Castel feeds aperitif thirst

Europe’s largest wine producer, Castel, has unveiled a raft of new products designed to tap into the opportunities it sees in the sparkling wine and wider aperitif categories.

Giola, one of the latest additions to Castel’s portfolio

“We think locally about the product,” explained Alain Castel, general manager of the family-owned business. “We work with Wine Intelligence on consumer portraits to adjust our products and route to market. Who drinks? Where do they drink? How old are they? Did they come from soft drinks or beer? We adjust our portfolio for each retailer.”

Last year the group generated a turnover of €1.1 billion, split between its Châteaux & Domaines division of 22 estates, which include a 50% stake in Bordeaux’s Château Beychevelle, and a negociant business. Although France is by far the company’s largest market, 25% of its sales currently derive from exports.

Among the major pieces of new product development currently in the pipeline is a Crémant de Bordeaux. Alongside the opportunity identified for sparkling wine, including France’s Crémant styles, Castel highlights the additional importance of such a move from his own firm’s perspective.

“At Castel we would like to be recognised by consumers as a specialist in still wine and sparkling wine,” he remarked. “Secondly, Castel comes from Bordeaux so it is normal that the Castel family has a Crémant de Bordeaux.”

This heightened focus on sparkling wine ties into a wider area of opportunity identified by Castel in the form of the aperitif market. “The wine market is changing a lot,” observed Castel. “Consumers are changing their habits. They still drink wine with a meal, but more and more the way of drinking now is the aperitif.”

Among the recent Castel launches designed to tap into this trend is “iSK”, a 9% abv wine available in either white or rosé, which is packaged in a frosted bottle bearing a label that turns blue when the product is chilled to its ideal temperature.

In a similar vein, the company also used this month’s Vinexpo to introduce its “L’Oceade” brand. Using the IGP Atlantique classification, the white and rosé are aimed very much at those in search of a “dry and fruity” style, and is described as “perfect as an aperitif”.

The fact that both these new styles include a rosé is no coincidence. While the category is enjoying strong growth in markets such as the UK, Castel’s communication officer France Delmond highlighted a similar boom in France.

“The growth of rosé in France is just incredible,” she remarked. “Ten years ago rosé was about 10% of the market and white was 15%; now rosé is 25% of the market.”

Approaching the sparkling category from a rather different tack to its upcoming Crémant de Bordeaux, Castel’s third major range addition this year is “Giola Spritz”, an Italian-inspired wine range that features flavoured options such as Limoncello and cherry.

These new products follow in the wake of “Very Pamp’” a grapefruit-flavoured rosé style launched four years ago, which is now selling 7 million bottles annually. According to Delmond, “We didn’t expect it to do that well, but it sold one million bottles in the first six months.”