, Mona Lisa, or toreador. This has nothing to do with lack of creativity of wine-makers of these countries. We should not even think that there are no businesspersons who would not create similar masterpieces for Russian markets. Such fact has a simple explanation – wine legislation imposes strict control for packaging and labeling high classification wines, although simple table wines would not be left without attention as well. I could have an opponent that may tell me that such design is well sold in Russia, so what can be done. I agree with the virtual opponent and at the same time, I “advise” to undress the clay lady not only to the chest, but fully, act more daringly and it will be sold better.
These “new/old tradition” producers have one thing in common. Each of them offers aboriginal wines like Khvanchkara, Kindzmarauli, Akhasheni, Mukuzani, etc. These wines are the ones that carry the load of low design. I don’t think it is difficult for appropriate official agencies to set at least basic principles regulating packaging of local class wines. Let’s remember the basic truism of modern wine industry – image is created not only by the quality of wine, but packaging and marketing strategy as well. It should also be noted that even ordinary wines bottled in clay pots harm the cause: when we package simple wine like Alaznis Veli in clay, this increases its price and the wine ends up in elite wine price segment. When the person buys this wine, tastes it and discovers nothing “elite”, next time he/she will most likely ignore quality Akhasheni in a bottle, which is in the same price segment as Alaznis Veli in clay.
If such masterpieces of “traditional Georgian crafts” were sold in souvenir or dish shop without wine, we would less likely pay attention to it, but when it comes to Georgian wine, we should be more careful.
The issue I discussed in this article is not something that only state agencies should care for. If these “new/old tide” entrepreneurs continue their work the same way, very soon Georgian wine will lose its elite image and will harm already established and developing elite Georgian wine segment, ad the work carried out by noble producers will be lost, to sat the least. I hope they will also have raise their voices.
As for the quality of the wines described above, unfortunately not all distributors allowed tasting, but few samples I tried were of much higher quality than similar style wines before the embargo, and the quality was definitely different from packaging and labeling designs (Ramaz Peikrishvili, producer of “Glakhuna” wine was also tasting the wine with me).
Finally, I will allow myself to give few recommendations to Georgian producers that leave important business of packaging and labeling their wines to Russian partners. Please consider than most of these operators target their business to the Russian consumers of low taste, which is more than 60% of the population and their purchasing ability is not very high. Such consumers are still loyal to soviet values and are above certain age. This category has least perspectives compared to others and decreases each year. The fact that Krasnodar and Kuban wines are most demanded in Russia, the quality of which is obvious based on their names (for example, “Южное танго” (Southern Tango), or “Исповедь грешницы” (confession of a sinner woman), is a good indicator of the taste of such consumer group. Alcohol market players have folk gems from varioys countries in their portfolio, for example, “Любимая кошка” (beloved kitty), “Ночной флирт” (Night flirt), “Молоко любымой женщини” (Milk of a favorite woman), etc. Most of their product turnover falls on wines of such category, so don’t be surprised if they cannot offer creative ideas.
Совок — word in Russian used to indicate limited viewpoint, low level style, lack of individualism and all negative aspects that were so characteristic for soviet era and are still often visible in post-soviet countries, and unfortunately, even in Georgia.
Text: Nukri Kurdadze
]]>I was recently stopped by a lady in a Moscow Auchan’s wine department — which wine she should buy — a 3L Tetrapak of Isabella (a prohibited-to-grow-in-Europe grape variety famous in Russia for low-level wines) or a Chilean Merlot of 5L volume. Confused I hesitated for some time and even took the heavy things in my hands for inspection. The thought of another victim of methanol poisoning came to my mind. I didn’t ask the woman, what occasion she was buying the wine for. I told her to put off Isabella and give herself a good treat with Merlot.
The beginnings of wine culture in Russia are rooted in times of Peter the Great and Empress Elizabeth the Second. Russians acquired taste for fine Champagnes and wines while chasing the retreating forces of Napoleon — straight to Champs Elysees. Cristal is a great example and a statement of recognition of the importance of fine wines for the Tsar’s Russia of that time.
Nowadays our winedrinking habits are at state of change. And challenge. No, no, people do increase wine consumption. And still most Russians, the mass-market, will require wines at very peculiar moments of their lives. Take a closer look — these are the major seven things to push us towards a glass of wine.
