An Overview of the Wine World

The situation generated by the massive removal of vineyards in European Wine Countries, such as Spain, France, Portugal and Italy, has affected the world-wide supply chain. The scale of the removal has been so vast that it covers approximately 75 thousands has. To put this in context that amounts to more than half of Chile's planted vineyards, which is around 115 thousands has.

A strong price war can be observed in European supermarkets, and not only in table white wines and friendly reds, but also in wines with denomination of origin such as champagne.

In the United States, the situation is also difficult since the financial crisis. Overall consumers are tending towards consuming cheaper wines than prior to the crisis. In fact, if 2008 is compared with 2009, in the latter year wine sales of expensive bottles in supermarkets didn't pass 50 U.S$ however in 2008 wines of 90U.S$ were a regular purchase. In some restaurant they were even advertizing: “If you drink a wine of less than 50 US$, and you don't like it, we will give you the money back”.

Today, the American and the English comsumer are drinking wine, but with a definite tendency towards drinking cheaper wines. In fact this is a world-wide trend. It is almost certain that Chile will strongly increase the export of cheaper wines, particularly because Chile is already known as a country that produces good wines with attractive prices. If this happens it would be great for the industry because currently the national market is pretty static.

Retailers wanting to sell wines of higher price need to be aware that the consumers expect destinctively better quality in those wines.

This kind of consumer is also looking for more than just quality, they want to know what is behind the label; the history of the wine, who is the winemaker etc. This consumer may also want to be in direct contact with the producer and have knowledge of the distribution.

For these reasons wine tourism, show-rooms, international trade fairs, masterclasses etc are becoming more and more important, because the costumer is becoming more educated about what is out there in the wine world.

The use of the internet, blogs (http://www.wineswithchile.blogspot.com/), forums, social networks, among others, are being used by costumers to help decide on their purchases. From their place of work, home, restaurant or a coffee shop they can choose what to buy 24hr a day. This virtual world of information is changing the industry and making it more competitive. The opinions of mainstream wine “Gurus” are becoming less appreciated as the costumer now wants to make heir own decision from their own broad sources of information.

The world is looking for easy wines to drink. The average customer isn't interested in the ritual of tasting. They just want to enjoy the moment and they don't care if the Syrah has blackberry aromas or jam notes. That is for the technicians not for the common consumer. This partly explains, in my opinion, why Rose wine is becoming more popular - It is so easy to drink. What the average costumer looks for now is an immediate, easy drinking wine rather than a wine with cellaring potential.

The world has also become more enviromentally conscious and the "green" tendency will increase the sales of natural, organic and byodinamic wines, and not only in the young-adult demographic.It will also be important to future generations of wine drinkers.

The countries that are expected to continue growing are: New Zealand with their Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, Argentina with their Malbec, South Africa with Shiraz and without a doubt Chile with the Cabernet and Carmenere. And if we are to be specific about wine regions within Chile, Limari and Maule will be the main ones.

### Most of the information is from the article " Como sera el mundo del vino 2010 " of the magazine Revista del Campo, which was written by Sergio Correa, Winemaker Consultant, Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit, French Goverment. He's part of the Brotherhood Saint Emilion. Translated and Summarized by DSC.