And, of course, I do have an agenda to push. And it’s simple: 1) to bring wine business (and more cool wines) to this country and 2) let the wine industries understand the importance of Russian wine market

It’s been my motto since day one of my wine business writing: you don’t want to quit the market even when it’s in crisis, unless… Unless you don’t want to totally lose this market, forget it and disappear from it.

Are 5% of sales in Russia better than 0% sales in Russia? Are 15% better then 1%? Does it strike you odd that you have to answer these questions any 1st-grader can do? Some German and Italian wineries are considering Russia among their top 10 markets TODAY, in COVID19 times. What does it tell you? Are they just lucky to find a great partner? In a way they are, but as you all know, it takes a lot of work to get lucky and to KEEP being lucky.

When promotional bodies like Wine Australia, or Wines of Argentina, or Wines of Germany put all the eggs into one basket, they are asking for trouble. This trouble may come as a trade war with the US, China or whoever. And it does.

Russia has clearly not been in the best shape since 2014 Crimea turmoil. Mind you, ALL Russia’s trouble lie in political sphere, it takes good politics to put the economy back on rails. Despite that, people have been shopping for wine and drinking wine all that time.

And…

The market performance, other than its socio-economic conditions is a function of efforts you put into developing that market. When you put zero, you get zero.

Australia has been putting zero for years now. Australian wines are out of the scope of Russian wine consumers and professionals. Some specific producers are present in this market, but they are mere loners. With no unified message about NEW Australian wines and the country’s wine industry development, these wines won’t go in HoReCa simply because neither somms nor trade nor consumers have any idea about what kind of wine is out there. And what to expect.

Without proper actions and communications, ten-year old stereotypes are dominating this market. So what do you want?

Why countries like Austria, Germany, Portugal and Italy have been paying attention and Australia haven’t? We’re very far away from Australia in distance terms, but not so far in cultural terms. We adore kangaroos here.

Let the Russians adore some Australian wines too.

Запись Should Australian wine industry be looking at Russia? Spoiler alert: YES впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

This isn’t to say that Russians have been drinking fine Champagne for 150 years, but the westernisation of the elites and the middle class started by Peter the Great hasn’t been slowed by 70 years of communist rule, nor by Vladimir Putin. No, the reasons Russia isn’t the world’s leading wine consumer are not cultural. Rather it is political and economical realities that have hampered the development of wine culture and consumption in Russia

Russia is a hard market to break into. Some wine producers continue to think it’s a magical land where bottles sell themselves but the reality is strikingly different. There are wineries, though, which have been doing great business whether their focus is on hotels, restaurants and cafés (the HoReCa segment), or the off-trade: specialised stores or big retail. As a result, organisations such as Wines of Portugal and Wines of Germany have seen an increase in the average bottle price sold in Russia and decided to increase their promotional activity in 2018-2019.

Wines, not spirits

One paradox of the Russian market is that it is wines, not spirits, that have shown the greater growth over the last few years. According to the chairman of the Beluga Group, vodka sales in Russia have halved in the last 15 years. Deloitte’s 2019 CIS report shows around 60% of Russians favour wine, while only 36% prefer vodka.

Alcohol sales in Russia are strictly regulated by the Unified State Automated Information System (EGAIS), which requires every wine bottle to carry an excise duty stamp (so preventing the sending of samples). EGAIS is controlled by the alcohol market regulation body (RAR). In common with many government systems, it’s regarded with a good deal of suspicion – many market players openly consider it corrupt.

There is very little free flow of information about the Russian market. Wine advertising was banned in 2013 both online and offline. The government, however, is keen to push local production – especially from Crimea – so the legislation has been softened and now wine advertising for Russian wines is theoretically possible, if not widely practised. Social media users and wine bloggers remain relatively unchecked, no matter what their user base is.

Importers

Overall there are around 60 notable specialised importers and distributors in Russia. Despite their ‘enigmatic’ Russian ways (as Winston Churchill said), importers play the same role in Russia as in the other parts of the wine world. A great importer with a professional and passionate team can do great things for a winery; a lazy or unfocussed importer will fail.