Improve our health
Many and many Russians consider wine (especially red) to possess medical capabilities and effects. While this is certainly true to some extent, normally we have no idea what these positive health benefits are. We just know it’s a “good thing”. Something connected with blood, haemoglobin reproduction, probably. Who cares?
To warm ourselves up
I am writing this sitting in front of a snowy scenery behind the restaurant window. February in Moscow can bring us as low as -25 degrees for 2-3 weeks in a row. And Moscow is certainly not the coldest part of the country. Red wine, on the other hand, is thick and often has some nice alcohol levels. Also the famous cooked wine — “glint vein” with spices and lemon — is a very popular way of drinking during the cold times.
When there’s no vodka around
The absence of the magical spirit can lead us into any crazy thing. Even into winedrinking.
To accompany traditional meat BBQ — “shashlyk”
Beginning of spring puts Russians into celebratory mood, our juices go up as it is with the trees. We love nature, in fact. Friday Moscow is a city of people leaving to their dachas — houses outside the megapolis. BBQ wine is normally as simple as can be although for most people it’s true for anything they’d drink.
When there are women in the company
Ah, women! They do drink wine: sweet and fizzy. Men consider it almost obligatory to dilute their vodka diet set with some blush.
When we can’t drink vodka
Imagine we have to go to work on Monday. There is no good time for vodka in this case. Some wine would do just fine.
To knock down the old year and welcome the New one
Some bubbly is required somewhere in between the famous Russian salad and the herring. Local Russian sparklings made of imported bulk are especially popular as “champagnes” when nobody really notices what’s in the glass — it’s bubbly, and we’re happy about that while looking at Mr. Putin speech on the 1st TV channel.
]]>Looking at what has become of Hong-Kong I can assure everyone – Moscow could become the second HK.
There are several big “ifs”, though. Some are as big as elephant, others are smaller, but all are equally important and interconnected. So what are those ifs and buts? There are seven big ones.
1. Get rid of the import taxes and duties on wines and spirits
Nowadays Russian importers pay: excise duties depending on the alcohol content, then 20% duty then 18% VAT. We could easily lose 50% of the wine price and a huge amount of time-consuming bureaucratic paperwork at the same time.
2. Dispose of EGAIS, the alcohol turnover control system
Its purpose is to control every bottle of alcohol in Russia. What it really does is kill smaller-scale businesses and adding to the final price shelf. Each importer has to bear additional costs, such as hiring special people to manage EGAIS and also buy expensive equipment. Moreover, fake vodka is still being produced, despite all the control. EGAIS is another business-restraining thing nobody needs in this country.
3. Promote wine culture
One of the worst things about Russian wine regulations is that the government still makes no distinction between vodka and wine – they are both just alcohol products to be heavily regulated, no matter what. There are no healthy diet recommendations, there’s no desire to make people reduce the alcohol strength of what they are drinking daily, or move from cheaper spirits to wine.
It’s often said that Russians are genetically programmed to be alcoholics. But they had this same problem in Scandinavian countries, where binge drinking did real damage to public health. It’s time to realize that wine could make a great contribution to the Russian diet, instead of spirits, and, especially, low-priced junk. Once declared a priority, health protection in Russia could be the next big thing we see. Of course, it will take drastic action to rebuild the system of Soviet doctors advising religious pilgrimage as the best way to cure anything.
4. Stop using government health agencies as sheep dogs
Government agencies should start doing their job – their real one. I mean such simple things as: protecting the nation’s health, giving professional advice on health benefits and risks, and fighting the problem of overeating and the inactive lifestyle of many Russians. Imagine: during recent years we’ve been stopping randomly imports of Moldovan and Georgian wines, mineral water, vegetables from the EU, cheeses, dairy products from a number of countries, and even Spanish jamon.
5. Let wine advertising back
Advertising is all about information flow. Remember the funny early commercials of Paul Masson wines? We are deprived even of these.
This is why even the major wine exhibitions have been held under pressure – they could easily be treated as wine advertising. Allowing wine advertising could mean a healthy income for wine magazines and independent wine bloggers, both online and offline. It’s weird that leading food magazines had to remove all the wine content they had, because they were afraid of the possible punishment and mass-media license withdrawal threats. And known business newspapers like Kommersant and Vedomosti have not only closed down their wine columns, but have to monitor ever brand mention that could be treated as advertising. Big publishing companies’ lawyers prefer not to play games with Russian officials.
