GORDON DUFF: MARKETING GERMAN WINES

Marketing the Riesling Revival

By Gordon Duff

After decades of dismal sales In the US, the renewed interest In the Riesling varietal is creating marketing
opportunities for adherents to German wines that had long since disappeared under a sea of
Liebfraumilch and “Piesporter” plonk wines.   North Americans, in general,  have known little about the
Riesling.  The traditional elegant German wines that graced our finest restaurants and hotels a century
ago began disappearing during the 70s and 80s as quality suffered and cheaper German varieties like the
Muller Thurgau (Rivaner) with its fast ripening, flooded the market.
The last decade of excellent German vintages and some excellent Alsatian and Austrian Rieslings has
fueled renewed interest In Rieslings In North America.  Oddly, the renewed interest is not in the traditional
German Rieslings that have long been some of the most elegant and drinkable wines on Earth, but In dry
or “Trocken” Rieslings.  Herein lays the quandary as to direction in Riesling sales.  

The dry Rieslings hit prominence, initially, in Germany as a hedge against a flood of Chardonnays that
filled the “dry white with fish or fowl” section of wine lists at nearly every restaurant.  House wines in
German restaurants had always been Rieslings but the variety had taken a back seat to imports or the
limited domestic production, mainly from the Pfalz, of white French varietals.  German “plonk” wines had
long been an alternative to beer In the UK and the somewhat better “flatland” Rieslings had their own life In
the German trade.  However, the top estates and cooperatives with their incredible “terroir” had been left
out of this market.  This was to change.

Similarly, the North American market had known nothing of dry German Rieslings of quality.  The
restaurant trade in America had long been totally bereft of any German product, with a few loyal
exceptions.  With the limited recognition given quality German wines going to dessert wines, the traditional
American wine drinker who preferred both dryness and higher alcohol content would never touch a
German wine.  

At the same time, there was and always would be a “pop wine” market In North America, albeit an
increasingly sophisticated one.  America had a long relationship with sweet wines.  At one point,
inexpensive reinforced ports and muscatels or traditional sacramental wines made up much of America’s
wine consumption.  This was to change during the 70s with the Boonesfarm and Annie Greensprings
revolution of low alcohol fruit wines that were to sell by the boxcar.  
A secondary quality level of sweeter and lightly carbonated “Rhine” or “Chablis” wines were soon joined by
Sangrias and Lambruscos to supply this huge but culturally invisible market for “everyday” wines.  Often produced
of far better quality than anyone was aware, these secondary “pop wines” migrated into other products as tastes
changed.  

Wine “snobs” like to call these consumers the “uninitiated”.  The uninitiated, of course, is anyone unable to doff a
6 ounce or larger glass of “overweight” Bordeaux, at times from the North African region of Bordeaux, mind you, in
a single gulp.  The equivocation of “dry” and “red” with culture and “taste” pushed millions into a limited
appreciation of wines they were “supposed” to like.   Consumers in this valuable sector then began purchasing
endless millions of litres of white Zinfandels and peach or strawberry flavored wine “drinks” or “coolers”.  These
products well served the casual drinker whose palate shunned wines capable of removing wallpaper.  

Herein, again, lies the rub.  With the decline of the German wine market, there begins the flooding of the North
American scene with endless German “monstrosities” that, even at their worst, have more character than a
bargain white Zinfandel.  Combining this factor with the introduction of the first dry quality estate wines from
Germany, both creates a growing market for German wines and simultaneously strangles the life out of it.  It is
impossible to migrate from “Piesporter” to a quality estate Halbtrocken Kabinett.  These wines  are seldom In the
same retailer in the first place.  Secondly, those introduced to dry Rieslings, often the new Alsatians, are almost
never introduced to the traditional German estate wines that are still the finest expression of the endless
possibilities of the variety.

