Drinks Insider – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Why are there so many anti-alcohol stories appearing in the media? One of the harshest critics of the anti-alcohol movement is Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the free market think tank Institute of Economic Affairs in the UK. In this wide-ranging discussion, we delve into the anti-alcohol movement, exploring its implications on personal freedoms and public health.

Topics covered include:

1. The history of the modern anti-alcohol movement and how it rose from the ashes of Prohibition;
2. The system of grants that sustains it;
3. The Total Consumption Model of alcohol, which suggests that the only way to help heavy drinkers is to get everybody to stop drinking;
4. The “commercial determinants of health” and why governments like the idea; and
5. Why alcohol policies often fail. 

Relevant documents:

• The World Health Organization and their Commercial Determinants of Health document.
• The work of Professor Tim Stockwell, whose meta-analyses that dispute the existence of the J-curve have received huge media attention. You’ll find Chris Snowdon’s criticisms here.
• The doomed MACH (Moderate Alcohol and Cardiovascular Health) trial.  

While many entrepreneurs are backing away slowly from both the wine industry and China, Don St Pierre Jr is rushing back in — because he sees plenty of opportunity.

In 1996, two Don St Pierres — senior and junior — changed the world of wine forever when they founded ASC Fine Wines in Shanghai.

Don St. Pierre Snr saw an opportunity in wine: as he later wrote about China’s 1.2 billion population, “all of these folks had to drink and eat something.”

Before long, the St Pierres were distributing Beringer and Bollinger, among other fine wines. They pretty much singlehandedly established China’s fine wine market.

Don St Pierre Jr. retired from the business in 2015, and shortly after became CEO and co-owner of California’s Vinfolio. Don St Pierre Sr died in 2023.

Recently Don St Pierre Jr founded AdaptEdge, an investment and advisory company. One of its first investments was in Vino Joy News, the media company founded by Natalie Wang.

And on St Pierre emains bullish on China, even though wine consumption there peaked in 2017. In this podcast, he explains why he believes so strongly in the country, and why he remains so optimistic about the wine industry in general.

In this wide-ranging conversation he reveals:

1. Why he loves family-run companies and how he evaluates them
2. How digital innovation can resolve some of the distribution bottleneck problems
3. Why producers and businesses elsewhere should be taking inspiration from China
4. How to research the Chinese market
5. Insights from the Harvard Innovation Lab

As always, the takeaways will be in the newsletter, which you can sign up for at drinksinsider.com

Rowena Curlewis is the woman behind some of the most iconic designs in the drinks space — not only has she worked on brands like Penfolds and 19 Crimes, but she recently created the labels for Dolly Wines, the first wines released by legend Dolly Parton.

Rowena is, with Margaret Nolan, the co-founder of Denomination Design, a brand design agency headquartered in Sydney, with offices in San Francisco and London.

In this conversation, she covers everything from current trends, to collaborations with fashion designers, to how to make a bottle stand out:

1. Connect through storytelling

Storytelling takes consumers down a path where they will fall in love with your brand. Authenticity is an important quality signal.

2. The name is everything

How will the product look on a wine list? When it’s written up on a chalkboard? Does the name jump out? Is it easy to pronounce? All these things will prompt the customer to buy it.

3. If you can get the consumer to pick up the bottle...

...it’s now much more likely that they will buy the product. If they like it, they’re more likely to buy it again, because once they’ve handled it, they’ve built a sensory memory around it that will give them a feeling of trust.

4. Design differently for the dark

If your product is going to be served in a dark bar at night, you need to consider how the bartender or sommelier will find it. Spirits brands are very good at creating distinctive shapes, so that people can tell what the bottle is, just by touch.

5. Don’t forget the capsule

The capsule does a lot more work than people realise, particularly if the bottle is going to sit in an ice bucket, or it’s going to poke from a rack. The capsule may be the only thing that customers get to see, so use that space effectively.

For the full takeaways from this episode, sign up to the Drinks Insider newsletter.

How do you break into a category that’s completely dominated by one major, very cashed-up player?

If you’re Tyson Branz Destileria Barako Corp, you test the local market and build up a fan base who spread the word wherever they go, helping to do the marketing for you.

In this episode, Tyson explains how he and his team developed Ube Cream Liqueur, and how they turned it into an export dynamo by turning locals into true fans. He covers:

1. Why entering competitions is a good strategy

The power of a medal can open doors and he explains how and why.

2. Trade fairs versus the direct approach

There’s a time to run a booth at a trade fair, and a time to get out and meet people. Tyson explains how he decided on his trade strategy.

3. Know the occasion for your brand

Destileria Barako is in the Philippines, where people consume alcohol in a very particular way. By knowing how the drink would be consumed, the team turned Ube into the must-have party drink.

4. Identify your export market

Sometimes it’s not the country you need to target, but the ex-pat community within that country. Here’s how and why to do it — and how to respect your target audience.

5. Market data vs gut instinct

When to pull the trigger and launch a new product.

What’s better than marketing your brand yourself? Getting other people to talk about your brand. The more (positive) attention you get, the easier it is to get people to try your product, and to convince distributors, retailers and the off-trade to stock it.

The man who knows more about this than just about anybody else in the US is Gino Colangeo, founder of Colangelo & Partners, which has a huge team dedicated to promoting wine and spirits and offices in New York, San Francisco and Miami.

He’s also a great storytelling and in this lively episode, Gino gives plenty of useful insights into the do’s and don’ts of spreading your message through both traditional media and social media channels:

1. Prepare yourself before you dive in

What do you need in place before you start a PR campaign? How much money? What time period do you need to plan for?