6. Make wine import licenses cost less
Importing wines to Russia is an uneasy venture. And an expensive one. Wine importing license can cost tens of thousands euros, preventing smaller-scale businesses from entering the market. The official explanation is that ‘clearing’ the wine scene somehow prevents illegal alcohol imports and makes it easier for the government to control the whole thing. But clearing the way for smaller business would mean more fine and better wine.
7. Make further changes to the current legislation letting small business and importers grow
This means significantly lowering the minimum warehouse area requirements (1000 m2 minimum now) and warehouse requirements and approval procedures. You can imagine how the warehouse checks are conducted in Russia – the officials come to the warehouse and do the check, but do not say a word to the company. In two to three months you get a note that your warehouse doesn’t meet the requirements and you need to redo the whole procedure – with no guarantee of success. Most often Russians official regulators are corruption centers. And this corruption is caused by the rules that let the corruption thrive on.
8. Allow freedom of wines delivery via ordinary mail
In 2008 I was receiving dozens of wines for tasting and was able to review wines from all over the world without leaving the country. This would enable wine importers to obtain samples of new wines they would later import to Russia. Under the existing legislation no wine bottle can enter the country without a duty stamp on it – which means no more wine deliveries without customs clearance.
9. Get state wine production regulations in line with European practices
Yes, we do produce wine in the south of Russia. God only knows how much of it can really be called Russian wine – most of what we have on shelves is a product of bulk wine imports and bottling inside the country. There is no working practice of controls or legislation to prevent these practices for Russian wines. If the government wants healthy and competitive internal wine production it has to use free market instruments for this, not protective instruments.
It’s a big list. But there’s only one thing stopping us from putting Moscow on the map of the world wine trade. Ourselves.
Special for Meininger’s Wine Business International, Feb 21, 2014, Read original
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Let’s cut the crap – there’s no wine journalism in Russia as well as there is no ordinary journalism. Well, almost. A wine journalist making his living out of wine writing is a rare being. Better be put into the IUCN Red List.
The demand for wine text in Russia is somewhat reminiscent of that for fine wines – Russians consume brands, the more famous the name is – the better. Let everything else go to hell. Same names and faces are everywhere. If there’s ever a text about wine in a Russian glossy magazine or a business newspaper – you bet you will see the name you know.
No way it is a plot. If young and beautiful wanted to write wine texts – they most definitely would. “If” is a keyword here. I don’t detect any US Department of State’s or any other suspicious money here. Everything Russians can destroy we will destroy ourselves.
Russian wine journalism is a sick brood of the ugly wine trade system that is present in Russia nowadays. It’s a system that forbids everything that relates to alcohol information and freedom of speech. Most of “writers” are working in commercial fields – PR, wine trade, wine education, doing other non-wine-related things. And sometimes they write something — just for the fun of it.
So the question I ask myself is: why is the country of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky is not capable of producing decent wine writers? Really, it’s no good blaming the system of wine trade, banned wine advertising and things like that.The advertising ban is in place since 2013 but there are no new wine magazines, and no new wine media with rare exceptions to the some smaller-scale Facebook pages run by wine enthusiasts.
The style of wine writing of those who do write about wines is a disaster – as a rule. Seems like our writers never ask themselves who they are writing for and why on earth they should ever start. It is my honest opinion that a great wine writer doesn’t have to be an MW and understand deeply the wine technology. In Russia our goal (the goal of wine writers) is to attract as many new people to the subject as possible. Let them have a first sip, take a first dive, get inspired by wine. But seems like there are just a few of us who can produce these kinds of texts. There are books you’re not able to stop reading until you finish it. A wine text should be like this.Still, you wonder, what these people are like – people who deliver essential information about wine to the Russian consumer? I took the freedom to divide them into several groups, nothing really serious but…
The immigrants
Live abroad, miss Russia, but not going to come back ever. Their new homes are in France, Italy or the UK, almost always – women. Establish useless and boring wine blogs and web-sites written in bad Russian. Present themselves as known wine bloggers and journalists begging for free nights at wineries at spare time.
