The Return of the Big Breakfast

This week we were interested to read about the soft launch of the Hawksmoor breakfast menu (reviewed here by uber blogger Eat Like a Girl). Hawksmoor, famous for London’s greatest steaks, has decided to open its Guildhall restaurant for breakfast from 7am. You may wonder if steak would be a popular choice first thing in the morning, but judging from the reviews so far, Londoners are quite happy to abandon their muesli and go for something with a bit more iron.

When you consider that lots of breakfasts (especially at the weekend) contain plenty of meaty fare such as black pudding, sausage and bacon it’s not a huge leap of the imagination. Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the spectrum, McDonald’s recently launched its Breakfast Wrap – a tortilla wrap containing egg, hash brown, bacon and a sausage patty. Handy and portable it may be, but it’s not exactly healthy. Nor does it particularly adhere to the Government’s new ‘Responsibility Deal’ – a voluntary initiative for brands to reduce sat fat and salt which McDonald’s is part of. However, our view is that it’s all about choice (even we’ve been known to eat last night’s pizza for breakfast). Hawksmoor and McDonalds couldn’t be more different, but whether it’s because food lovers have so much choice they want breakfast time to work harder, or if we’re looking for comforting indulgences when times are hard, one thing is for certain; the big breakfast is back.

Posted by Lynne Shirley

Pick up a Pinot (from Germany of course)

For many Brits, Germany is not their country of choice when wine shopping. Unless you understand basic German, the label on a bottle of Riesling - the country’s premier grape varietal - can leave you puzzled and reaching for the nearest Aussie Chardonnay. With this in mind, you’d think we’d be mad to even think about pitting German Pinot Noir (yes, red wine from Germany does exist!) against its international, highly-regarded competition.

But such was our faith in the quality of German Pinot Noir, we recruited a world-class panel of judges (and friends of Phipps to boot) including top wine writers Jancis Robinson MW (Financial Times and Purple Pages.com), Tim Atkin MW (BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen wine expert) and Matthew Jukes (Daily Mail) to taste 20 German Pinot versus 20 top Pinot Noirs from around the world, to judge for themselves. The tasting itself required the organisational skills of a military sergeant but after hours of tasting, we were thrilled to find that no less than seven German wines had made the top 10!  Our audacity and insight had paid off! Even more astonishing when the final results came in a German Pinot Noir actually came third overall, beating all three Burgundy wines in the tasting! But don’t just take our word for it. Check out Jancis Robinson’s video, Tim Atkin’s fantastic article and Gabby Savage’s write up on Drinks Business, or if you’re still not convinced come back next week to watch the event’s video and see it with your own eyes. 

Posted by Lucy Richardson

Drinkaware - why the wine trade should care

Looking at the delegate list at a recent Drinkaware conference it struck me how few representatives were in attendance from the wine industry.  Distillers, brewers, retailers and trade associations, but only three of the major wine companies and none of the other generic bodies had made it.  It reminded me of the last time I was speaking to a group of European winemakers about the UK market and the government’s threat of compulsory unit labelling and crackdowns on alcohol promotions.  “But this shouldn’t affect us”, they argued, “beer and spirits are the problem, wine is a healthy drink and we should lobby the government to make sure that the wine trade is protected.”  Of course, many studies show that moderate consumption of red wine is beneficial to health, but let’s be realistic, how many of us consume wine moderately?  The proliferation of cut price deals have meant that wine is cheaper than ever, but it’s not just the teenage girls pre-loading on rosé before a night out that are setting themselves up for health problems, many middle class, middle aged drinkers get through a bottle of wine each or more in a night.  I for one do not want to see our freedom to drink as much alcohol as we want be infringed, but if we all don’t face up to our part in educating and encouraging consumers to drink responsibly, then the whole industry risks being penalised by a health lobby and government eager to punish all for the sins of a few.  Drinkaware runs an excellent campaign working with the trade and government organisations to limit problem behaviours and we would be wise to adopt their advice.

Posted by Anna Noble

News from the latest WSTA meeting

Keeping Phipps at the sharp end of wine trade developments, I attended last week’s Wine and Spirit Trade Association Panel Meeting on behalf of client members Wines of Germany and Wines from Rioja.

