French Fizz

Champagne is leading the French charge in the festive press, while Majestic closes the gap on Waitrose’s dominance

FRENCH WINE always seems to take the lion’s share of press mentions throughout the year. However, it is around this time of year, with the arrival of the festive season, that France really dominates.

At this time of year, people want to drink – and read about – the most famous of all French exports, Champagne.  Sure enough, press mentions of wine in the £15+ bracket have soared – accounting for 17.5% of mentions this month in comparison with a 12.6% 13- month average.

In a year when the French wine industry in general has been given a good kicking by pretty much everyone, it is only right that the remaining bright spot for French viticulture – the Champagne houses – should push the French share of voice.

In fact, French wine was mentioned more last November than the year before, continuing a two year trend of increasing dominance in the Christmas season.  There is also the recent decision by the INAO to allow extra production in the region this year, to compensate for the poor 2003 yield. It will be interesting to see what happens next month – last year French wine overwhelmed all other countries, scoring a hefty 50% in December.

Can it better that figure this year? Although it seems the press are concerning themselves with the more expensive end of the market at present, there seems to be a drop in the number of stories concerning wines in both the £7- 9.99 and £10-15 bracket, both of which are down on last year.

As Christmas is generally seen as a time to splash out, this data seems strange. Indeed, last November, the figures seemed fairly consistent, both easily equalling the 13-month average for these prices.

So why, at a time of year when people tend to be more extravagant, are we more interested in wines at the bottom end of the price range? September’s In the Press commentary pre-empted this drop, questioning whether the wine trade would escape consumers’ increasingly cautious attitude towards spending.

Falling house prices, increasing taxes, and worrying levels of consumer debt have all hit the high street.  The press appear to be hedging their bets: a bit of luxury (Champagne) along with some bargains.

The marketing people call this the "Stelios and Starck" lifestyle: the people who fly EasyJet for their short break but stay in posh hotels.  How the press continue to write in 2005 will verify whether this consumer wariness is here to stay.

After a disappointing October, Majestic is back in favour with the journalists, showing 54% more mentions this month than its 13-month average.  This could be related to the release of the company’s figures for the first half of this financial year, with gross profit growing by a staggering 26.6%.

At the end of October, Majestic also launched its "Best of the Bunch" mailorder scheme, and in November opened three new creeping up the scale each year and it is beginning to threaten Waitrose’s two-year reign as press darling.

So we leave November with several questions hanging over the New Year’s press.  It will be interesting to see whether January’s usual conservativism emphasises the feeling of consumer caution that haunts Christmas this year; whether France can achieve a personal best by beating last December’s figures; and whether Chile will win over the press once again in 2005, as it did so successfully in 2004.