Clever fanatics
Owners of wine importing companies like these kind of guys – at least until they start interfering in the business. They are wine geeks in a full sense of this word, knowing wine from experience better than from theory. Great orators, unfortunately at most times do not bother themselves with writing.
Wine maniacs
They are as rare in Russia as they are ready to attack anyone who is daring to write stupid things about wine – whether it is Forbes magazine or just a random person in blogosphere. They mostly write in their facebooks and are known for strong ability to dig the truth out of the deepest and darkest places.
Heavy-weight wine bloggers
Encyclopedia-knowledge guys. Yes, they know really a lot about wine, mostly from theory. Write columns and blogs, often grant their own ratings to wines no one really cares about except for a bunch of followers who just would like to compare them to their own opinion. Quite poor texts but very useful as lecturers for trade.
Old guardia
Dangerous type. Built their reputation in 1990-s writing for different magazines and participating in everything that was about alcohol. In their 50-s there are unable to make a living out of wine business and are very frustrated about the fact. They do publish books that go unsold in the Moscow bookstores. They see all younger wine bloggers as a threat. Write for their poor blogs and choking online resources. Copy news, rewrite what others already wrote, beg for money from government organisations.
Young flock
Dynamic youth coming out from the darkness of the Russian anti-wine legislation. Rockers and non-conformists that have the guts to write what the think in a way they like. A great potential for the Russian wine journalism. Not technical at all – but easy and fun to read. 3-5 years – and they will become strong and mature writers to lead the Russian wine writing ahead. And not only Russian, maybe.
“Devine” writers
Professional “star” writers and journalists with great experience of story-telling for glossy lifestyle and the same star looks. Will write great texts about everything, including wine and oenotourism which they do not so often. Mostly because they are not paid well enough for this.
]]>Speaking at the London International Wine Fair at ExCel this week, Pavel Titov, director of historic Russian sparkling wine estate Abrau-Durso, explained: “When I joined the company we had 34 different labels in our range. My first decision was to scale it right back and discontinue half of the wines.
“The aim was to get rid of all our demi-doux and demi-sec styles, as I believe brut is the way forward, but this didn’t make commercial sense as Russian consumers are still stuck on sweeter sparklers.
“I wanted to try and change the market trends, but the love of sweeter wines is so deeply ingrained in Russia that it’s hard to influence age-old drinking habits,” he said.
Titov did reveal however that mindsets were starting to change, and that sales of brut are currently the fastest growing within the company, while demi-doux (containing up to 45g of residual sugar) remains Abrau-Durso’s best seller.
“Half of our production is demi-doux at the moment in order to satisfy demand, while we make 35% brut and around 15% demi-sec – people tend to buy the extremes in Russia, either really dry or really sweet,” Titov told db.
He also revealed that a Soviet mentality among many consumers means that sparkling wine has yet to break out of the confines of being an occasional drink. “Sparkling wine is still very much something people save for special occasions like Christmas and New Year in Russia. We’ve yet to convince people that it can be an everyday drink,” said Titov. “There’s no reasonable explanation as to why Russian’s aren’t consuming more home-grown sparkling wine throughout the year.
“As a result, 60% of our sales come in the fourth quarter of the year, as people stock up in time for the Christmas break. We’re trying to change this of course,” he added.
While the company exports its sparklers to the UK (through Beckmann Wine Cellars), Singapore, Israel and Scandinavia, the majority of sales come from Russia. Despite being the most expensive sparkling wine in Russia. Titov believes Prosecco and cava pose a greater threat to Abrau-Durso sales than Champagne.
“The press paints a picture of oligarchs popping bottles of Cristal and Dom Pérignon in nightclubs, but Champagne consumption in Russia is actually relatively low,” Titov stressed. In addition to Abrau-Durso, Titov’s father, petrochemicals trader Boris Titov, owns Château d’Avise in Marne and makes organic Champagne from two hectares of grand cru vineyards along with bought in grapes.
Titov senior bought the Champagne house, which was formerly owned by LVHM, in 2010 for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 1870, Abrau-Durso, which once supplied the Russian Imperial Court and the Kremlin, is based in Krasnodar in the south of Russia, northeast of the Black Sea. Its range is made from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Aligote grown across 500 hectares.