One of the most interesting items on the agenda was the discussion about the possibility of running a UK ‘wine week’.  Phipps first became aware of this back in May when there were whispers amongst the trade at the London International Wine Fair.  The general consensus at the panel meeting was that a promotion of this nature, running across the wine trade with the aim of engaging consumers in the category and educating them on the varieties of wine on offer, would be of value – although some more work needs to be done to decide on the objectives and scope of the project.

Possible concept?  ‘Try something different’ was popular with the panel. Tim Wilson of the Wilson Drinks Report mentioned that males aged 18-24 are least likely to drink wine so there are opportunities to widen consumption to different sectors of the population.  All this discussion got me thinking - this would benefit from a PR campaign, one that draws together interesting stories and personalities from across the wine world and smashes some of the myths that have grown up around wine.  It’s still an unknown and quite intimidating area for the majority of consumers and unlocking the door to some of its ‘mysteries’ would go a long way to empowering new drinkers. 

Anna Noble

Farmers left in the dark

As wedding bells continued to chime over the Con-Lib Alliance – or is that the Lib-Con Alliance? – farmers learnt that it wasn’t shadow minister Nick Herbert, but Caroline Spelman who had been appointed the new Secretary of State for DEFRA, the department for environment, food and rural affairs. 

What does this mean for British farmers and what changes can they expect?  The Tories promised to put the word “farming” back into DEFRA’s title for a start, one step to putting farming further up the political agenda.  Pledges included badger control against bovine TB (which farmers hope might end the slaughter of infected cattle), the introduction of a supermarket ombudsman, a reduction in the number of rural quangos, an easing on the burden of regulation on farmers and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.  But under the new Coalition Agreement so enthusiastically waved about by our new leaders at their historic press conference, farming and rural affairs get one mention - an announcement of “measures to promote green spaces and wildlife corridors in order to halt the loss of habitats and restore biodiversity” under the Environment section.  More discussion clearly needed before the Con-Lib compact can agree policy for farmers.

Caroline Spelman should know some of what she’s talking about though.  She’s had a number of senior posts in opposition and she’s a former sugar beet commodity secretary for the NFU and a research fellow for the Centre for European Agriculture Studies at Kent University.  She also co-owns a food and biotechnology business with her husband.

In the meantime, we’ll keep watching the DEFRA website, currently displaying the caution “The contents of this website are under review, following the formation of a new HM Government”.  One thing’s for certain, with swingeing budget cuts all round, it’s going to be a lot more than just website contents that are under review.

Posted by Miranda Page-Wood

Fine Wine 2010 - view from the auditorium

When Wine Intelligence, the world’s leading wine research company invited Phipps as its guest to the Fine Wine 2010 conference in Spain, we took one look at the itinerary and booked a flight to Madrid - with the likes of Tim Atkin MW, Serge Hochar of Chateau Musar, Olivier Krug, Ernst Loosen and Michael Mondavi speaking, how could we refuse?

The conference is actually taking place two hours north of Madrid in Ribera del Duero.  Of course, I’m more often found in the big R…Rioja so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

So, to the seminar itself.  Tim Atkin MW kicked off proceedings in his typically humorous style with a look at what ‘fine wine’ has meant historically and what it means now.  Although Bordeaux still dominates the fine wine markets the biggest change has been the introduction of new regions including California, Rioja, Priorat and Australia. Tim ended his speech by calling on winemakers to express their ‘terra’ or land rather than their ‘territorium’; to look outwards rather than being protectionist. 

In the next panel discussion on building consumer appreciation of fine wine Michael Beringer echoed Tim’s sentiment by calling upon the trade to open up – to invite customers in and show them our passion first hand - whether that be through tastings, trips to the region or increasing dialogue on line. There was some contention between the panel on whether fine wine has to be able to age with Tim citing examples such as Sancerre which are best drunk young.  Serge Hochar explained his philosophy that most fine wines gain finesse and complexity with ageing but some can lose characteristics that make them appeal when young. 

