Wine producer Julian Faulkner discusses the secrets behind a successful wine…
A blending session with Julian’s team followed by the smelling of the results.
Robin Goldstein conducted an experiment with a group of friends to see if they could tell the difference between paté and dog food; he pubilshed the findings in the Journal of Wine Economics. That and many other experiments in cognitive science have demonstrated that our perception of smell is conditioned by what we expect to smell. Our expectations are driven by our other senses: what we see (colour, label); what we hear (what ‘experts’ tell us we should find) and what we feel (a heavy bottle implies a more concentrated, expensive wine). Considering that consumers rarely get the opportunity to smell a wine before they purchase it, wine marketers need to send the right ’smell’ signals through our other senses.
So what is success for a wine producer? It depends, but I would say it must include a measure of financial profit and a measure of how close the producer comes to achieving the taste profile that he/she sought to achieve. The two don’t necessarily go hand in hand. How about for the consumer? Consumers might like to think they are getting a good deal, while social recognition might also influence their choice. However, the level of social recognition a bottle can deliver is related to its marketing budget, which works against the idea ofvalue for money if value = tasting pleasure. But if value = social recognition then the smell is irrelevant, it is simply the smell of money that matters.
For me, success tastes sweetest when I achieve maximum gain with minimal effort. So here is what I think could be a short cut to success for a wine producer like myself. Let’s assume success = customer satisfaction + financial reward for the producer. Over the last twelve years of making and selling my wines, I have made two observations on which this idea is based. First, a fair number of consumers like wines that for a professional’s palate are flawed. Secondly, skillful blending can turn inferior or flawed wines into something quite commercial. So if you went out and bought a whole bunch of flawed wines that producers were willing to sell at rock bottom prices and blended them skillfully and identified customers that found them pretty damn good to whom you would charge a fortune – to me that’s the sweet smell of success.
Actually, I was going to stop there but it just occurred to me that there is something else that makes success even sweeter: when everyone else tells you it is impossible and you prove them all wrong. In this case, scientists will tell you that it is impossible to identify such perfectly matching inferior wines that cancel out their respective flaws and somehow mutually blossom. You would need to turn the blending process into a science, something you could calculate… impossible! Sounds like a sweet challenge to me.
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