Source: Drinks Business International, 24 May, 2013
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American wines made their long way to Russia back in 1990s and are still doing pretty well. With the tiny 0.6% of the total US exports, Russian consumer is obviously out of focus for the huge winemaking industry – but is it going to stay that way? Considering the volatility of wine market the question not so easy to answer.
Two-dimensional world
Statistics of the US wine imports to Russia show what many wine trade professionals would consider surprising. More than 80% of all the US wines sold in Russia are cheap, mostly sweet or semi-sweet, mass-market wines branded Paul Masson, Carlo Rossi, Gray Fox, and others – the brands many Russians know since the early 1990s at the dawn of the introduction of legal wine imports in the post-USSR country. The wines can easily cost lower than 10 dollars in retail which is extremely low by the Russian standards (with import duties as high as 18%, many other taxes and margins, quality wines tend to start at around 15-20 USD).
Wine market insiders know what it takes to get Russian consumer to like the wine. Elena Kazakova of Whitehall, the distributor of Paul Masson, comments: “Paul Masson sells well because it has such a long presence on the market, such an uncommon packaging and considering all this – quite a normal quality and an attractive price”.
Like many other people in the world common Russians are stereotypically fascinated by Italian and French foods. And drinks, too. Below a certain price point you actually stop looking for regional diversity, but mostly start looking for the lower price, better package, nicest label, simpler taste (e.g. sweeter taste in Russia). This is what big US brands take advantage of. Some consumers buying these wines will never realize they are actually drinking wines from California. While easily excused, one can hardly call it the best motivation for buying the American. Producers of quality wines will need live, conscious people, knowing what they are doing.
Live conscious people
Although Putin does his best to make Russians hate America, there are things hard to control, especially with the development of Internet, a huge economy of imported goods and better relations between the countries on the visa regime questions. Apple helps a lot, too: with more and more people coming to the United States to grab their MacBook with 30% discount from the Moscow price. The connection between tourism and wine consumptions is so obvious that it cannot be ignored.
Being more expensive in general, these travels require not only a fascination and interest in the country, but also some financial means to pay five times more for the round trip than a weekly hangout in Turkey, a long established resort for the low-demanding. This means the US tourism attracts wealthier public in the first place, better educated – secondly, more focused on what they need – to sum up.
But do they need the American wines? Do they travel to the USA to drink wine at all? Actually, doesn’t really matter. If you see these wines every day in the restaurants there’s quite a big chance you’ll start trying at some point. And that’s what’s really happening, says Christina Monkus, the marketing director at Eurowine. “Visas are granted so easily, that I almost see more friends flying to the US than to Europe. Of course, they are introduced to local wines there, doesn’t matter if they fly to Cali or to the beaches of Miami. Some of them will even get inspired enough to collect these wines later”. Member of the board at Simple Group Sandro Khatiashvili agrees: “Compared to other countries, United States attracts wealthier people, which means they are more sensitive to expensive wines”.
Not only this. Russia is bound with the Americans much more than you might think. The so-called americanization of the culture has not stopped since the first McDonalds opening in Moscow in December of 1990. Consumerism is walking proudly around the country – Russians watch more American movies, buy more American clothes, go to the American bars. “American steak houses could be a great opportunity to promote the California wines on the market”, — says Olga Tuzmukhamedova, the head of the Russian office of the Wine Institute of California. “And it could be even better if the Russian government didn’t stop the imports of the meat”. Russia has banned the import of beef and pork from the US in February 2013 due to the traces of the animal drug ractopamine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe.
Ironically enough both the meat and wine imports are controlled by the Russian safety and sanitary watchdog RosPotrebNadzor with Gennady Onishchenko as a head of it. This institution is considered by many market players to be one of the reasons of consequent wine crises have been taking place in Russia since 2006. Onishchenko is often seen declaring controversial measures in support of public healthcare like staying at home during the opposition manifestations (not to catch cold) or banning Georgian wines imports. Or the US meat imports, as of 2013. He was also one of the people in charge of lobbying the new law on advertising that banned all the alcohol-containing products advertising on TV, press and even the Internet.
