Sharing States secrets

You've got to hand it to those pesky Americans. They have a great ability to take a concept or product from another part of the world, refashion it and turn it into something much more popular and successful.

Look at films and this year's Best Picture at the Oscars, The Departed. How many people would know that it is actually a remake of a Hong Kong film called Infernal Affairs? While many would argue the Hong Kong version is better, the Hollywood version has been far more popular and financially successful, with big marketing bucks supporting it.

It is true of many products and it seems the Americans have done the same with rosé wine. Rosé was born in Provence and didn't seriously concern the balance sheets of the big Californian wineries until six years ago or so.

According to Matthew Clark's director of wine Robin Knapp, the decision to create new rosé wines and market them under the name 'blush' wines came from America and it proved to be a masterstroke.

"Rosé has become a mass-market product now. American producers coined the phrase 'blush' five to six years ago and that undoubtedly helped consumers' perceptions of the product," he says.Benefiting from the RTD decline?Julian Drake, wholesale on-trade sales manager at PLB wines, whose portfolio includes Sutter Home rosé - one of the top selling rosés in the UK - says there has been a distinct trend towards sweeter wines in the UK, and the Californians have been in a unique position to exploit this.

"I think there has been a movement of people towards drinking rosé wine from ready-to-drinks (RTDs). These people started to move away from RTDs for something easy-drinking and sweet and the two areas I noticed people moving towards have been speciality spirits and rosé.

"And Californian rosés in particular fit the bill here - they are low alcohol (often 10 to 11 per cent ABV) and are sweet medium and medium dry."

Julian says that the rosé wine revolution in the US centres around California and it shows no sign of abating.

"Californian rosés have really been driving growth - particularly through the growth of grenache wines and white zinfandel. The big three rosé brands are Californian - Blossom Hill, Gallo and Sutter Home," he says.

"More and more people are drinking rosé and in growth terms red and white are stagnating a bit. All the growth coming out of the US wine market is being driven by rosé.

"It is incredible growth - as fast as they are planting vines for white zinfandel in California they are running out of space."

And now one of the biggest rosé brands, Gallo, through its white zinfandel varietal, is looking to wow the UK wine drinker in pubs through its new over-ice promotion.

Rosé over ice​

Ice currently appears to be the magic ingredient in every drink in the on-trade.

We all know about Magners and Bulmers Original and how they are involved in a virtual over-ice war in the cider market.

But then there are the soft drinks companies - like Coca-Cola and Britvic - and spirits companies such as Diageo that have embarked on long perfect serve campaigns in the on-trade, with healthy servings of ice being at the centre of the offer.

So far so fair - after all employing lots of ice in these long drinks makes a modicum of sense. However, the news last winter that Gallo was trialling rosé over ice in a number of Wessex Taverns pubs across the UK was somewhat surprising. Surely this is taking the over-ice experiment too far?

Not according to Master of Wine Jonathan Pedley. "I remember drinking jugs of Beaujolais from jugs filled with ice years ago. So the concept is not startlingly new and there is a logic to it," he says.

The Gallo trial took place in 12 Wessex pubs from November through to the end of December across the UK and it proved to be a huge success.

According to Jane Hunter, Western European marketing director for E&J Gallo Winery, every single outlet showed an uplift in sales - from between 20 to 190 per cent - compared to the previous period in 2005.

Not only that, but the promotion created an uplift in overall rosé sales - an average increase of 51 per cent in total rosé sales in each outlet in fact.

With a successful trial behind it, Gallo is now rolling out this promotion across UK pubs from next month.

"We feel with the ice we are satisfying the trend towards refreshing drinkers," says Jane. "Plus we are bringing a bit of news to the wine category without alienating the consumer. It is a very easy promotion and serve for outlets to execute - it is simple and impactful.

"Feedback we have had from the trial showed that people didn't see the addition of ice as something that dilutes the product - it is all about refreshment. And we found there is no major seasonality with rosé - it has a very loyal consumer base."

Below is an example of the work Gallo did with the promotion before Christmas:​

Case study: Sheryl Matthews, manager, the Hairy Lemon - Wessex Taverns

"We were very interested in taking part as it was a new concept - but we also have had a number of people in the past asking for ice in their wine. Right now over ice is the way people are looking at the market, given the success of Magners," explains Sheryl.

"For the promotion we were given a full set of point-of-sale material, including 16oz glasses, t-shirts and bar runners and, of course, branded ice buckets. Plus we were briefed by Gallo - we needed the full set of information to pass on to the customer. We were told to use the white zinfandel in the trial and I know that we have at least doubled our sales year on year as a result of the trial.

"I have to say that customer feedback did suggest that people thought it was an odd time of year to have a rosé promotion. But despite this the promotion worked hugely well - because even if they didn't want a glass of rosé their attention was drawn to the product in a way that it hadn't been before. And a lot of people said they couldn't wait to try the wine over ice come the summer.

"We deliberately built up some reserves of ice, not really expecting to use them, but on really busy days we did have to delve into them as a result of the promotion. It has proved so successful for us that we are still using all of the promotional materials.

"I think consumers just want their drinks that one to two degrees cooler than usual - plus a lot of women are looking for longer, cooler drinks and using ices helps achieve this, in the same way it does for Bulmers and Magners."