You're rolling your eyes, but I'm serious.
Judging from people's reactions to innovative wine packaging designs and marketing techniques, you could only assume that wine is a sacred object.
I find that even in my young, totally bad ass perception of life, I prejudge wine based on my moderately secret desire to be a serious wine connoisseur.
For instance, screw caps. Despite the affirmation of entire nations (e.g. New Zealand) and bastions of the faith (e.g. Jancis Robinson,) there are still plenty of skeptics, and we're still forced to post interminably long and boring tales about the avoidable horror of T.C.A.
Or, How many people have you heard renounce any bottle that features an animal on the label as practically an Iconoclastic heresy?
Why was my first reaction to the cross-branded Wines that Rock line, "You have gotta be f*n kidding me!?"
How many of you look at a Tetra Pak and think, "There's gotta be some great juice inside of that!" Why must Black Box's marketing campaign absolutely be, "But seriously, guys. No, seriously! I mean, we're totally serious here, guys!"
Wine is protected with the most ridiculous fervor. It's as if Jesus not only turned water into wine, but he also instituted exactly how it should be presented: label, bottle, package, and branding.
Wine is a staggeringly confusing beverage choice, and the traditional media counted on that as their business model for years. But, wine bloggers have destroyed that model with the advent of new media and the web.
Yet, I don't think that we've done enough to push wine forward for the next generation, my generation.
Wine is magic. And there will always be room for the way things have been.
But let's look for the way things could be, accept it with open arms, and stop trying to pretend everything great should be circa 1862 and French.
Ironically, southern France makes most of my favorite wines.
So I ask you, mighty citizens of the wino interwebz: Do you think innovative wine packaging and branding is a good thing, or detrimental to wine as an art?
"The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future."
Sam Klingberg writes The Broke Wino blog, and was kind enough to do this guest post. He's one of my favorite bloggers, and was recently profiled by Sacre Bleu Wine. If Sam isn't already in your RSS feed, he should be. Follow him on Twitter @brokewino.
I recently said this to you on Twitter but I’ll say it again. I really dig what you’ve been writing. I’m with you. Who cares what it’s in as long as it’s solid? I just think the marketing has to back that up and tell people “Yea, we’re serious, and so is the wine” and we’ll get there.
Love this. I am shocked at how boring and stuffy wine commentators can be. Why not make the bottles fun.
Perception is reality. A glass bottle gives a perception of quality (weight, for some reason, equating to quality). Other packages come off as “cheap”, so the product within must also be cheap.
You take an excellent cable technician and dress him in tattered, dirty clothes, no shave, etc., or clean cut in a uniform. Maybe not an “apples to apples” comparison, but I guarantee people perceive better service from the latter (if the guy took this much time to put himself together, he’ll put the same amount of time and attention in fixing my cable).
Not that I have problems with new, innovative packaging. Just playing devil’s advocate…
My completely unprofessional un-wine blogger opinion: I’ll try any wine once regardless of packaging… I think as a consumer (aka unprofessional opinion)If I look at a wine and see a higher price I think to myself ” It must taste better since it is priced higher”. For me it is more about price than packaging.
Thanks for the comment. I think that the packaging issue will start to change, although there will still be those who demand the romance of a bottle with a cork.
I think it is common to think that the quality of the wine and its price are directly correlated, but this isn’t always the case. There are bad bottles of expensive wine, and good bottles of cheap wine. The only problem is how to know the difference. Makes it hard for the consumer to choose.
You are totally right Joe. I think the screwcap issue is a perfect example. The entire world of wine experts can say that screwcaps are not inferior, and have obvious advantages to cork, but until that perception slowly shifts away from the notion that screwcaps are for cheap wine, we will not see many high end wines with alternative closures.
Jancis Robinson tasted a Col d’Orcia that was bottled with a screwcap, I think that the tides are changing, in the slow, imperceptible way they do.