In most cases the importer distributes across the entire country: there are regional operators but they are rare. Agreements mostly suggest exclusivity, but big producers with a substantial number of SKUs often share their portfolios across several importers. Most distributors established in the 1990s and 2000s are still operating, but new, smaller players have also appeared as the market matures and trends evolve.

“Classic” importer-distributors (eg Fort, Simple, Alianta, MBG, DP-Trade, Marine Express, Vintage-M, Luding and others) started in the 1990s and have been instrumental in developing the market, educating people about wine and bringing big international brands to Russia. They carry a wide range of wines and spirits; some, like Luding, are more focused on entry-level offerings, while others, like DP-Trade, work with more upscale wines. These operators normally deal with all sales channels.

A number of spirits producers – for example Ladoga in St Petersburg and Beluga in Moscow – have also developed wine portfolios. Some companies that started as spirits distribution businesses (like AST) play an important role in the wine scene and have developed strong and diverse wine portfolios.

In the 2000s a new wave of companies appeared and quickly claimed market share with serious educational programmes, focussing on sommeliers and catering to a younger clientele: Vinoterra, Grape, L-Wine, Classica, Vinicom are a handful of examples. Then there are small, niche players targetting new and dynamic market segments like grower Champagnes and biodynamic and natural wines. Many of them are start-ups run by former employees of bigger companies. Two examples are Real Authentic Wine, focused on biodynamic and natural wine, and Wine & Only for “hand made” wines.

The retailers’ share

Retail accounts for the lion’s share of the volume side of wine sales: in 2019 food and alcohol made up one third (31%) of Russian household expenses (Deloitte CIS report, 2019). And in recent years, retailers have been gradually moving in on importers’ territory, cutting them out of the supply chain and taking care of their own imports.

Most big international retailers haven’t managed to get a foothold in Russia — there is no Wal-Mart or Carrefour here, although the French chain Auchan and the German Metro Cash & Carry are the two international brands that seem to be doing a pretty good job in moving volumes across Russia. The biggest national retail group is X5 Retail with chains like Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Carousel, but there are other big players including Lenta, Magnit and Diksy. Wineries normally don’t deal with them directly, unless they are a very big (and mostly entry-level) producer. Top-tier retail is limited to Moscow and St Petersburg – the Azbuka Vkusa chain is the strongest player in this category, with no real competition. They, of course, carefully curate their own wine portfolio.

Specialised wine and spirits retailers

There are specialised wine and spirits retailers: some belong to wine importers, but the biggest are independent entities. The development of chains carrying affordable goods shows that the Russian consumer likes shopping close to home. The main players are Krasnoye & Beloye (“Red & White”, around 5,000 retail outlets), Bristol (2500 retail outlets), Otdokhni (around 200 outlets) and Aromatny Mir (“Aromatic World”, around 500 outlets)

Price is, of course, the major factor with retailers on this scale, but quality has been improving over the years. In wine terms it can mean wines become drier and more sophisticated and we are seeing more regional styles (like wines from La Mancha in Spain or inexpensive Gruner Veltliners from Austria) making their way onto the shelves.

Tax and excise: the cost of importing wine

The Russian government has been steadily increasing taxes despite the demonstrably obvious logic that if you want to persuade the population to move from spirits to wine, you need to lower excise duties for quality wines. Wine importers have been unsuccessful in fighting this, just as they have been unable to oppose the advertising ban of 2013, the online wine trading ban or other unpopular measures.

Up to the end of 2019 the excise duty was around €0.26 per litre (for still wines), but from 1 January 2020 it was almost doubled to €0.44 per litre. The excise duty for sparkling wines is much higher (it was also raised, from €0.51 to €0.57 per litre). Both still and sparkling wine duties are expected to be raised further in years to come. There’s also a 12.5% customs duty and 20% VAT.

