A package deal

Wines & Vines, Dec, 2000

Joy Sterling, one of the owners of Iron Horse, says she is ready for the "real millennium" with two limited edition bottlings of Iron Horse bubbly. "I'm not afraid to take two bites from the same apple," Sterling said. She was referring to the fact that most champagne houses did their milli celebration packages last year.

"As far as I'm concerned, the celebration started last year and it's still going on," she said.

Iron Horse is offering a limited edition jeroboam called Starburst 2001 of a 1992 late disgorged brut for this New Year's. The design for Starburst 2001 was done in house by Terry Sterling.

"Last year really exceeded my expectations," Joy Sterling said. "Not just on sales, but on the heightened awareness. Also, when the country and the economy are going so well, there is a willingness to celebrate."

Iron Horse is the exception, based on a poll of sparkling wine producers across the country, conducted by Wines & Vines. Most producers are not planning any major millennium changes, only small shifts of emphasis on the labels.

Mirassou, for example, has released a Blanc de Blancs which sports a slightly updated look. The label highlights that the family has been in the wine business for six generations, with its Sixth Generation Cuvee. The label design was by Rick Tharp of Tharp Did It design. It was printed by Gordon Graphics.

Korbel, the top selling methode champenoise producer in California, isn't doing much in the way of label or packaging changes. Spokeswoman Margie Healey indicated that there was a reluctance to change what was working.

"We didn't feel that we should walk away from the brand equity," she said. "When people go out and look on the shelf, sometimes they will walk right by if you change too much," she said.

Healey said that there had been some changes over the years, but the feeling at Korbel was that the customers wanted a consistent look. "We may tweak the package occasionally, but we want to keep our brand image."

Healey's point is well taken. Using numbers from the Adams Wine Handbook, Korbel shows that they are the number one national sparkling wine brand in dollars, generating almost twice the dollar volume as the nearest competitor, Chandon. Korbel also has the best market share, at about 17%.

David Brown, the national marketing director for Freixenet USA at Gloria Ferrer Winery in Sonoma, speaking of the champagne and sparkling wine market in general, said that sales were looking very good, but shipments were down.

"What happened," he explained, "is that everyone really stocked up for the 2000 millennium. Sales were terrific for the first 11 months of 1999. Then, sales stalled out. Hotels and restaurants didn't get the business they expected. Because people had been warned of shortages, they bought early, so the trade was stuck with a large inventory, including a lot of special bottlings that no one knows what to do with."

Brown believes that the pipeline will be empty by the end of the year and 2001 sales and shipments should be back in balance.

Nicolas Feuillatre has been a major innovator in packaging bubbly. For this holiday season, there is a gift package which, in the words of Nicolas Feuillatte, "captures our brand's theme of a journey through time and expresses it with this new packaging."

Importer Martin Sinkoff explained that Feuillatte has chosen the theme of time for the year 2000. In 1999 the theme was terroir and for 2001 it will be space. "The themes are intended to situate the brand in the broad human search for meaning and to give flight to the imagination of designers, artists, advertising agencies and sales force about the potential of the brand."

Sinkoff added that the intention of the package was "fundamentally to delight consumers." There are actually two gift packages to "delight consumers." Exuberance offers a 750 ml bottle of Feuillatte Brut Premier Cru, in a red metal canister decorated with rose-colored images of mimosa and fern. The suggested retail price is $20. The Noel Givre is a frosted gift box, decorated with images of winter and containing a 750 ml bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte Cuvee Speciale 1995. The suggested retail is $60.