Port – Cracking The Bar Code

06 August 2004 By db staff writer

d=”standfirst”>Port needs to attack the on-trade to add value to the category. Now that Port ‘n’ lemon has died a death, maybe Tawny by the glass is the answer, says Robyn Lewis

Has the assertion by the Port houses of an imminent category revival, yet again, failed to materialise? Despite a very upbeat and positive feel to the Port brands’ activities and media relations the recent figures from the IVDP (the Port and Douro Wines Institute) do not tell a good story. Exports to the UK have dropped this year with bottled sales, compared to the same period last year, down by 27.1%; standard Ports down 7.3% to 112,869 cases; and premium Port down a staggering 43.3% to 85,147 cases (Jan to May 04). And by value the figures are no better. The total UK market value for Port, according to those IVDP January to May 04 figures, is down 40.8% over the same period last year to just over €9 million. So what is keeping the brand managers and Port shippers so upbeat?

“Well, those figures do not take into account that this year there has been no shipment of a classic Port. In the early months of last year we were shipping the 2000 Vintage, for example, which would explain, in particular, that comparative drop in value,” says Adrian Bridge, managing director of The Fladgate Partnership, whose Ports include Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft. “I fully anticipate that by the end  of this year the figures will  be just as positive as last year’s were.”

Indeed, the more recent UK total market figures from ACNielsen appear to back this up, showing volume up 5% and value up 4% (MAT to end June 04). “The story for Port this year in the GB offtrade, for example, is already encouraging,” says Sarah Woodward, Port brands manager at Mentzendorff, the UK distributor of The Fladgate Partnership’s Ports. “The sector is now the second largest within the fortified category, after overtaking ‘British fortified’, and is worth some £65.2m, up 3.6% by value (ACNielsen MAT to 10/07/04).”

In the on-trade the picture is less positive with ACNielsen stats showing the category down 2% to one million litres by May (MAT to May 04, the most recent ontrade figures available to us). It is, however, being hailed as a very promising area.

Opportunity knocks

“We certainly need as a category to start looking at the on-trade as an opportunity to grow value back into the sector,” says Simon Gotelee of Paragon Vintners, which represents Quinta do Noval in the UK. “Discounting in the off-trade has helped grow volume (according to ACNielsen offtrade volume is up 5% to 7m litres, MAT to May 04) but everyone needs to look seriously at restaurants, bars and other outlets to grow a value business.”

It seems a logical proposition and with Port’s traditional association with fine dining, long lunches and members’ clubs it should be relatively simple to achieve. The problem is, though, the changing face of British dining and the average British diner. These days lunches are shorter, the ontrade far more female oriented and, indeed, the scene is far less stuffy and more casual. Is this an environment in which the Port category can find some relevance?

“Absolutely,” affirms Gotelee. “I think that the image of Port as an old man’s Christmas or afterdinner tipple is totally unfounded now. We have research that shows 48% of Port consumers are, in fact, women – that’s up from 42% just five years ago – and around half consumers are younger than 44. We need to grab that opportunity and really change the perception of Port.” To do this, Gotelee suggests the promotion of different styles outside the traditional Ruby and Vintage categories and working hard to keep the wine at the front of people’s minds. “We provide bespoke point-of-sale material for premises, for example, and encourage staff to recommend a glass of Port to customers. After all the service charge on a £5 glass of Port works out at around 50p or more for waiting staff, that’s incentive in itself.”

Ben Campbell-Johnston of John E Fells and Sons, the UK distributor for The Symington Family Port Companies brands (including Dows, Warres and Grahams) agrees. “It is a product that needs to be hand-sold and the on-trade is a great opportunity to do that, though it is also an area where a lot of education needs to be done as well,” he argues. “We’ve been putting more emphasis on the on-trade over the past few years and have seen that there is some confusion in the category. We conducted an informal survey about five years ago, for example, picking a random crosssection of London outlets and compared the Vintage Port servings. The fluctuations were astounding, with places charging anything between £5 and £30 a glass, and measures varying between 50cl and 175cl. On the basis of that we produced a leaflet explaining the correct way to serve and decant, for example, which we also found staff to be frightened of, even though it need not be a difficult process.” 