Importers’ mark-ups vary greatly depending on the nature of the business and its sales channels; HoReCa, and private client businesses might see 400-500% mark-ups, while off-trade specialists are more moderate, going as low as 40-60%. This is not to say there’s nothing in between, but most Russian wine importers prefer to over-inflate their price lists in order to be able to give impressive-looking discounts later; and Russian consumers love discounts.

Hotels, Restaurants, Cafés (HoReCa)

Despite the crises that hit Russia on a regular basis, the restaurant segment has been dynamic for several years. The 2015 anti-sanctions that cut the country off from important EU produce (cheese and meat for example) stimulated local farming and led to the re-birth of interest in Russian cuisine. Restaurants in Moscow and St Petersburg have been gaining serious international reputations – two Moscow restaurants, White Rabbit and Twins Garden, were at 13 and 19 respectively in the “World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list in 2019.

The on-premise market is highly concentrated in Russia’s two most outward-looking cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. Both are dominated by restaurant groups, such as the long-established Novikov Group, Dellos Group, Ginza Group, Alexander Rappoport’s restaurants, catering for a 45+ age group. Others include the young and ambitious White Rabbit Family, Perelman People, Twins Group and Probka Family.

Freedom within constraint is the best way to describe the management of wine lists in Russian restaurants. Most groups have a chef-sommelier overseeing the overall concept of the group — Ginza, Dellos, Perelman and Twins are managed this way. Others, like Novikov Group and Rappoport, allow individual restaurants more autonomy. Their wine lists carry the names you will likely find in major international cities.

There’s definitely wine life outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, albeit on a lesser scale. Restaurants in the bigger cities of Ekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk and Kazan are booming, and their passion for wine is clear. The former Olympic capital Sochi also seems to be waking up in terms of new openings.

The full version of this appeared on IWSC website on the 9th of June 2020.

Read it on IWSC

Запись IWSC Market Insight: the Russian wine market 2020 впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

The absence of any government support measures for SMEs is making it hard to survive for many of the currently suspended venues. Most businesses were told to go on paid vacation, meaning that they have to bear the burden of full wages during this period. As a reaction, the majority of professionals in the HoReCa sector have been laid off until May-June, at best.

What should sommeliers do in this situation? Is it possible to minimise the losses? Here are the views of six Russian somms on their plans of survival.

Read the full article on The Drinks Business

Запись Russian somms share plans for survival впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

I am looking carefully at what’s happening in Moscow. Let’s start with some good things — you can tell, that some businesses are clearly benefiting from “stay home” situation: delivery services, supermarkets and shops, overall retail is a Christmas situation, like in many EU countries, people are stocking up basic foods — and some alcohol, too.

The good

• wine and spirits sales have increased in retail and wine shops overall, the situation is not exactly pre-New-Year, but very close in terms of turnovers
• online shopping for wine (although legally forbidden) is on the rise. I can’t give exact numbers, but the feeling is that it’s not less than 30% and will continue like that for some time
• the market will be reshaping fast — to the benefit of smaller players with less debts, bank loans and whatever obligations they might have had. Gentlemen agreements fall apart immediately in these situations — moneywise everybody’s dry.

The bad

• The economy is down, basically shut. This is global. But, unlike the EU/US situations where governments are giving the money to the businesses and citizens, in Russia the goverment prefers to rob the population even more. Some “help” to the retired is laughable. The officials don’t care about anyone and this is the time to many people to open their eyes politically. Will that happen? Unfortunately most people are blind-sighted and that’s the truth
• HoReCa is closed down. Somms are sitting at homes
• Importers have to rethink the strategies, prices have risen, private departments and retail are now priorities. Price battles are inevitable: companies need to sell stocks. On the other hand, they have to be careful how not to remain with any wine, since the borders are basically closed for imports and nothing is moving. Tricky.