Today’s Germany still sees America as a combination of “Baywatch” and “the Untouchables”.  When we aren’t
ducking “drive-by shootings”, we are glued to the television or waiting In line at McDonalds.  Few Germans realize
the American appreciation for wines or cuisine.  They can’t be faulted for this.  The message comes from
American sources as much as domestic propaganda.  There is a real thrill In seeing Germans walk into their first
American gourmet supermarket with its even more amazing public rest rooms and water coolers.  

The chronic miscommunication between Europe and North America has kept Rieslings well behind their deserved
position In the market.  Few of the German “Classic” dry Rieslings, many In the Bordeaux bottle, have ever
reached a North American shelf although they are wines a better informed market would have craved.  Even fewer
in the North American beverage industry have tasted more than an occasional quality “Trocken” or “Halbtrocken”
estate wine.  When they do, they fall In love.
In some ways, the nature of the Riesling itself, causes a “muddied” view of marketing German
Rieslings.  Typically, price has been a problem.  As most Rieslings are late ripening, requiring
selective staged harvesting, quality comes with a high price.  For years, the market has answered this
with QmP (Qualitatswein mit Prädikat) wines that look like Estate wines but are actually “shipper”
products from grapes of questionable origin but of “adequate” ripeness.  On the other hand, a few
exceptional quality producers have kept prices for Estate wines very high while hundreds of
exceptional producers with much lower prices are frozen out of the market.

In a perfect world, the broadening market for Rieslings brought on by the Riesling Revival should
have created a differentiated market for a wide variety of Riesling wines from an ever increasing
number of producers.  This is slow in happening and has constrained what should be an extremely
profitable new market sector. New dryer Rieslings should be taking over the restaurant trade while
hundreds of new estates could be “rated” by our “wine gurus” and move onto the shelves each
month.  To some extent, this is happening but well behind market forces.  Even the VDP, Germany’s
elitist producer association, and the German Wine Institute has had very limited success although
their efforts have been impressive in many ways.

Blaming the Germans, Austrians or Alsatian Riesling producers for not being discovered is wrong.  
The real problem lies with the nature of the North American beverage marketplace.  Taking us back In
time to the 1970s, the infant wine industry was driven, primarily, by Gallo.  Gallo, with its “Proctor and
Gamble” approach to wine marketing paved the way for today’s multi-billion dollar wine industry.  The
amazing coexistence of beverage giants and exotic “boutique” producers in the North American
market has given our retail shelves offerings not seen in any other product category.  The constant
flow of quality information on new wines, from sources like Robert Parker, has helped a varied
industry survive economic tendencies toward monopoly and centralization.

In an industry dominated by “branded” products, invariably machine harvested and often produced by
corporate monoliths whose core business is often soft drinks, spirits or breweries, impacting the
marketplace, even In the midst of an “upheaval” of interest can still be nearly impossible.  If the
marketplace demands a “branded” product with uniform packaging and the incumbent advertising
support or “free goods” it will get exactly that, even, or especially, at the cost of quality.  The same
individuals who turned out the Liebfraumilch will now market “branded varietal Riesling”, upgrading the
package and doubling the price with little real increase In quality.  Even today, the old ideas are
attempting to repackage “tired” products from bulk producers as “trendy” new Rieslings.
This is what the “beverage” half of our market demands and what it will supply our distribution channels with.  At
the same time, the successes of the California Estates that combined quality with marketing genius will not be
seen.  The business school grads and winery owning investment bankers whose love of quality has helped put
California wines at the top of every list in the world do not exist in Europe.  New quality Rieslings may have to
sneak past “Homeland Security” in the dark of night before reaching the shelves.

For part of the world, Riesling has been a religion for centuries.  For most others, it has been an unasked
question.  Subtlety and nuance is the nature of quality wine.  Desirable subtlety and nuance brought to a wine
through soil and climate is what makes wine appreciation a combination of geography, chemistry and voodoo.  
The Riesling is, by far, the grape most suited for expressing subtlety and nuance.  It is not only a blank slate, but
because of its exceptionally long ripening nature, is more a product of its “terrior” than any other variety.