André Tchelistcheff, the Russian pioneer who mapped wine America
While many of you might believe that there is a huge gap between Russia and the US in terms of wine history, it is not exactly so. Far from it – one of the major figures that put US wines on the world wine map was a Russian immigrant André Tchelistcheff, who was forced to flee the country during the tragic political turmoil of the 1917-20-th. He fought against the upcoming regime eventually moving to study agriculture in Czechoslovakia and then oenology and microbiology in the French Institut Pasteur and the Institut National Agronomique, finally finding himself working for the US winery Beaulieu Vineyards in Napa as a chief winemaker and a vice president. The technological improvement and the new winemaking philosophy he brought to the US were tremendous. Winemaking techniques we take for granted today have been a nanotechnology of that time – fermentation control, better vineyard management, use of small French oak barrels. Consulting numerous California wineries he gained a petname “the doctor” for his ability to “treat” badly made wines of that time. Among dozens of those at different time points were the famous Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest Winery – just to give an example of his scale. Mr. Tchelistcheff died in the same region he first came to — Napa – in 1994 at the age of 92. Still, he liked to say: ”When I think of wine, I think in French», pointing that he always remained too European in his thoughts and style of work.
Top of the food chain
Luckily, Russians have great examples of fine American wines on their tables too. Wine importers are looking for the ways to diversify their US portfolios. Many prestigious wineries have already been on the market for some time – Paul Hobbs, Ridge, Opus One, Sine Qua Non, Kistler, Pahlmeyer, Diamond Creek, Ste Michelle and others. But what kind of consumers buy these wines? Are they oligarchs looking for something besides Bordeaux? The good news is the answer is clearly “no”.
As Alex Krause, the exports director for Bonny Doon Vineyards that has some years of experience with Russia, puts it: “While certainly there remains a contingent of very wealthy consumers and still living oligarchs for whom price is no object, and the purchase of wine is perhaps more an exercise in long-suppressed conspicuous consumption, the reality as I see it for American wines sold there is that the broader class of consumers now purchase higher end wines at retail and consume them at home”.
Capacity of luxury
In 2011 McKisney Moscow released a report on the dynamics of the luxury goods’ sales in Russia. This news could pass unnoticed for the wine media if the results weren’t so stunning and giving hope for luxury beverages producers. As it turned out, nearly 45% of all luxury goods sold in Russia was alcoholic beverages. Another 36% correspond to expensive clothes which leads us to an interesting point: Russians like to look great and to drink in an extremely luxury manner. Russian luxury market rose astounding 17% last year (2010-2011), said McKinsey. This corresponds to 5.3bn USD. At the same time the rise of the global luxury market was just 4% for the same time period. Some wine market players believe that expensive alcohol products replace goods that Russians don’t buy due to the lack of culture, education and local conditions.
The shoe that fits
Russian wine-drinking style has its peculiarities. We are not drinking wines like the Americans do. In almost all cases we do not care about the food pairing. Wine is something made to drink alone. And that’s exactly why wine should have a personality of its own – loud and clear. “New World wines are ideally fit to the Russian taste”, — says Christina Monkus.”Russians would choose these even more often if they were not obsessed with the stereotypes of French and Italian wines. We love friendly, fruity, bright taste. We do not want to spend 15 minutes trying to understand what’s in a glass. We like to be blown away with taste”.
Vlada Lesnichenko, the director of the premium Grand Cru wine shop network sees American wines stylistically fit to the Russian taste: “There is a growing interest in the US wines and in part it can be explained by our similarities in terms of food and wines style. Reds – fruity and rich, powerful but soft with a good potential, but ready for drinking at the same time, round, but with high alcohol content. Whites — dense, oily, close to Burgundy style but easier to approach. Simplicity and clearness is the main reason to choose an American wine for many of our consumers”.
Of course, simplicity is not the feature of such “monsters” as Opus One by Robert Mondavi and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild. Sold by several wine distributors as an exclusive offer, this wine remains a flagman of the US winemaking in Russia. Market experts speculate that this wine is liked by the technical prime-minister Dmitry Medvedev. Speaks for itself, really.
Stop counting
While the cheaper supermarket wines from the US can be found at as low as 200-300 RUB (7-10 USD), other demonstrate much higher prices. Russian wine market stays very fragmented and consumers are either looking for a bargain at the low end or buying wines at 200-300 USD a bottle. The middle-priced US wines are what we are currently lacking.
