Sunday, 26 April 2015 13:57

Marketing of Low Alcohol Wine

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Many supermarkets in New Zealand have added a “lighter wines” section. Many supermarkets in New Zealand have added a “lighter wines” section.

Until the 1980s, the low-alcohol German wine Muller Thurgau was popular internationally and in New Zealand, though wine experts maligned the Riesling-Madeleine Royale varietal as “bland”.

As the more palatable Sauvignon Blanc grape emerged, Muller-Thurgau was ripped from the soil and low-alcohol wines have since struggled to recover. 

While we aren’t seeing a re-emergence of Muller-Thurgau, the off-dry wine with grape juice added to the finished product, there has been increasing interest in low-volume alcohol wines in recent years. Such wines are more relevant to the market now more than ever, as Kiwis are worried about driving under the new alcohol limits. On 1 December 2014, the New Zealand Government decreased the alcohol per litre of breath limit for legal driving to 250mg, down from 400mg. For many people, 250mg will be reached after one or two standard drinks. 

The average New Zealand wine contains 12 to 14 per cent alcohol, while lower-alcohol wines are generally accepted to be less than 10.5 per cent. According to Wine Intelligence’s 2014 report, “The wine industry, and alcohol industry in general, also have the added pressure of operating in a sector which is coming under increasing scrutiny with regards to social responsibility”.   

Of course, this doesn’t just refer to alcohol as a catalyst for drink driving. Lower alcohol wines can be metabolised by the body faster, and thus spikes in blood sugar levels and inflammation do not occur at the same rate. Furthermore, there is also an increasing health trend focussed on lower alcohol wines because they can contain less carbohydrates than standard wines. 

A 2014 wine study of eight countries, by Constellation Brands, found 38 per cent of regular wine drinkers have purchased lower alcohol wine and would re-buy in the future. An additional 16 per cent would try the wines if offered. 

In that vein, many supermarkets in New Zealand have added a “lighter wines” section. Countdown and New World, for example, both proudly display such a section in many of their supermarkets. Jim Harre, Chair of Judges for the New World Wine Awards, says consumers have “an increased awareness of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption and a desire to act responsibly when consuming wine… (this has) resulted in the search for high quality wine that has reduced alcohol levels”. Harre notes increased development and promotion of lower alcohol wines by winemakers, and the New World Wine Awards was the first wine show in New Zealand to introduce a class for wines marketed in this way (in 2013). 

It is usually, however, the wines that are naturally lower in alcohol that do best in this category, such as Riesling or Muscat. The only low alcohol wine to win a gold medal in 2013 was the Australian Wolf Blass Red Label Moscato, which is naturally low in alcohol (6.5%). 

In 2014, The Doctors’ Reisling (a naturally nine percent wine from Forrest Estate in Marlborough) won a silver medal at New World, but also took home a hat trick of accolades at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards: it picked up a double for Champion Riesling and, significantly, the Champion Open White Wine. Forrest Estate, thus, can be considered the first example of a Kiwi winery that isn’t compromising on taste and quality in creating a lower alcohol offering. 

“We have seen a swing of people, particularly from trade, interested in our wines since December,” says Trevor Loomis, Forrest Wines’ marketing manager. “An interesting number of wine shops and restaurants, which had previously not been interested in stocking our wines, have actually come straight to us.” 

It has been fine dining restaurants that have surprised the team at Forrest Wines most. “You’d think they’d be the last bastion; holding back on stocking low alcohol wines,” Loomis says. “But the opposite has happened – and it’s been the same with the funky wine shops.” 

Moreover, during the first two months of 2015, Forrest Wines experienced increasing interest from corporate event organisers (particularly in Christchurch); a movement Loomis expects to continue. “We’ve been supplying a lot of corporate lunches,” he says. “Business people at lunchtime are keen on having a low alcohol option because they have to go back to work afterwards.”  

Winemakers should proceed in marketing low alcohol wines with caution, however, as there are some considerations to make. For example, there may be issues in marketing a product as “healthier” than standard wine.  Production of low alcohol wine can require retention of more sugar (i.e. fructose from less-ripe grapes is left unfermented into alcohol), and, additionally, fresh grape juice (which contains a high volume of sugar) is sometimes added back into the wine to lower the alcohol volume. This makes many lower alcohol wines more sugary overall and thus, potentially less “health-friendly” than standard wine. 

There are common alternatives to retaining/adding sugar to lower alcohol volume, however, and being open and explicit about these on labelling will help persuade winemakers and their marketing departments to sell their low alcohol products effectively. 

Recent developments in high-speed spinning and vacuum pressure techniques remove the alcohol from wine without affecting much of the taste, and this is something consumers want to know about. Furthermore, the reverse osmosis (RO) way of creating lower alcohol wines has been used for many years (it strips alcohol out of the wine using a very tight filter, and it is later re-blended in a lighter volume), and consumers must be informed that today’s winemakers are using technologically advanced systems. The RO process, unfortunately, still has a bad reputation amongst older consumers (particularly those who tried low alcohol wines decades ago and were left with watery aftertastes in their mouths). 

It is therefore up to winemakers to prove that low alcohol wines can be as palatable as their full-strength counterparts. Muscat isn’t typically grown in New Zealand, but Riesling growers, like Forrest Estate, should expect sales growth throughout 2015 and beyond. Forrest Estate, explicitly, doesn’t expect this to stop at Riesling, either. 

“John [Forrest] developed our Sauvignon Blanc not to be a low alcohol wine, but a full flavoured wine - it just happened to be lower in alcohol,” says Loomis. “In 2013 we considered not marketing it as low alcohol, but it’s definitely staying on the label for the 2014 vintage because it’s an increased opportunity now.” 

Generally, making a Sauvignon Blanc that doesn’t taste like unripe (or sour) grapes is a challenge, given the varietal is normally made from very ripe grapes. 

“Winemakers need to be talking to each other about their methods, so we don’t see a slide in the overall quality of the sector,” says Loomis. 

Like Forrest Wines, Brancott Estate has experienced success outside of the Riesling repertoire of low alcohol wines. Its “Flight” Sauvignon Blanc received a bronze award in the 2014 New World Wine Awards. It is made with grapes selected and harvested earlier to create a light, bright, summery wine. 

Supermarkets aside, it appears liquor stores such as Liquorland, Liquor King and Glengarry have not yet begun to overtly market low alcohol wines, though many are stocked inconspicuously in varietal aisles.  Similarly, restaurants are yet to follow the explicit “lighter wines” movement by putting alcohol volume on wine lists, but this may be a development to watch out for in the future. 

“I would hope the alcohol volume starts being put on menus soon,” says Loomis. “The hospitality industry needs to adapt and keep up with people’s concerns. Until then we might see the trend continue [whereby] people have dinner parties at home, and their guests stay the night.” 

Alongside organic wines, low alcohol wines are expected to be some of the fastest growing categories in the world. So much so, New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries has partnered with NZWinegrowers in a $17 million research and development project to produce low alcohol wine. This project, called “Lifestyle Wines” is expected to be completed in 2021.

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