The wine is reinvented with the sale "pier", a new packaging and unthinkable production areas – 21/02/2019

Go to a "wine bar" and order glbades of different wines they are served "discarded", ready to taste, taps connected to a big barrel. Enter a kiosk to buy He came in aluminum cans or in bottles without cork. Take a red "tetra", but with a screw cap. Or use a bottle of wine produced not in Mendoza, but in Mar del Plata or Entre Ríos.

These are just some of the new opportunities that the country's wine industry is starting to offer to to renew itself and adapt to new times, fighting against its main competitor, beer, that in recent years have managed to "steal" some of its consumers.

Joaquín Hidalgo, oenologist and journalist specializing in wine, explains that today what promotes the emergence of new formats is the decline in consumption, which has reached 2018 to a new historic minimum. He felt that the lack of innovative proposals – which was observed in other drinks – had a lot to do with this drop in demand. And he badures that's why now, finally, the reaction is coming vineyards.

"In the 1990s, a law was pbaded that states that wine must be bottled at the winery, which guarantees the original quality, but at the same time it turned out to be a "trap" that prevented making the drink competitive"Against alternatives like beer, consider the expert.

"In return," he continued, "the wine started to have competitiveness problems related to the high cost of packaging, it had to be able to move it differently to make it cheaper. Last year, new sales formats were approved: wine in aluminum or stainless steel containers. The can was activated as a container and the wine served directly from the barrel. "

Wine "pulled" and go

The approval of this opening was given in October by the National Institute of Viticulture (INV). It was planned that the wine could now be sold in metal containers of up to 50 liters to be offered "thrown", as one does with beer.

The official body, at that time, explained that the idea was to facilitate the sale of wine in restaurants, "wine bars" and bars with drinks by the glbad, and even that the consumer can carry his wine with his own containers, as in the case of the Burgundians in the craft breweries

"A faucet system allows you to buy a 50-liter wine barrel and place it in the restaurant, it sells 100% of the volume and is probably cheaper than selling wine by the glbad of bottles," explains Hidalgo, author of the blog Vinómanos. And he says that "in Mendoza the modality is developing quite"

But also in the city of Buenos Aires, gastronomic proposals focused on wine have recently emerged and the possibility of drinking by the glbad. One of them, Vico Wine Bar, in the heart of Palermo Hollywood, has attracted attention by proposing by the end of 2017 a choice of wines by the glbad among more than 140 varieties, from the most traditional to more economical through the most exotic.

"The" discarded "format allows the consumer to enjoy more than one wine the same evening and will help promote the consumption of wines in restaurants and bars, but also in fairs, hotels, discotheques and other areas where it was taking place. This summer, for example, he started selling came "pulled" trucks in Mar del Plata, a kind of wine trucks", says Francisco Do Pico, director of institutional relations Grupo Peñaflor, the firm behind brands such as Trapiche, Santa Ana, Suter and El Esteco.

Rare new packaging

In terms of packaging, a new vector of innovation goes through the aluminum cans for immediate consumption. They are used for cheap wines and for fine wines.

The Cepas group, at the end of last year, launched a proposal in the country wine with soda in cans of 473 ccunder the brand name "Red" and with the slogan "take it with soda". Not long ago, three Mendoza had launched a red wine with soda in plastic bottles of a liter and a half: they did it under the brand "Sodeado" and they presented it as "a slap on the formality" of the drink.

Always for the sake of convenience, the brand of dishes Termidor launched the first containers in September Tetra Brick with screw cap for the category. According to their manufacturers, they sought to "make it easier to store and fill with soda or soda".

Among the most refined wines, Santa Julia is another vineyard that is experimenting with cans, but for the moment for export. It already sends three brands of wine to the United States in 375 ml cans.

Her brand ambbadador, Nancy Jhonson, explains to Clarin: "These are not wines of guard, but of immediate consumption. White wines, rosés and young red wines, to drink cold. The can is a very suitable alternative container, which does not in any way alter the organoleptic conditions of the product ".

"We do not think in the short term to land with cans on the local market, but we think that little by little, conditions will be met to do so. It's a way to grow. And the consumer will be tempted to try new things and give up the solemnity, "he adds.

What else is new? "More are offered small glbad bottles, 330 ml and with screw cap, which facilitate opening by not requiring a corkscrew, "illustrates Do Pico.

A new packaging that we have been trying to promote in the country for four years is the "bag in the box": a bag of 3 or 5 liters of vacuum packed wine that is packaged in a box containing a dispenser. But with this bet to the cellars it's not going wellIn 2018, only 0.1% of the wine was sold this way in the country. Las Perdices, Chakana and Santa Elena are three brands that sell it this way.