Riesling carries the history of its soil and climate including every mineral and trace element its root system
touches.  Long ripening combined with adequate rainfall and the right exposure can imbue Riesling wines with a
definitive character.  To the chemist, wine is water, sugar, alcohol and the proteins and minerals that make up
“dry extract”.  To achieve the optimum blend of these characteristics, maximizing the “dry extract” which expresses
the character of the wine, low yields are necessary, making quality Riesling production costly.

Blended shipper wines are seldom from the necessary mature vines and low yields that are necessary to reflect
the endless expressions possible through the Riesling.  Tractors are relatively useless on the slate covered
hillsides necessary to create “aromatic” Rieslings with “minerality” or “petroleum” overtones that are expected in
traditional Rieslings or the newer dry wines.  According to the  VDP, soils from the Erste Lage or Grand Cru
vineyards are the only ones capable of producing quality dry Rieslings because of the demand for both high must
weight (sugar content) and “dry extract” necessary in a properly complex dry wine.

Riesling ages like no other white wine.  Here, the contest between the traditionally sweeter Rieslings and the new
dry wines comes into play.  Though the new “Trocken” Rieslings age wonderfully for up to ten years, the
traditional wines such as Auslese or Spatlese can age for decades while the exotics like TrockenBeerenAuslese

(a dessert wine made from dried fruit, not unlike some Roman wines) can age indefinitely  

Marketing internationally has and always will be a challenge for German Rieslings.  Along with the
popularly priced new “Classic” designation is more costly “Selection” designation.  Both are, of course, dry
wines, referred to by the Germans as “harmoniously dry”.  “Selection” qualification carries stringent
requirements as to origin and yield restrictions.  Though intended to simplify the purchase of dry German
wines In replacement of the Mosel system of Halbtrocken and Trocken, the new designations have yet to
gain acceptance In North America.  

The challenge In North America has always been more than consumer acceptance.  Without shelf space at
retailers or a featured position on a wine list, there will be no sales.  Quality product, properly priced and
beautifully packaged is sitting In cellars around the world while “plonk” and even swill is holding down eye-
level shelf space, hourly subjected to the gaze of trendy and even informed consumers.  Wine as a hobby
or wine as a religion has to survive In a world where wine is a business.  Restaurants can, and do, promote
wines.  Rieslings are making tremendous inroads there and will continue to do so.  

The question for retail, of course, is what and how much German wine to carry and promote.  Many
importers who promote quality Estate wines also carry “shipper” wines.  Bills must be paid and “pricepoints”
must be met.  Migrating a “Piesporter ”or “Liebfraumilch” customer into traditional Estate German wines or
the new dry Rieslings is certainly desirable.  However, trading them up to “shipper” QmP wines that offer
sweetness without the qualities of real premium wines is probably a disservice.  Shipper wines have a
place In both German agriculture and wine marketing, but not at the sacrifice of high quality but low priced
Estate or Cooperative wines.

Retail at the mass merchandiser level is expressed in either shelf set or bin or palate/case stack
marketing.  The concept of the “shelf set” comes from the years when Gallo and Italian Swiss Colony
dominated the bulk of California wine sales with tradeups (sometimes more packaging than quality) starting
with Almaden, Paul Masson, Inglenook and others.  Top shelf went to Krug, Wente, Berrenger, or Louis
Martini while the imports had a minimal showing from a few established houses.  German wines were Black
Tower, Blue Nun, Zeller SchartzKatz and others.
To the wine retailer of the recent past, the concept of a “German wine section” was as strange then as it is now.  
Until relatively recently, the term “Riesling” was unheard of.  Labels were informative for anyone with an education
in German Wine Law and the patience of a saint.  Dry or partially dry Rieslings simply didn’t exist and, if they did,
Americans seldom bought dry white wines anyway for anything but cooking.  There is no tradition of selling a
selection of German wines nor is there a real tradition in marketing the Riesling varietal In its varied forms.  All the
consumer saw was the “hock” bottle, green for Mosel and brown for Rhine.  Mosel meant acidity and Rhine meant
“mellow”.  Beyond that, of course, traditionalists always knew the top producers and kept their wines available for
the “die hards” who failed to follow trends for the sake of trendiness.

