Germany’s place in the emerging lower-alcohol category

Last month, Wines of Germany held the first ever UK Riesling Summit with over 100 members of the drinks trade descending on the RIBA in Central London. The idea behind the Riesling Summit was to encourage excitement and discussion about the most respected and versatile white grape in the world and get the trade to enjoy spending a day with Riesling.

The day started with a panel debate looking at the opportunity for German Wine as consumer tastes continue to move towards lower alcohol and lighter style wines. The panel was made up of Gerd Stepp (Winemaker and Industry Consultant), Helena Conibear (Director of Alcohol in Moderation), Maria Troein (Wine Intelligence), and Wines of Germany's (UK) Director Nicky Forrest.

Due to changing lifestyles and increasing government regulation, the idea behind the debate was to explore opportunities which might exist for Germany. As consumers increase their search for healthier options or at least, less heavy styles of wines, the panel also discussed if Germany's naturally low in alcohol options are currently being overlooked and possibly missing out. Should Germany seek to capitalise on the trend towards lighter wine styles and in doing so, would the UK trade support us?

Of course there are two totally different sectors here - under 5.5% with its 'technically / made 'wines' and advantageous tax breaks. This is the fastest growing sector of the UK market driven largely by price and margin. And then there is the second sector between 6-11% which has not benefited from tax breaks and shows slower growth within the UK market. Within the 6-11% sector, wines are naturally produced; therefore, wines within this sector taste like wine because they are wine. Conibear stressed the importance of the government's responsible drinking drive and the trade's promise to remove 1 billion units from consumption by 2015 - something that will be effected across beer, wine and spirits.

Conibear also considered the development of the low alcohol category as "very exciting" and considered it "Germany's best chance in years" as consumers are after lighter styles. This is something, of course, that Germany does very well because as everyone knows you can make an amazing fruity style wine with around 10%-11% alcohol that knocks the socks of most other wines at that level. In fact many years ago the Deutsche Weininstitut had a strapline: 'German wines - light and elegant naturally'. Is it time to bring it back?

So then the next question is about taste. As Stepp puts it, "winemaking is always in conflict. There's what's technically possible and then there's what's good for the wine." Far better from his point of view, was the ability of certain countries and regions to produce lighter, less alcoholic wines naturally, which as a result would retain the all important sense of balance between acidity, sugar and alcohol and lead to a better tasting, higher quality wine. "Naturally low tastes better," he concluded.

Rupert Millar from Drinks Business recently wrote, "It is difficult to argue against the idea that Germany should seek to capitalise on the trend towards lighter wine styles by pushing the message that it naturally produces less heavy and alcoholic wines."

Posted by Nicky Forrest

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

German Wine Question Time and Riesling and Co tasting

The long anticipated ‘Riesling & Co’ tour came to London for the first time on 11th May, following events in Denmark, Holland and the US so far this year.  Not content with simply showcasing the best German wines available both in the UK and abroad to an eager trade audience, we decided to make the most of having so many German wine and industry experts in the room by holding a ‘German Wine Question Time’, where the audience could question our panel of experts about the future of German wine in the UK.   David Dimbleby, eat your heart out…

Following the format of the popular political TV programme Question Time, the German wine version saw our panel of industry experts – which consisted of Marks and Spencer's BWS category manager Andrew Bird, Hakkasan Group wine buyer Christine Parkinson, Wine Intelligence’s Richard Halstead, Matthew Clark wine consultant Andrea Ruggeri and Justerini & Brooks’ Marketing Manager David Brown, ably chaired by Wines of Germany and Phipps PR managing director Nicky Forrest  – answer questions from the audience on a range of issues, including what Riesling and German wines in general can do to increase their popularity in the UK and whether Germany should look beyond Riesling and Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir) to attract the UK’s wine drinkers to give German wines a go. The consensus was that more needs to be done on packaging German wines for the UK market, although it was acknowledged that German producers (particularly the younger generation) have made good progress in improving their labels. Others stated that the language used by retailers and marketers to communicate to consumers the taste of German wines also needs revising if consumers are going to buy into “Brand Germany” once again.