The worst

• Most wineries have already received some kind of “love letters” from their importers. One of such letters was quickly leaked and it clearly says: you, guys, have to bear with our “situation” (meaning Ruble volatility) and wait till be go back into “operation”. In some cases these letters will just be an extortion of the helpless producers (do you want to sue a Russian wine importer now?).
• The Ruble is now trading at 78 per 1 USD, that’s 27% increase since January 2020. While the oil prices continue to remain low, the Ruble won’t be going down anytime soon. This increase is already in the price-lists of most wine importers.
• There was also a 100% increase of excise duty on still and sparkling wine. This will increase the price pressure further.
• On the one hand, retail is booming for now, on the other — when people stockpile enough, this will stop and the full=blown effect of sales going down be felt immediately, esp in the lower price segment. People who were drinking cheap wines, will switch to beer or simply drop wine. People who were drinking mid-level wines, will switch to cheap ones. Expensive wines will suffer less, but will suffer too, inevitably.

Mind you, those are just raw estimations. We will see where the virus and politics take us further.

Stay safe everyone and keep you posted.

Запись March 2020. Virus & Politics. Russian wine market update. Week 1 впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

With Euro and Dollar / Ruble exchange rates skyrocketing yesterday due to Russia’s disagreeable behaviour with the OPEC, the question we are left with — has the next crisis just arrived and how this will affect the wine market, wine sales and our ability to keep going.

Запись However turbulent, the Russian market is strategic for wineries впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

It is weird — Moscow. being just 2,5 – 4 hours away by plane from major wine capitals of Europe, and still is not considered an interesting (I’m not even saying priority) market by many wine producers and wine associations (AOCs, DOs and DOCs, what not). This is both good and bad news for everybody: bad, because Russian consumer and a wine professional remains relatively cut off from major exhibitions and wine shows, except several Italian ones and three shows for Portugal, Germany and Spain. Wine appellations are not investing here — not at the moment. They abandoned the market back in 2014, some of them — back in 2008, and haven’t come back (Wines of Germany and Wines of Portugal being rare examples, both explaining it roughly similarly: “We are seeing an increase in mean price per bottle sales”). Fair enough.

The good news is that there isn’t much competition among appellations. Yes, sommeliers are receiving wine importers’ phone calls, but those are seldom creative. A handful of smart wineries, though, are taking Russian market seriously — and they get rewarded really well. Stable place in top ten markets isn’t something new for some EU wineries. And we are talking about HoReCa and private clients segments, not the shady off-trade.

Russian population remains a weak wine drinker for two major reasons: 1) economical and political stagnation that won’t let mass-consumer start really spending money on wine and 2) strict wine trade regulations, corruption and wine advertising ban which makes spreading information about wine much harder than it should be.

Hey, considering vodka-related alcoholism traditions, Russian officials must be happy to promote wine drinking of ANY sorts — be it binge or occasional. With all this in mind, quality wine consumption remains quite limited to a group of people living in big cities like Moscow and StPete, with limited growth in consumption. The fact the that number of middle-class drinkers cannot increase is simply because the middle-class population is not growing. Yes, wine knowledge spread slowly anyway, with all the barriers and nonsense that’s going on, but not nearly as much as it could.

But when the shit hits the fan, so to speak, meaning D.Trump messing with Europe, things can get pretty interesting. Would it be wise to funnel some of that export juice and marketing effort to nearby Russia, instead of sharing 25% wine taxation with your partners-importers in the US? I have no idea how long the 25% tax will remain (and they say Donald is already thinking 100% tax and not only for France). One definitely doesn’t want to lose such a lucrative market as the US. But maybe, just maybe, it’s about time to look at your options in the Eastern markets — not only Russia. Especially when you’ve got electronic visa for a short-term (less than 8 days) visit to Russia, provided you’re flying in to Saint-Petersburg (read here).

In the end, people drink wine here too.

Запись Will the US-EU wine trade war increase Russia’s wine market attractiveness? впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

They’ve always competed with each other: Vinitaly and Gambero Rosso. But if the first one (under the strict leadership of Stevie Kim) evolved into a relatively sane event, where the crowd is compensated by a decent location, cloak-room, toilet and even (!) the glasses (good wine glasses are also a luxury these days), Gambero Rosso got into the swamp of three-glass hopelessness, and didn’t have willpower to get out.