Original thinking

Other Port houses have also been working to demystify the category. The Fladgate Partnership, along with Mentzendorff, have helped established a bursary for trade members – this year won by Gaetano Falcone, wine waiter at the Dorchester Hotel – as well as arranging lectures, such as the Life Beyond Vintage masterclass which took place in London this year. 

“The idea is to teach people about Port and then to get them to think outside the box,” explains Alan Montague-Dennis, prestige business director at Mentzendorff. “In London especially people seem to think there is no life beyond Vintage Port, which, of course, simply isn’t true. Single Quintas, for example, are especially good value and that’s exciting. We’ve been working to get them to a younger consumer through by-the-glass promotions at selected restaurants such as Nobu, Shumi and Angela Harnett at The Connaught, to name just a few. You wouldn’t have found that five years ago, so we really are trying to think differently about the category.” 

Dennis also says that Port need not be confined to the top-end restaurants but has a place in the more informal surroundings of brasseries and even the burgeoning gastropub scene.

“There are a number of ways of promoting Port; making it available in smaller measures, matching with food and even pushing it as an aperitif,” he explains. “We did a promotion with a gastropub called The Garrison in Bermondsey, South East London recently, where they were offering our Fonseca Bin 27 with their Drunken Chocolate Cake on the special offers blackboard, and it was very popular. To go into an environment like that and see all those people drinking Port is just great.”

Concentrating on the market outside the traditional Vintage sector has also been a benefit to Ramos Pintos, a smaller Port house that does not do a great deal of Vintage Port. “In previous years we may have concentrated on other markets because of the dominance of Vintage in the UK but now we are finding that our Tawny Port is a great way into the UK market,” explains Mark Bingley MW, director of Fine Wine at Maisons Marques et Domaines, importer of Ramos Pintos Ports. “The UK on-trade in particular has given us the opportunity to introduce our Ports to a different audience by promoting it as a dessert wine, and there are other opportunities as well such  as cigars with Port, cheese and Port, etc. It is a very versatile drink. There is life beyond Vintage and Ruby, where the market used to  be split, and people are just beginning to discover that. For me, the future of the category is Tawny, which in by-the-glass promotions is outselling our Ruby by two glasses to one now.”

The style set

As Bingley points out, the traditional pub market for Ruby Port through the Port and lemon trade has all but disappeared. While this has given the opportunity for the growth of better quality and different styles of Ports between the two poles of Ruby and Vintage, Port as a drink to be enjoyed in bars or pubs without food has vanished. “There used to be a massive trade through Port and lemon as a drink, which is no longer the case, but emphasising that Port can be drunk as an aperitif, as a long drink and as something to enjoy by itself is an opportunity, though I don’t think it will be an easy seachange in perception to bring about,” he says.

That’s not to say that some aren’t trying – and influential people at that. Jonathan Downey, founder of The Match Bar Group, who has created some of London’s most successful style bars such as Milk & Honey, Sosho and The Player, has also been on the Port case. “We have a very extensive list of Ports at Milk & Honey in particular,” he tells me, “and one of our most popular cocktails there, the Chicago Fizz, is Port-based.”  The idea of a Port cocktail is not, in fact, as unusual as you might at first think. Historically, it is a cocktail staple, Downey informs me, with many of the classics being Port-based. Aside from the Chicago Fizz, however, it seems Port has not taken off with Downey’s stylish customers. “Despite the great list we have, Port is almost never bought on its own,” he explains. “And even when we had a real go at it at The Player, which is putting a very young brand behind it, where we had a page full of Port Cocktails as a promotion, it still didn’t really take off.”

He puts this down to more than just Port’s stuffy image, though. “The major obstacle as I see it is that tastes have really changed. These days, the generation of New World wine drinkers, want upfront flavours and fruity, sweet drinks. They are not really interested in subtle flavours and complex structures. Rather, drinks have to be immediate and powerful instead.”

Skaters and Ruby?

So, as a mover and shaker on the London on-trade scene, what does Downey think will be the key to that sought-after Port revival? “Well, certainly things seem to be going well with the efforts on the food scene, but I think a full-on revival could only be really achieved by the same means as something like Cognac,” he says. “If they could attract an entire social scene as Cognac did with Hip Hop then maybe it could be the next big thing.”

Surfers and Tawny perhaps? Snowboarders and White Port? Skaters and Ruby? Well, stranger things have happened.

Robyn Lewis was the joint winner of the 2003 Symington Family Port Award