FANCY A WINE, LADIES?

News

Mark Nolan / 2012-08-16 18:05:09

Women - Drink more wine!

There is hardly a sector of industry or commerce that is still maintaining the levels of sales that the recent, more fruitful times brought, but diversity and growth are the only ways to survive it would seem, at least that is what the wine industry are currently thinking.

Sales in wine from Spain have been dropping for the last 25 years, according to the director general of the Observatorio Español del Mercado del Vino (OeMv), Rafael del Rey, who is convinced that it will take another generation for the market to recover fully.

Currently, wine consumption in the third biggest wine producing country in the world, Spain, stands at 22 litres per capita, whereas it was at 47 litres in 1987. How does the industry see this gap being plugged once again? Simply be encouraging women to drink more. According to Del Rey, “women will emphasize the wine-related habits of moderate consumption”.

While acknowledging that recovering consumption will not be easy, the industry is optimistic, although it will take time, the sector is starting to use new tools to help them, "understand" the market.

Thanks to several recent studies, including one entitled, "Women and Wine", the sector is starting to learn more about their customers or potential buyers, rather than just serving them the wine they assume the market wants.

Del Rey insists that there is a great opportunity for women as a target audience, because more than 19 million are over 18 years of age and currently do not drink wine or consume very little.

But the most interesting is his attitude and his approach to the world of wine is different to that of men, as it is bolder and more open to innovation, including such notions as women being more prepared to “experiment”, as well as accepting such revolutions as screw top bottles, more readily than men do, as well as being more appreciative to artistic or flashy labels.

Del Ret also believes that women play a new role in society, thanks to their economic independence gained in recent years, and are now they key person responsible for the purchase of wine at home.

A further study, based on six types of wine drinkers, the curious, traditional, light use, enthusiastic, young and indifferent, has revealed that, "not all women think or act like", at the time of purchase of their wine, but the curious and the traditional represent almost half of the total.

Their way of approaching the world of wine is not the same, because they are more likely to secumb to hype and marketing influences, rather that the traditional purchase method of tradition, historical knowledge and price.

According to the Organización Internacional de la Viña y el Vino (OIV), in France or Italy, the two other major world producers of wine consumption in 2008, according to the latest data produced, wine consumption is still between 40 and 50 litres per capita

Therefore, for the industry to recover in Spain, the consumption figures must be improved in the medium and long term, and the woman will have a key role.