Remember that Gambero Rosso that used to happen on the upper floors of the Moscow’s GUM? In fact, it was the same trash, but with a twinkle — the elitist soaring in the air was spoiled by policemen (militsia) suddenly invading the tasting hall after the event and dispersing people who’d forgotten to spit out two-bicchiere and three-bicchiere wines.

Gambero Rosso of the “D-Telegraph” period was a trash that the wine folks spoke of, dramatically shaking their heads. I am talking about both visitors and winemakers. For the sake of fairness I’d say finding unorthodox new wines is hard at Vinitaly too, still there is a feeling that the organizers’ iron grip and the strength of the Vinitaly brand can still pull at least some interesting wines from the local importers. Unwillingness to give bottles is understandable – any merchant is aware that a decent somm rejects to brake his/her elbows in pursuit of wines, which they have seen on the market for the last 20 years.

In the new and trendy Moscow’s “Depot” venue where the event was transferred this year, the half-dead patient continues to feel the same half-dead: hanging giant bagels over your head won’t help the wine atmosphere, there’s a queue for everything — to get the glasses, to get the clothes. And the smell of cooking food around won’t help your senses. Of course, how could the organizers know that “Depot” is in fact a food place with dozens of restaurants’ open kitchens around.

In addition to the fact that it’s physically difficult to try the wines at this event, Gambero Rosso has no intention of even trying to control the flow of guests. Such high-level organisation skills can only be demonstrated by those thinking about their visitors.

It’s virtually impossible to spit wine — and people get drunk real fast. As far as I know, GR is said to be a professional event. Unfortunately there’s not been much of professional attitude and guests during the recent years.

Investing into traveling all the way to Russia — and see THIS — I am really sorry for the Grandi Marchi. I was told the Saint-Petersburg event went better. I hope so.

For me and for wine producers Vinitaly will definitely remain the way to go in 2020, although the registration procedures are getting more secretive year after year — maybe for the better? And if you want to prepare your visit — work hard in advance — use publicity, invite the right people and use insiders’ help!

Buon Natale e un Felice Anno Nuovo. Ci vediamo nel 2020!

Запись Gambero Rosso (vs Vinitaly): is it worth taking part in wine exhibitions in Russia? впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

The reasons behind this (as I see them) are a mix of tough wine market regulations, the historical nature of alcohol related business (trading alcohol has always been a kind of grey area, high-margin, easily manipulated by specific officials to squeeze out a bribe). Wine has a long way to go before it stops being considered just another type of “alcoholic drink”. Because everything that is an alcoholic drink has to be severely regulated, because, from the Russian official’s standpoint, it’s bad for your health.

Of course, there’s a fair share of hypocrisy here: most officials are drinking expensive wines, at the same time explaining the normal folk, how bad it is for their health. That’s because they don’t have to count the money they spend on it. Now think — if a common Moscow salary is around €1,300/month, how much wine will you be able to consume?

Yet, there’s maybe a 5-10% of people out there who actually can be interested in wine and knowing more about it. How come our wine trade treats them so poorly?

Let me explain: when I say “poorly” I mean these things:

1. Lack of attention to wine consumers. It’s everybody’s problem in this market. All these CEOs and marketing directors seem to be born in the XIX century. In many cases companies boil their communications down to publishing rating and event reports, interesting too nobody, of course. It’s done to state: marketing department is doing SOMETHING. “We have no idea why, and what on Earth for, but we are doing it”. Brand-oriented content? With 1-2 rare exceptions (in Moscow and Saint-Pete there are approx. 30-40 wine importers) it’s not happening. And even if it’s happening, it’s hard to read through this drivel.

