VANITY LABELS

A lot of them do it and, in the past it made sense when customers called in to wineries to buy wine or most of the wine was sold through specialist wholesalers and retailers. The best wine was kept as a 'reserve' range and the very best, in small quantities  was labelled under a name special to the owner - themselves, their wives or husbands, their children or their pets.

When good producers had a strong following and most if not all of the wine company's stocks were sold out in a year an 'ultra premium' label, priced at two, three or four times the normal range was still able to be sold out and was often sought after.

That situation has changed. The change has been brought about over time by many factors including:

• massive increase in worldwide wine production
• the democratisation of global wine
• supermarket selling of wine
• demystification of wine regions, wine styles and wine labels

At the very top, prestige labels will always be in demand not only from well-heeled imbibers and collectors but from investors who want to buy and on-sell at auctions where a pretty penny can still be made on the rarer offerings.

At the middle and bottom though, most wine is sold on promotion, on special or at quit prices.  There is no room for expensive prestige labels. Even the excellent Villa Maria Black Label range is a slow mover. This label was initially created as a 'show pony' where the very best wine was made to garner medals and trophies in wine shows and competitions which was and is a very successful marketing strategy for the company. Initially these wines were made in tiny quantities, sometimes less than a hundred cases so there was never any problem in moving them along. They were sought after and sold quickly. As popularity grew so did the volume and that's when things stalled a bit. The high inputs required to consistently make trophy winning quality wine leads to high costs and sell prices for which there is a very limited market. The previously scarce Black Label wines became available in supermarkets, on on-line sites and on special. Villa Maria created the Gold Selection range of wines to move along volumes of the higher quality wine without compromising the price position of the Black Label range but even that range has been deep-cut discounted so a new range, the Platinum Selection has been introduced to do the job of the Gold Selection range but at a higher price. Now I'm seeing great deals on the Platinum Selection range. The other day I bought a lot at Countdown at basically  more than $8 a bottle off (over 30% saving) on the chardonnay, pinot gris and rose because they were specialled down to $20 a bottle from the previous shelf price of $25 and then subject to the 20% discount for purchases of 6 or more (mixed) bottles bringing the price down to $16. I'm happy and just hope that Villa Maria can sustain this without a drop in wine quality.

Anyway, Villa Maria is a big company and I guess know what they are doing. The ones who don't know what they are doing though are the small producers making OK sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, pinot gris and chardonnay who grow their business in the 'premium' area approximately $ 12 to $20 in NZ and pro-rata internationally.  Sales grow and so does their ego. A 'super-premium' range is usually added and can do reasonably well as long as volumes are kept low. This can then lead to a 'rush of blood to the head' and a 'luxury' label is created - the one that carries the owner's name or partner or pet. These wines, expensively made can be the ones that sit in warehouses and, if sold through the wholesale system to retail, gather dust on shelves. For the canny buyer they can be an excellent buy when the producer, wholesaler or retailer decides to pull the plug and special off at a quit price. A bit of knowledge of its pedigree and storage history is essential though. Personally I'll trust Villa Maria's Platinum Selection or the Black Label when on special at the supermarket.