Campo: time to 'sex up' wine

Published: 18 November, 2011

Besuited fat old men with black teeth droning on about malolactic fermentation is the last thing the wine industry needs if it wants to educate and attract younger consumers.

That's according to Pancho Campo MW, founder of the Wine Academy of Spain, who said that wine's image should be "simple and sexy".

Speaking at the recent Wine Future 11 conference in Hong Kong, Campo said: "The biggest problem of the next generation is that we are losing millennial consumers [aged between 18 and 25].

"Too often young people prefer to drink beer or spirits because they think that wine is too expensive and snobby."

In Spain, per capita wine consumption is down from an annual 84 litres per head to only 40.5 litres, while in France and Italy consumption has also halved. While top level and entry level wines were doing well, Campo said the mid-level sector was struggling. "This is an area that has to be created and developed by education and marketing to those millenials."

And he claimed that they didn't want to be educated in a formal sense. "They want leisure time, and if their first experience of wine is exciting and sexy then they will come back for more. We have to get away from the idea that consumers have to be educated about wine before they drink it."

To create loyal consumers wine's image must be "simple and sexy", said Campo, adding that linking wine to sport, art or tourism was the best way to lure younger people into the market.

Apart from the obvious benefits of attracting young consumers, Campo pointed out that in time those consumers who have a passion for wine are more likely to become serious investors. "There is the danger of having investors who are not drinkers, who are then more likely to switch their investment into other areas such as gold or diamonds."

Ian Harris, chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, agreed that education had to be fun, but said it was necessary to take a completely new approach to developing the wine market in Asia. "Introducing wine to people in the first place is often the key challenge, as we have to remember that the people we are talking to may never even have seen a bottle of wine."

While the UK is currently the biggest market for WSET courses with Hong Kong in second place, Harris predicts that China, currently fifth, will soon eclipse the UK. "If you are looking to grow wine in China, education is more important than marketing," he claimed.

"But most training is rejected because its benefits cannot easily be measured. However, if you think education is expensive, just imagine how much ignorance could be costing you and your business."

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