2. Underestimation of wine complexity.

The wine world is so damn interesting in big part because the wines are so different, so complex and interesting. It’s rarely understood that wine is more than a number of specific technical characteristics that you can happily pour down your consumer. Attention to wines’ details is extremely rare in Russia.

3. Underestimating the power of proper communications in wine marketing.

There’re many people in the wine trade in Russia who have little understanding and use of modern media channels — be that social media, newsletters, live coverage, videos or anything else. These dinosaurs are coming from the past and you can see them when you’re facing them. They are slow, they are dull, they are boring, they wear you out with their lack of enthusiasm and with focus on prices, money and milking the EU funds for OCM. “Of course, we need your marketing budget!” Will this budget ever be spend on anything good? No way.

4. Being unoriginal in communication.

Even if companies try to speak to their clients, they normally fall into boring wine descriptions, uninspiring and obviously fake adoration, unoriginal social media posts and boring events. The goal is, again, to show that they are doing something. If only anyone cared.

5. Unwilling to invest into high-end specialists

It’s maybe a result of a lack of proper education and marketing traditions in this country where the wine importers’ owners often come from the Soviet past where wine was a part of the producers’ market. Today the market is a consumer market, but the owners are still back there, in the Soviet era. There’s probably a couple of examples of bright and forward-thinking communications amongst wine businesses in Russia. One or two, just consider that. When companies are lucky enough to have great specialists, not many of them care to keep them or promote them to higher positions. Many think it’s better to higher a stranger form the FMCG business, than look at their own staff. Well, that’s expected.

Is there hope for the better future of the communications in the Russian wine trade? I believe it’s a generational thing as well. As soon as current business owners pass their business down the younger generations or younger people become the owners, we should expect some changes. Until then — wineries should take their communications in Russia in their own hands.

There’s no app for that, but there’s an article

Запись The sad story of wine communications in Russia впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

There’s a new breed of younger people to start and they are now managing fashionable venues and funky wine lists. The lists have evolved themselves: there are much more unfamiliar names in there. Chances are that if you go to a newly opened hip place you won’t recognise 50% of wine producers on the list (at least!). Unless you’re a professional, of course, having all these biodynamic and natural wine producers’ names on the tips of your fingers. And it’s not just talking – the wines really sell. Take pet-nats (Pétillant Naturels) — these easy, low-alcohol wines sell like hot cakes today.

With this in mind it became both harder and easier to find a wine importer in Russia. Easier because there are more smaller importers. Easier because many retailers and even restaurants started importing wine themselves. Easier because people are more price sensitive rather than brand-driven today. It’s actually a kind of a mauvais ton to even ask for these commercial brands. Among specific audience, of course.

It also became harder — the consumer buying power is not going up en masse, so it’s mostly bad news for big producers who have to push volumes. Price sensitivity is hilarious — the importers will squeeze you till you bleed (many people are quite happy about been squeezed, I must say).

That said, for many wineries from different countries Russia has in the recent years become a major market. It really moves me to hear that kind of news.

Importers landscape

Historically wine importers in Russia are balancing between the bad and the worst: market regulations are not a piece of cake here. The alcohol-related laws inside the country are not very nice for business. Nevertheless companies with the right attitude tend to deal with these circumstances and take this market’s volatility well. If runner’s idioms are close to your heart, this is, like, endurance building. Iron Man of a kind.

There has been a significant shift in wine importers (distributors) game in 2019. Big brands have been changing hands a lot, especially due to larger vodka-related companies coming into the wine-importing and distributing game. Take a look at Beluga Group and Ladoga Group — they are two good examples. Offering a lot of shelf power, they are not the same in HoReCa presence, clearly there’s a different strategy. Beluga has swiped brands like Torres, Masi and (speculatively) could get Antinori, which has been stuck with MBG Impex for many years now. Others, like Roust, Inc (the Russian Standard division) has lost its wine power altogether.

On the other side of the spectre there’s a trend of emerging small-scale importers operating with small teams of 5-10 people. These companies are able to deal with niche brands but also — with quite established names like Gosset in Champagne or AdVini’s Maison Champy in Burgundy. There’s definitely a HoReCa trend of increased interest in Grower Champagne. We will see, how far it goes in 2020.