Lulie Halstead from Wine Intelligence introduced some interesting research into a far more important consideration - what consumers consider to be fine wine.  The key results from their March 2010 poll of 3,900 regular ‘luxury’ wine drinkers in the UK, USA and Switzerland found that the characteristics (in order of importance) were that the wine has (or is perceived to have) heritage and provenance, is handcrafted, wins critical acclaim and has a family history.  Interestingly, rarity and ethical responsibility came at the end of the list. 

Michael Yurch of Sherry-Lehmann wine stores in New York made some very interesting points about the ‘art and science’ of selling fine wine. He spoke of the need to not run ahead of the consumer and to stick with the basics (even if it bores you!) and to use regional classifications that they recognise - criticising modernist producers who shun appellation names such as Chianti Classico. His most important point was that he doesn’t run his store – his customers do. Something we’d all do well to take on board.

There was no surprise that Ernie Loosen, the most charismatic of winemakers, spoke of the need to tell a story – for the winemaker to express their personality and the wines to stand for something – classic brand building stuff.  Perhaps more insightful were his recommendations for maintaining cash flow in a crisis.  Lowering prices can have a detrimental effect in the long term and most wineries can’t afford to hang onto stock until prices improve so Ernie recommended investigating other channels such as airlines where supplying at a reduced price won’t affect the winery’s overall image and declassifying top wines into lesser brands to sell a larger volume.  So I guess we should all rush out to by Dr L 2009 if it there’s a chance it could contain some Wehlener Sonnenuhr!

Ryan Opaz of Catavino gave a forward thinking 21^st century view.  He trashed most winery websites, complaining about a lack of contact details and information on where wines can be bought around the world, and useless videos that crash browsers.  He said that 1% increase in marketing online can have a far larger impact on sales than a 1% increase in investment in wine technology – and commented that the “greatest peril is your invisibility not your competition”.  For those in the market for some tips to improve their online marketing follow http://bit.ly/5freetips

I had the pleasure of sitting next to Ryan Opaz and opposite Olivier Krug at lunch and continued the discussion over some very bizarre dishes including a tomato, berry, goats cheese and chocolate salad – an example of Ferran Adria’s influence taken too far?

Wine Intelligence had the slot after lunch but managed to keep us awake with some new research on fine wine consumers in the USA, UK and Switzerland.  In the UK ‘fine wine’ was classed as wine retailing for £10+ and the research revealed that alongside 1.1m regular luxury wine consumers (the collectors and wine geeks among us) there are 11m  consumers who buy luxury wine less frequently – for special occasions or gifts when they will invest more time in the choice and trade up.  It is important to tailor marketing to these two sectors – the occasional luxury buyer needs reassurance in their selection.  They seek heritage and provenance but intimidated by sommeliers and retail store buyers. We think we are helping by providing detailed information, but for these consumers it is confusing and as wine is a social indicator they are worried they will look foolish.  Further proof surely that the consumer is king and we need to get out of our ivory towers and relate to consumers on their terms using their language… 

By Anna Noble

Blogging up the wrong tree?

Another day, another blogger complains at the way they’re approached by the PR industry. This time, it’s Cate Sevilla of BitchBuzz blog in PR Week, who has suggested a blogger’s relations conference.

While I see her point, that everyday there are PR’s out there spamming all and sundry with irrelevant stories, there are core groups of PR’s who genuinely engage with bloggers in a meaningful way to benefit both the blogger and brand. Personally, I’m excited by the opportunities out there and the role of Twitter and treat social media with the same respect that I would traditional forms.

The skills used to engage with bloggers should form part of an agency’s service that clients buy into – in the same way that brands buy into our relationships with journalists. This alone should be enough to ensure that PR’s take bloggers seriously. Successful understanding of the role and purpose of the blogger will ensure they’ll come back to you, putting trust in you and your opinion – in exactly the same way that a journalist would.

This was proved recently when we deliberately targeted a specific blogger with an invitation to a launch and he Tweeted “Finally! An invite I actually give a sh*t about!” A perfect example of a tailored, targeted and relevant approach – three benchmarks which should be considered when dealing with any opinion former – blogger or not.

Posted by Lynne Shirley