For certain, retailers and importers need to understand Riesling.  To do that may mean a visit to Bernkastel, a
small town on the Middle Mosel, the center of the Riesling world.  In Bernkastel and in the surrounding
communities of the Middle Mosel, traditional producers, many well known around the world, work side by side with  
unknown winemakers who sometimes duplicate or surpass their efforts.  This is the nature of progress and what
makes finding new wines an adventure not unlike archeology.  

With supermarket shelves featuring everything from “Two Buck Chuck” to hundred dollar Estate wines, the old
and new offerings from Germany, with their regional styles along with fantastically priced treasures from
previously unheard of producers, have certainly earned a place of genuine visibility.  On the basis of interest In
Riesling alone, sales should be supported for a combination of Germany’s new wines with their consumer friendly
packaging and aggressive pricing.

Germany’s middle priced high quality Estates have certainly earned themselves a place along and above the
shipper wines that clog the marketplace.  Everything from word of mouth to marketing projections tells us that the
opportunity is there.  Tasting the wines will make it only clearer.  Once a client tries a dry Riesling, a fruity Kabinett
or Spatlese will open new doors that exist through no other varietal.

The restaurant trade is a natural for the dry Riesling.  Clearly superior to other white wines In its ability to
accompany a variety of foods, the quality Riesling is sure to be one of the most pleasing recommendations a
server can make.  The fun and adventure begins for the restaurateur who puts a Kabinett or Spatlese, traditional
or Halbtrocken (half dry) with his dinner wines.  These fruity German wines exceed In drinkablity and acceptance
their drier cousins to an increasing number of Americans who have never sampled wines seldom imported into
North America.

The dessert wine is a long forgotten part of North American dining.  An Auslese (or its one, two or three Gold
Capsule upgrades!), BeerenAuslese, Eiswein or TrockenBeerenAuslese are experiences few diners have had
but, once hooked, will wish repeated ad infinitum.  Whether it is a perfect dry white for an elegant meal or a
more complex white for a Chablis drinker who would like something fruitier and more complex, Rieslings can
become a strong backbone accompaniment for a variety of cuisines and price ranges.  Offering a selection of
styles of Riesling for a wide variety of dining accompaniments can and will impact restaurant wine sales
significantly.

For each market segment, a marketing plan is required, even demanded by the Riesling Revival.  The
marketplace is being driven, in an oddly righteous sense, by product quality and enjoyability rather than rumor
or “hype”.  For the retailer, the best Rieslings “you can get” purchased in today’s “buyer’s market”, soon to end,
are a start.  Regions are important.  Typically, sales from the Mosel have dominated the market as bottlers and
shippers share Bernkastel addresses with the finest Estates.  Rheingau and Rheinhessen have great
producers while Pfalz has wines from its “Tuscan” climate that can add products and sales that no other
German Region can.

Sophisticated wine enthusiasts should have traditional Estate Rieslings at hand along with a selection of new
dry Rieslings, either Classic, Selection or Trocken, Halbtrocken Estate wines at Kabinett, Spatlese or Auslese
level.  Wines with clear evidence of “Terroir” can and should be priced to stimulate experimentation, especially
considering the subsidized pricing available from top producers wishing to partner in the North American market.

For the importer, German wines are an opportunity to buy outstanding wines they can sell where value is a very
easy sell.  Imagine being able to represent wine made by a family on the same land for 300 years or more,
sometimes many more; whose wines are world class yet priced to sell and now, finally in significant consumer
demand.  Handpicking grapes of perfect ripeness off steep slate hillsides is difficult and rewarding work.  
Representing this quality and tradition to your customers and seeing their enjoyment is and should be
rewarding work.