Restaurant market

Both Moscow and Saint-Petersburg are dominated by successful restaurant groups — but this is changing too. Some of them, like the Novikov Group, Dellos Group, Ginza Group, Alexander Rappoport’s restaurants and others, are quite old, while younger and trendier examples include White Rabbit Family, Perelman People, Twins Group and Probka Family. Most groups have a chef-sommelier overseeing the overall concept of the group; Ginza, Dellos, Perelman and Twins are managed this way. Others, like Novikov Group and Rappoport, give more autonomy to each individual restaurant.

Restaurants in general has become less pretentious. There’s more life in them. Wine bars are opening (and closing) every day. And the wine lists are way more interesting.

For wineries this situation means one thing: there are plenty of top brands in the market, that don’t have a good representative. Many wine brands are looking to find new importers. Wineries drop those importers who can’t pay anymore, they drop those who fail to deliver even the bare minimum of what they’d promised. As one major distributor told me in a private conversation: “You can’t imagine what kind of wineries I’m talking to. It’s all top wineries looking for a good distributor”.

The strategies

One thing for sure — one has to understand what they want and what kind of distributor they need. Cold-calling the landlines and sending e-mails are good old tricks that don’t really trick anybody anymore. You can’t spend time on that if you don’t know the players personally. Of course, I’m talking less known wineries. Or wineries that need, mostly, off-trade sales. HoReCa is getting really small and really busy with competition. On the positive side — HoReCa needs value wines more than ever. What’s value in Russia these days? Depends on the city greatly — Moscow prices being the highest, but Russian regional cities are poorer in every aspect.

If you’re a winery that doesn’t need to push millions of bottles, you’re in better position as of today. Moscow and Saint-Petersburg are two major cities to focus on with occasional visits to Ekaterinbug, Novosibirsk, Rostov and others. It’s all perfectly good.

Anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 RUR (€26-€66, at the rate of 75 RUR/€) can be considered “value” in today’s restaurants, depending on their concept. I’m talking about the final price in the wine list. Consider your ex-cellar price multiplied by 3-5 times and then multiply this by 2 to get an idea of how much your wine will cost in Russia.

Strategical thinking is important in Russia — especially when the market is volatile and fragile like today. It can drive your sales if you pay proper attention to it. Visiting every two years? Forget about it, this market doesn’t tolerate that.

Is it worth taking part in wine exhibitions in Russia?

Yes — Vinitaly is out there for you getting better and better, not so much for Gambero Rosso, which is, honestly speaking, a mess. I’ve been there, I know. Still, you’re lucky if you’re an Italian winery. Yes, there’s more competition in some segments, but trust me, there’s a lot of soul-searching about even the basic things like Piedmont and Tuscany. Prosecco I’d call the hardest and most competitive category of all.

Portuguese wineries now have an annual Wines of Portugal event that takes place in April. German wineries have several events during the year now, with Wines of Germany back on the market. For French wineries not so much choice, unfortunately, but some French tasting do pop up here and there. Still, French haven’t been great promoters of their wines in Russia during the last several years.

Getting to participate in exhibitions doesn’t get you to your goal if you don’t work hard before and during the event. Promoting the winery before the event is vital — articles and buzz help to inform the trade, so they know what they are facing even before they arrive. From personal experience, it’s been doing magic: sometimes one publication is enough to get noticed.

Advertising and promotion options

Wineries have abilities to promote the wines via professional channels (tastings, trips to wineries), but, as one can imagine, those are limited by number of people that can be invited to such events and by the focus of wine importer, who has many brands to manage. What are the options then, to promote better and increase brand recognition?

