Wine Not ?!?
Posted by admin on March 27th, 2008
People are drinking more wine. Wine is reaching a larger audience and a wider age groups. There is a larger selection that not only meets peoples’ tastes, but their wallet size as well. Affordable wines, such as the popular “2 buck chuck” allow the masses the opportunity to enjoy wine without damaging their pocketbook. With that said, the supply and demand of is high. People buy more wine when wine is cheap, but consuming more also means more waste.
Tetra Pak (http://www.tetrapakusa.com/) is a packaging company who makes resource efficient packaging. Their packaging products can be used for almost any type of food product, such as dairy products, soups, oil, vegetables, and yes, wine!
I think it’s time for us to change our perception about boxed wine. Aw yeah~ boxed wine is finally sexy.
Here are a few wineries who integrate this new, eco-friendly packaging:
http://www.frenchrabbit.com/
http://www.threethieves.com/
March 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
“Affordable wines, such as the popular “2 buck chuck†allow the masses the opportunity to enjoy wine without damaging their pocketbook.”
The average person spends so little on food that calling Two Buck Chuck affordable is almost laughable…it’s no difference in price than beer or bottled water. Most couples/families can afford a $10 bottle every night. $2 is being excessively cheap.
Still, it’s crazy that there’s so few tetrapak bottled wines. I’ve been thinking for several years that there’s a huge opportunity here. Even, for the large small wineries. Why shouldn’t a good Muscadet or Pinot Grigio come in a 3L tetrapak?
March 27th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I think that is a great idea Jack and I hear you about the price. However, a “gateway wine” is always good for getting more people enjoying wine as a beverage even if it is ridiculously cheap.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Jack, with all due respect (which we all know is code for “I’m about to say something you’re not going to like”), I’m afraid your perspective on “Two Buck Chuck” is very skewed and misses the point. As the first–maybe only–marketing research firm to explore the consumer perspective on the Two Buck Chuck phenomenon, I thought I’d chime in…
First of all, I strongly disagree that most couples/families can afford a $10 every night or that the “average person” spends “so little” on food, especially in this economy. You may be right for the most affluent of consumers. And, clearly they are extremely important wine consumers, but think of the millions of others who don’t live and breathe food and wine…those who are simply looking for something they like and don’t have to spend a fortune on. There’s an economic theory called Engel’s Law (no relation) that notes that as incomes rise, people spend a smaller percentage of it on food. The converse of this is that people with lower incomes (and that doesn’t mean poverty, that can mean middle class…or what’s left of it) spend more of their income on basics like food (and wine).
The bigger point about Two Buck Chuck, however, is that even many people who could afford to spend more than $2 on a bottle choose to buy Two Buck Chuck. For the past five years, people have been stuffing the trunks of their BMWs and Mercedes with cases of 2BC in the parking lots of Trader Joe’s. The reason: it’s a good value–i.e., decent wine (some even say “great wine”–it continues to fare well at competitions and beat out $50+ bottles when it first emerged) at a very reasonable price. Consumers told us that by saving a little money at the lower end of their total wine repertoire on a weeknight, they were spending more on the higher end offerings at other times. 2BC broke the rule–unfortunately perpetrated by much of the industry for so long–that wine has to be expensive to be good.
I do agree that at that price it’s no different from bottled water or beer…AND THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT. Why can’t more people enjoy wine more often? Why can’t it substitute for water or beer? Two Buck Chuck was the catalyst that set this whole trend toward making wine more accessible, a potential beverage of choice for everyday. [Yellow tail]’s success is emblematic of the trend, too. We never really had a vin ordinaire in this country before, have we?
I also do agree with you (and William and Paul) about the viability and promise of Tetrapak. 3L boxes have been the fastest growing segment of the market (granted, the bases from which the growth has emerged are low). Like Two Buck Chuck, “innovations” like Tetrapaks, 3L boxes, screwcaps break rules, shake up the establishment. Consumers–and courageous producers who listen to consumers and then come out with innovative offerings, the most important element of which is quality product–stand to benefit.