Award-winning Lebanese wines with Zafer Chaoui
Benchmarking local production
Participating in blind testing has grown trendier among local wine producers. According to Zafer Chaoui, president of the Union Vinicole du Liban (UVL), many of them are obtaining gold medals. “This shows that our wine is up to international level,” he adds. It is no surprise given the country’s micro-climate, history and know-how, along with the healthy competition among producers that there is an improvement in the level of production.
Winning international medals has accentuated the positioning of local wines and allowed them to compete on an international level
“I have participated in the Austrian Wine Challenge with my 2008 and 2009 wine and won gold and silver medals respectively. I have also participated in the Wines and Spirits Competition in London, where I also gained awards. But I have used such competitions as a testing tool to evaluate and benchmark my wine against international standards, evaluated by a panel of professional judges,” admits Sarmad Salibi, Founder of IRIS DOMAIN boutique winery.
Good marketing tool
Medals and awards are regarded as good selling techniques and as Chaoui points out, they act as passports, easing a wine’s entry to new countries and opening the door for a smooth introduction to hotels, restaurants and regular consumers. “Medals are considered a selling tool in the same way as articles written by famous wine writers or media campaigns on TV and in magazines,” he says.
Indeed, according to Salibi, the foremost benefit of accolades is exposure and producers should know how to take full advantage of them to market their brand. “Awards help introduce a product especially at the level of importers searching for new products,” he comments.
Due to economies of scale, volume producers tend to benefit more from participating in competitions as opposed to the boutique wineries, who suffer from higher production costs and the difficulty of competing in foreign markets, adds Salibi.
Driving more sales?
Salibi admits that on the retail side, a medal on the bottle could make it more helpful to shoppers vis-a-vis their purchase decisions. To others, the medal’s effect is not so remarkable. According to Antoine Char, retail store manager for La Cave de Joel Robuchon Beirut, shoppers ask about a particular award winning wine if they have heard of it. “The fact that a brand has won an award does not necessarily increase its sales,” he remarks.
Lebanon to the world
“We export regularly to at least 35 countries in the world,” Chaoui states proudly. These destinations include the Far East, Australia, the UAE, Jordan and Syria, as well as countries in Africa, Europe, North and South America. “Our production may be small in size but this has not stopped wine makers from exporting almost half of the quantity produced, which is 8.5 million bottles per annum.”