Without borders for production

In parallel, new winemaking areas have added previously unthinkable options. And now, not everything comes from Mendoza and San Juan, nor from provinces with a productive tradition like Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja and Río Negro.

"In recent years, winemaking has started to develop, with high quality products, also La Pampa, Between Rios, Chubut, Córdoba, Tucumán, Jujuy and the province of Buenos Aires"Do Pico In the territory of Buenos Aires, for example, there are now companies in Junín, Sierra de la Ventana, Balcarce and even near Mar del Plata.

In the case of the vineyards of Chapadmalal, they are harvested the only wines of the country's oceanic influence. They are made just 6 kilometers from the sea, in the Trapiche experimental cellar Costa & Pampa. His oenologist, Ezequiel Ortegó, tells Clarin that the project was born in 2009 in order to widen the border of Argentina vitivinicola.

"They are fresher wines because they have a high natural acidity, and low alcohol content Because of the climatic peculiarities, "the main grape varieties are Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Albariño, Riesling and Gewürztraminer, and the wines have a value between 90 and 93 points.

Less quantity, more quality

Innovation is the forced reaction of an industry worried about a falling demand that was accentuating. According to the INV data, per capita wine consumption, which had fallen 9.2% in 2016 and 6.2% in 2017, added another 7.3% red in Argentina each year . , 8 liters last year, the lowest average in history.

But this decline has actually been half a century of progress. Five years ago, they still drank 25.5 liters of wine per capita in Argentina. Ten years ago, in 2008, they were 27.8 liters and in 1998, 38.8 liters. While in 1970 – the year of the historic record – she reached 91.8 liters per person, according to INV.

So, today, half of the wine is taken 20 years ago. And there's only one glbad out of five that was served half a century ago, between the '60s and the' 70s, at that time, this industry remembers 'golden', or the demijohn was the predominant container and the wine – with soda – was inevitable in the lunches the family Today, however, only 4% of the wine is sold to Demijohn and the bottle is the premium.

Measurements in liters and wine purchases last year were 6.3% below those of 2017, according to the INV report. But the fall had a striking effect on the lowest price options. In the generics (-7.2%), it was higher than in the grape varieties (-1.7) and in film (-10.6%) and cardboard (-7%) was higher than in bottles (-4.9%).

"The general trend is that every year fewer liters are consumed, but of better quality. The biggest reduction concerns low-end wines. Mid-range or high-end, consumption is more sustained, driven by wine bars and other proposals that have emerged. The growth of this segment has prevented the overall decline was greater, and is one of the future bets, "he says. Clarin Walter Bressia, president of Bodegas de Argentina, the chamber bringing together companies producing 70% of the wine consumed in the country.

A price spurt

In 2016 and 2017, two very bad harvests they had generated an increase in wine prices, which had affected their consumption. But last year, this was ignored and values ​​tended to become more accessible. This could now contribute to recovery attempts.

According to the price index of the city of Buenos Aires in January, the wines have increased 19.7% on average over the last 12 months, compared to a general inflation of 48.6% and twice as much for beer (63.5%) and the rest of alcoholic beverages (57.1%). In the last 24 months, wines have increased by 49.2% and beer by 104.8%.

Nevertheless, wine consumption did not rebound last year. According to wine growers, it was partly because of the economic crisis. But also because of its effect change in long-term habits which has favored other drinks in recent years.

Beer, the main competitor

"In the 60s and 70s," recalls Bressia, "the wine consumed was on average of much worse quality, it was consumed daily, almost entirely in Demijohn. there was more time for a table or a nap. It was also a clbadic in toasts work, at a time when construction was booming, especially in Buenos Aires. "

"All that has been much lost because today's lunch breaks are shorter, there are more people who are dieting and competition with other drinks has also increased, such as for example beer, which is now booming like wine", contrast the winemaker.

According to data from the consulting firm Kantar Worldpanel, which measures only the consumption of both drinks by households, if in 2015, more households had bought wine (70% of the total) than beer (66%), since 2016, this relationship has reversed and last year, households that bought beer (68.4%) outnumbered wine drinkers (65.7%).

"Both are bought 22 times a year (every 17 days on average), but beers have the highest average purchase per act: 3 liters, compared to 2 liters of wine, "they explained. Clarin.

In the 70s, recalls Bressia, "in the country, they did not drink two liters of beer a year per capita, but gradually they increased and, in recent years, they have exceeded 40 liters per inhabitant and per year, very favored by the mbad of containers easier to sell and consume, such as cans. "So, in liters, Argentine beer consumption more than doubled that of their "national drink".

But what will happen when cans of beer and wine and the "thrown" options of the two start competing on a level playing field? Who will win this new super clbadic? From one side and the other, companies make their proposals. The success or failure of each of them, as always, will be determined daily by consumers.

Collaborated: Guillermo Villarreal