1. Creative independent content: articles, interviews, localised videos — all of this is possible with people like me. Honestly, not so many independent people share interesting and original content these days. Most people are stuck in their Facebooks and Instagrams, avoiding interesting thoughtful texts that conveys the image of wineries, their people and wines.
2. Sommeliers in social via events. This normally works when importers bring you a group of their clients. But even here, the communication is normally limited to standard selfies with winemakers and bottle shots, fast decaying in the social media content roll.
3. Opinion leaders in social media. It takes time to work out a program for such people: fist, you have to identify them. True, they can bring a lot of value to the brand, but the program has to be very carefully managed.
4. Wine exhibitions. Arguably more important for those who are looking for importers than for those present in the market. There aren’t so many of them: Vinitaly, Gambero Rosso, SoloItaliano, Prodexpo, MetroExpo (only for Metro Cash and Carry clients), Guia Penin tasting, Spanish Wine Salon, Wines of Portugal and Wines of Germany yearly tastings (from 2018 and 2019 respectively). There are some smaller events too, for regional appellations.

Questions, collaboration inquiries? Reach out on LinkedIn or e-mail me here anton.on.wine (at) gmail.com

Запись Looking for a wine importer in Russia: 2019-2020 outlook впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.

One would say: why would I invest my time and budgets into tasks that are perfectly (or, at least, fairly well) managed by my wine importer or distributor? Well, let me walk you through just 6 considerations.

1. Wider coverage: Russian is spoken all around in the Eastern countries

Sometimes exporters don’t get it: Russian language is the official state language of several countries with growing wine culture. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the Baltic countries, Tajikistan, even Georgia — all use Russian language — some, as official language, others as historical part of culture. Russian-language communications will go across border, especially, if managed correctly. Wineries that have enough muscle to manage different markets will certainly benefit from singular information flow.

2. Russians speakers don’t really engage with English

Talking to Russian sommeliers and trade might give you an impression that everybody can speak English here. For example, the winery is already running a global communication hub for international consumers, probably, in English. Will that be enough for Russian speakers? Let me break it out to you: even big cities’ professionals prefer mother tongue — to share, comment and engage. You are not going to get any substantial engagement from non-Russian communications, period.

3. Being INsider, not OUTsider

It’s not only about speaking Russian, it’s also communicating from within the Russian realities. Being outside and trying to be sociable won’t work here — creating content, that is local to local people, is essential for any wine brand. Despite the borders between Russian-speaking countries, we more or less feel the brotherhood and the same continuity to our cultures. Seeing a Kazakhstan sommelier talking about a wine bottle generates much more response than about any “western” national. Maybe it’s a matter of cultural closeness, language unity or something else.

4. More loyalty

You can’t really engage with wine drinkers unless you’re visiting your markets. It’s a kind of respect to people who drink your product. Gone are the days when winemakers could sit calmly at home and hope to sell the wines 5,000 km away. Same goes to communications. Talking in the language of your consumer is a part of basic respect and positive attitude. People who try to speak Russian get more sympathy than those who live here without taking any notice of the surrounding culture. In other words — Russian language generates more loyalty and trust to the brand before you even start producing the whole sentences. Professionals, too, might perceive your brand as big and faceless — unless they have a chance to meet you in person.

5. Better understanding of local markets with better feedback

Last but not least: will it surprise anyone if you start understanding the market better when you communicate in the local language? Your feedbacks will be realistic, your sales will consequently grow at another pace, your experience with the Russian-speaking markets will eventually go level up. What do these people want? What do they feel when they drink your wines? How should you adapt your international strategy to Russian-related markers? Those will be the questions you will probably get the answers to — and pretty quickly.

6. Using promotional materials across different markets

Of course, it’s when the economy of scale kicks in. Once translated all your information into Russian you can freely use it for a dozen of different markets — be it wines’ technical sheers, historic overview, news and presentations. Does this mean you have to constantly manage the Russian language information flow? Yes. Does it require substantial amount of work? Well, it depends on your managerial skills. In my humble opinion pushing the same international content to 50 different markets is a waste of time.

And money.

Запись 6 reasons for wineries to embrace Russian language communications впервые появилась Wine Report Russia.