CREATIVE WINEMAKING WORKS
Mastronardi finds winning recipes
Tony Mastronardi has noticed a shifting trend in wine consumption since opening the doors to his business in 2006.
Wine-sipping millennials want new and exciting products with flashy labels and catchy names.
So the owner of Kingsville’s Mastronardi Estate Winery began experimenting with ciders and fruit flavours a few years ago. This year, the experiment paid off. His new Broken Barrel berry flavour cider wine is so tasty it was declared a winner last month at the 2016 AllCanadian Wine Championships, along with Mastronardi’s Chardonnay and Syrah.
“Those products appeal more to the young or middle-aged drinkers,” Mastronardi said. “We added a fun, colourful label with a barrel that appeals to that group. We wanted something that would jump off the shelf and grab people’s attention in the LCBO.”
In a 2016 report by the U.S. Wine Market Council, millennials alone last year consumed around 159.6 million cases of wine, surpassing any other generation. This means they sipped 42 per cent of all the wine consumed, compared to baby boomers who were at 30 per cent and Generation Xers who drank 20 per cent. The millennials — those born between 1980 and the late 1990s — are downing around 3.1 glasses a sitting.
And this week, a Wall Street investment firm downgraded two beer companies based on data that millennials aren’t drinking as much as their parents, but when they do, they prefer wine and spirits. The use of marijuana is also up among that demographic.
“We started in this business by offering just a Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a white and we didn’t change it up,” Mastronardi said. “But now we are always looking for new things and experimenting. I think our next one may be a mojito, after that who knows?”
Frank Carducci, trade representative with Mastronardi, said younger drinkers are constantly looking for exciting new trends in wine.
“Cider has been a top seller at the LCBO for the past couple of years,” he said. “So we figured, we have the wine, why not try it with the cider?”
Wineries are also under pressure to produce product that appeal to the LCBO.
“The LCBO wants new and exciting products,” Carducci said. “If you come up with a Chardonnay, the LCBO will probably go thumbs-down as there is already hundreds of brands, so that’s why we came up with a wine cider.
“It’s very unique, it’s new and it’s fresh. There is a beer company in Canada that went beer with juice and they are doing phenomenal. Our template is much the same with wine and cider.”