CCIV-2011 January 27, 2011 Wine Marketing Seminar
On a bright summer day in January of 2011, we once again were privileged
to host a group of students of the CCIV (Mastère Spécialisé Connaisance &
Commerce International des Vins) group.
It was in 2001 when we first hosted a class from this famous French wine
school. Over the years, the group continues to be younger and younger!
Professor Pascal Durand led the group and we had wonderful presentations from
two California wine industry luminaries.
And it seems their arrival was noted around Northern California...
These usually say "Walk" or "Don't Walk."
Along the freeway to San Francisco was this billboard...
Apparently there's now a plaque posted in Lodi, California to commemorate the
visit!
SO...
Alexia Moore, who heads up Alexia Moore Wine Marketing, a prominent wine broker,
gave a wonderful presentation covering the three tier marketing system as it's
constituted in California.
Alexia explained how wineries can sell their various bottlings
in California, either directly to consumers, through stores and restaurants or
via wine brokers and distribution companies.
Then Alexia spoke a bit about marketing assistance...web sites, point-of-sale
materials (P-O-S) and she offered some good and bad examples of these.
And she cited how a "tech sheet" with various bits of technical
information about a particular wine can be employed, either on paper or, as some
are doing these days, using an I-Pad.
Following Alexia's excellent presentation was wine importer Charles Neal.
Charles also spoke about labeling wine, labeling laws,
marketing wine, importing, exporting, etc.
Here's Monsieur Neal showing off a bottle of a Maison Angelot Gamay from one of
his favorite wine regions, Bugey.
This makes the importer, of course, a Buger.
When Charles finished his presentation, we opened a few bottles for the group to
taste...wines which were a world apart from some of the bottles they've
encountered, so far, on their excursion.
Little did we know, local TV was reporting the visit, too.
The famous French Sainte Marquand was especially shocked by the fine quality,
apparently, of the Ponzi 2009 Pinot Gris from Oregon's Willamette Valley.
Laure-Anne, who is also known as "The" Rene (or is it "The
Reine"?), was less surprised to find such a good wine from the Ponzi
family.
When Clémentine
heard we'd be tasting a wine "blind," she apparently closed her eyes.
This may have helped her formulate a guess as to the identity of the Mystery
Wine.
Helene & Nadia gave it a go...
Loïc
at the camera!
Miao was a ray of sunshine!
Would
anybody correctly guess the Mystery Wine?
Luckily nobody pegged this as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.
One person thought it might be a Northern Italian red, which was a pretty good
guess.
Léonie,
who's living on the Route des Grands Crus, knows a good wine when she tastes it
and started singing the praises of this one.
After the Mystery Wine, we opened another interesting bottle...this one from
Sean Thackrey in Bolinas, California.
A Purple Palate
The line-up of wines...
Ponzi Pinot Gris, Ramey Russian River Chardonnay, Downhill's
"Slippery Slop" red wine,
Summer's Charbono, Thackrey's Pleiades and La Honda's Santa Cruz Mountains
Cabernet Sauvignon.
After having a look around the shop, the grand crew of the
CCIV ambled up the block and we had a table waiting for us at AJI YOSHI YA.
Of course, we needed to open some wine for lunch and we had
some special bottles in the cellar bag.
LIABEUF CELLARS "VI BLANC"
And we had some sushi, aussi.
And Miao explained how to manipulate chopsticks in an effort
to prevent someone from starving.
THERENE CELLARS SAUVIGNON BLANC!
Then we had another unusual and rare bottling...
"Tony Rock" Pinot Noir!
ANTOINE ROCHER Carneros PINOT NOIR.
And then a nice little Viognier...
DOMAINE REYMOND'S "VIOGNIER DU VENT"
Emma shows off her famous CHATEAU TOUR DE FARGES ZINFANDEL.
And then we opened another remarkable wine...
CHATEAU BEAU SOLEIL'S "MERLOT DI MIAO," a sunny wine from Sonoma's
Alexander Valley.
Pascal then presented a fantastic plaque commemorating our having hosted these
marketing seminars over the past decade.
Well, this called for a toast...
And so with that, having finished a lovely lunch, the famous
"vintners" gathered for a photo.
It was a pleasure to host this group and we hope all the
participants will stay in touch once they've graduated from the CCIV and are
working in the wine business!
After their visit, we saw this fellow in San Francisco...
BACK TO THE
FIRST CCIV "ADVENTURE"
