MICHAEL KARAM
Wine writer and wine marketing and branding consultant instagram.com/michaelkaram.wine
What’s trending?
The wine industry is being shaped by new, ecofriendly packaging while trying to remain competitive after Covid-19.
Cremant, Champagne and Cava
The global percentage of sparkling wines produced is around 2.5 billion bottles, so it is less than 10 percent of the volume of still wines. Consumers are waking up to the notion that Champagne is not the be all and end all. Cremant is doing very well, as more people are realizing that it is made in the same way as Champagne — as is Cava and English sparkling wine, by the way — and, as we all know, prosecco sales have gone through the roof.
Winning wines
At international competitions, judges look for value (price point versus quality), as well as balance (integration of fruit, tannins, acidity, alcohol, etc.)
Pandemic consumption
Consumers were drinking better wines with the money they were saving by not going out during the pandemic, so I guess it’s just a case of introducing their palates to (supposedly) better wines, perhaps from regions or from grapes they had never explored or tasted.
On the menu
When selecting wine for your customers, you need to see what they like in terms of regions or grapes and how much they usually spend. At the start, it can be trial and error until a pattern develops. That said, in order to know your customers, you have to know your wine. Most consumers actually know very little other than what they have been exposed to, so conversely it can be quite easy to sell a wine if you are passionate about it and clients feel they have learned something from your recommendation.
Wines of Lebanon
Lebanese winemakers need all the help they can get. We have a great industry, so Lebanese consumers should learn to curb their status anxiety and stop buying foreign wines on the assumption that they are better. For example, Bordeaux makes nearly 500 million bottles a year, and yet only a tiny percentage is legendary; most of it is quite ordinary.