The bastion of wine business in any country – the law of price/quality ratio, so often quoted by wine pros all over the world, doesn’t work well in Russia. “Forget it”, — says Khatiashvili. “Russians do not choose their wines based on price / quality relation. With quality wines people choose brands, and then goes price”. This is also true because of the shifted price structure for any wine in Russia. Paying at least a double price for any bottle of wine compared to the same bottle price in Europe is what Russians are used to do. Unfortunately “at least” is a keyword here. Restaurant prices could add another 100-300% depending on the owners’ boldness. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the American bottlings. “At least, no one will stare at you if you order a 200 USD bottle of a New World wine in a restaurant any more. This snobbish “drink France” attitude is mostly a matter of past now.” – agrees Monkus.
Private clients of the wine distributing companies – the most important asset for trading top US wines – are generally happy with how the American wine evolves. Wealthy Russians, frequent travelers to Europe and the US, are appreciating the shift towards lighter and more elegant wines with less barrel ageing (in whites, overoaked Chardonnay, specifically). “The industry is moving in the right direction there, globally the style is changing for better”, — says Khatiashvili.
Geographically speaking seems like Russia is a great spot for the Californian reds. Alex Krause is very straightforward: “It’s bloody cold in Russia most of the time, thus primarily [we sell] reds. I think in general wines that sell in the US for $15-20 have the largest potential for doing volume in Russia”.
Lesnichenko agrees specifying the potential of American Zin: “Our clients recognize Zinfandel which shows great both in middle and top wines – lush, rich and powerful, quite fruity, but with soft tannins, a bit creamy, it attracts many”.
The dark side
Of course, the difficulties of working on the market are substantial – both on commercial and educational and promotional sides. With the new advertising ban and limited possibilities of conducting wine tastings that are of tremendous importance for wine promotion, Wine Institute of California has to adapt to the new rules. “New legislation makes us invent new ways of wines promotion. We are tending to work more with the chefs and connect the wines with fine dining. We also used to run activities with the meat producers and importers, but the new ban on meat severely damages our initiatives”, — says Olga Tuzmukhamedova and adds: “The other difficulty is bringing to Russia samples of wines not currently present on the market – for our big annual tasting, for example. Officially these samples have to pass a long, expensive and bureaucratic customs control, which makes the whole event impossible to organize properly this year”. And these problems are painfully familiar to any wine promotional body working in Russia.
It’s true more people are drinking better wines in Russia, but with no government support of healthy wine consumption and the increasingly banning practices most Russian populations is still unaware of the “wine issue” in general. The arrival of a younger flock of wine bloggers and enthusiasts helps, but the overall result is still quite modest. “There is no real knowledge even about the basics of wine”, — says Sandro.
US wines are also considered generally more expensive in 10+ USD price category – mostly due to high domestic consumption and the lack of motivation for the middle and top producers to come to work to Russia. Russian wine importers themselves are usually seeking either the entry-level wines possible (with unclear identity) or the most expensive wines (leading to low volumes of sales and a low PR-impact). “There’s no middle point”, — confirms Tuzmukhamedova.
More players, more wines
Despite all said and the difficulties, the market for American wines seems to be rather alive than dead. Most experts agree that the US wineries need a dedicated wine importer who realizes the niche and demand for the American wines and is ready to promote their American identity despite discouraging circumstances. And while some Russian importers still do not see the real deal for the US wines, others are taking advantage of this still fairly uncompetitive market. The interest to the market is heated up by the market growth figures and the intentions of such big players as Diageo and Constellation to strengthen their wine positions in Russia with their American middle range wines. On the other end, expensive US wines are also selling surprisingly well, with Russians wine importers having to ask to increase their “quotas” for top bottlings.
So what are we talking about here: a little spring or a potential waterfall? If the first stage was just a simple Paul Masson era, the second – a fast ingression of high-end wines, then the third and so awaited wave will be the arrival of more mid-level fairly-priced wines with a clear American identity able to approach a consumer who counts money and involved enough into the US story. Say, a 30+ proactive wine lover of new generation. Who has maybe even seen the famous Sideways movie.
This shortened version of this article first appeared on Russia beyond the headlines, May 21, 2013
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