2. When to target trade media vs when to target consumer

There’s the right time to target sales channels through the trade media, and a better time to engage with consumers through mainstream press and social media. Gino offers tips on working out which channel to use and when.

3. You need targeted pitches

If your PR agency is sending out mass press releases, they may be wasting your time and money. What usually works better is the personalised pitch — but how do you get in front of those powerful gatekeepers?

4. Are you in the right place?

Everybody wants national distribution, but working state by state might be a better strategy. But in this case, how do you know which states to tackle first?

5. You need social media

Brands that don’t have a social media presence lack credibility. Gino explains why.

All this and more in this very insightful and fast-paced episode.

Neha Kumar knows a lot about money and finance. As well as a background in banking, and plenty of corporate experience, she also lectures at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and collaborates with the Women’s Abundance Collective, teaching high-net-worth women the ins and outs of investing and deal-making. 

And, at a time when wine sales are wobbling, she’s raised $14 million to invest in her company, Full Glass Wine, which is on a mission to build the next wave of direct-to-consumer brands in the space. Acquisitions include Winc, Bright Cellars and Wine Insiders.

In this episode, she explains why she’s so optimistic about the future of wine DTC and:

1. The value of data

How using data effectively can help refine operations and present the correct wine to the right market.

2. Why you need to move faster

The industry works on razor-thin margins, which means wine companies have to be swift and responsive, and test, grow or discard ideas faster than is other industries.

3. How to present choices to consumers in a meaningful way

Too much choice can paralyze consumers, but not enough will feel flexible and rigid. Neha explains how to create the happy medium.

4. The role of convenience

Pack size is everything in this game, and it’s worth reconsidering the traditional 3-, 6- and 12-bottle format.

5. The right model for multiple businesses

How do you build brands that will appeal to different demographics, without cannibalising any of them? There are simple models for that!

The U.S. beverage market is the most lucrative in the world — if your product is a hit, your money worries will (mostly) be over. But the post-pandemic market is undergoing a structural shift, with beverage alcohol declining and consumers wanting new flavors on a regular basis.

In this episode, Kaleigh Theirault of NielsenIQ tracks the changes, from the rise of canned cocktails to the emergence of new categories:

1. Why and how consumers are moving to the off-premise

At-home consumption of wine, beer, spirits and other drinks is rising. Is this just because people are still overstocked from the pandemic? Or is there something deeper going on?

2. Consumers are divided

The economy is great — for some people. Those people are out enjoying themselves, lining the bar and filling restaurant seats. Another group feels like they’re falling behind. The drinks preferences of both groups are diverging.

3. More choices, more fragmentation

Back in the pre-pandemic days, consumers would think of themselves primarily as wine drinkers, beer drinkers, or as belonging to some other category. But as choices have widened, the mental barriers have fallen, and consumers are now ready to try everything — with consequences for producers.

4. Things are speeding up

To capture consumers, producers have to work harder and faster. New flavors, new products and new offerings of all kinds. As the product cycle shortens, how can producers keep up?

5. Wine consumption is falling

While older consumers still reach for their Cabernet and Chardonnay, younger consumers prefer cocktails. Is this just a short-term trend — or is it structural?

All this and more in one fact-packed episode.

Entrepreneur and co-founder Marian Leitner-Waldman has single handedly overcome all the problems facing the wine industry. Archer Roose has a thriving audience of young consumers, who can’t get enough of high-quality wine in cans and bagnums, which appear in more than 6,000 outlets.

The reason that sales are up 35% year-on-year? The brand is built on a combination of high-quality wine, total transparency, and plenty of data.

In this fascinating episode, Marian talks about:

1. How wine-loving investors failed to see the market opportunity sitting right in front of them.
2. How Archer Roose launched without institutional funding.
3. How and why she partners with celebrity Elizabeth Banks, even though she says that celebrity brands are dead.
4. What beer distributors know about getting cans into hands, that wine distributors need to know.
5. What the wine industry is getting wrong about young people.
6. How Archer Roose opened up completely new markets, from cinemas to stadiums.
7. The issues surrounding cans and how Archer Roose solved them.

Not only is Marian a fount of useful knowledge and advice, she’s also a great speaker. Tune in to learn more — and all the takeaways can be found in the Drinks Insider newsletter. Sign up for it here.

Why do winemakers add chemicals to wine? Are these additives dangerous? How do we know? And why do winemakers take the risk?

The person who knows more about this topic than almost anybody alive is pharmacologist and toxicologist Creina Stockley, who has been not just in research, but in the regulatory process. In this episode, she delves into the use of additives and processing aids in winemaking, and explains how they’re developed, why winemakers use them, and what it takes to get them through the regulatory process. 

Health policy

Creina has also had a front seat to worldwide discussions about wine and health, from the uprush of research in the 1990s, to the current situation. She discusses the politics of research and funding, and how we know what we do about the impact of wine and other alcohol on human health.

The conversation covers:

1. What additives and processing aids are, and why they are used.
2. How additives and processing aids get regulatory approval.
3. The impact on human health.
4. Alcohol consumption guidelines
5. Role of epidemiological studies
6. Cultural differences in alcohol consumption
7. How the focus of research shifted

Increased sales of more than 40%. High customer loyalty. And the ability to spot a customer who’s about to unsubscribe.

As Ben Gibson explains, there is still plenty of growth to be found in direct-to-consumer sales. He’s the founder of WineHub, the wine and spirits plug- in for Shopify, which is enabling exponential growth in wine sales.

Ben explains how and why he created WineHub, and explains how wineries can use the tool to increase their average order value and maintain customer relationships. Ben also discusses the importance of having a loyalty programme and how it can help retain customers. He shares insights on the changing demographics of wine consumers and the opportunities for growth in the wine industry.