Following an animated discussion paralleled with a lively Twitter debate, the floor was then opened up for the attending German producers to showcase their wines to the trade - with over 120 wines from 21 producers including esteemed wineries such as Donnhoff, Schloss Schonborn and Dr Thanisch, it was quite a treat for the audience! Attended by over one hundred members of the wine trade and press, including wine bloggers, sommeliers, buyers and journalists alike, the tasting proved to be a resounding success, with many attendees leaving with a renewed passion for German wines whilst pondering the future of German wines in the UK market. Check out our videos from the day including comments from Charles Metcalfe, Andrea Ruggieri and David Brown on our Wines of Germany You Tube channel and let us know your thoughts!

Posted by Sara Evans and Lucy Richardson

Wines of Germany go down a storm at the London Fine Wine Fair

Armed with a plethora of German wines, Lucy and I headed to the London Fine Wine Fair, taking place at the impressive Chelsea Old Town Hall from October 15th – 17th. We were there to represent Wines of Germany and to demonstrate to the 2500+ attendees what we’ve known all along – that German wines are some of the most diverse and exciting wines in the world.

Germany is known as the home of Riesling, so we began by showcasing a wide selection of mainly dry Rieslings, with some auslese wines thrown in for good measure. It was great for us to see a young crowd interested in and enjoying Riesling, which is often described as the queen of the white grape varietals. To mix things up a bit, we also included a couple of Spätburgunder (better known as Pinot Noir) and these proved extremely popular. Those who were new to German Spätburgunder praised its complexity and its surprising subtle spicy kick.

Working at the show for three days, it would of course have been rude for us not to have tried the wines! All in the name of research, we sampled each of the wines and agreed that it was impossible to pick a favourite given the choice of the wines. An enjoyable weekend for all!

Posted by Sara Evans

Wines of Germany attract the best to the Sommelier Spring Class 2010

Despite the best efforts of the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, I travelled to Germany along with 47 of the world’s top sommeliers for the second annual Wines of Germany’s Sommelier Spring Class 2010 at the end of April.

Following the success of last year’s inaugural sommelier spring class, this year’s trip was deemed a must-attend event by top sommeliers. Looking at the itinerary, it was easy to see why - the five day trip included visits to some Germany’s top wine estates such as Markus Molitor and Kloster Eberbach, tutored tastings with leading producers such as Katharina Prüm, a visit to the Mainz Weinbörse to taste wines from the newly-released 2009 vintage and a glamorous night at the German wine industry’s biggest event of the year, the “Ball des Weins” in Wiesbaden.

I was joined on the trip by some of the UK’s most respected (and entertaining!) sommeliers including Alvaro Marcos Garcia (Home House), Andrew Connor (Lutyens Restaurant), Igor Sotric (China Tang) and Bryant Mao (Chez Bruce). The trip certainly succeeded in whetting their appetites for German wines, as all of them said they had found wines they would like to list in their restaurants – it looks like the Riesling Renaissance is well and truly alive in the UK restaurant scene!

To read more about the trip, click here: http://www.winesofgermany.co.uk/sommeliers_club/

Posted by Lucy Richardson

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

Wines of Germany website wows trade and techies alike!

It’s been a labour of love for Natalie but all her hard work has finally paid off – the Wines of Germany website overhaul is now complete!
Re-launched in February, the website includes a new and improved ‘wine searcher’ allowing users to search by grape, colour and even alcohol level. It also provides direct links to retailers’ websites, so consumers can purchase German wines in a few easy steps. Other features include food and wine pairing suggestions, separate information areas for trade and the press and interactive maps of the wine regions, showing the location of Germany’s top wineries. The site has attracted significant attention from the trade press with the Grocer, Harpers Wine & Spirit, Off Licence News, Drinks International and Just Drinks all running the story either in print or online (thanks to the Harpers team for the tweet!) We also got the thumbs up from Web User magazine in their Feb 21st issue, with a glowing endorsement of both the design and content – this was a particularly proud moment for the team, it's not often wine gets a mention in technology magazines after all!

Check out the website for yourself at www.winesofgermany.co.uk and don’t forget to enter our competition to win a case of German wine!

Posted by Lucy Richardson

Rheingau Riesling: the talk of the town

Lured by the promise of over one hundred wines from some of Germany’s most talented wine producers, as well as rare vintages dating as far back as 1938, the crème de la crème of the UK wine trade and media attended the VDP Rheingau tasting organised by the Phipps team. Top results from the Phipps team, a very happy client and key influencers tasting and discussing German wines – all in a day’s work!

Posted by Natalie Potts