California Wines confirms commitment to UK

The Wine Institute of California will be hosting a wine tasting in the UK in 2017 and remains committed to the market despite the announcement that its London-based team are leaving next month.

Following news reported by the drinks business this morning that California Wines UK is to close its UK office, Linsey Gallagher, who is vice president of international marketing at the Wine Institute, told db that “California remains committed to and excited by the UK market.”

She also said that the Wine Institute would be hosting a California Wines tasting in London next year, although it will be held on 25 September 2017, and not in the spring, as is customary.

Normally the Wine Institute conducts an event in March as part of a European tour for Californian wine producers that is timed to coincide with ProWein in Germany.

Indeed, the tasting, called Go West, is an event jointly organised and funded by the Wine Institute of California along with Oregon Wines & Washington State Wines.

Although the Wine Institute of California will be hosting its UK tasting in September, Kate Sweet, UK representative for Oregon and Washington State wines, told db earlier today that a tasting for Oregon and Washington would stick to its springtime slot, and confirmed a date in London of 13^th March, as part of the regions’ European tour built around ProWein, which will be held in 2017 from 19 to 21 March in Dusseldorf.

Meanwhile, Gallagher said that the Wine Institute had decided to move its London tasting from spring to autumn because it would allow visiting Californian producers the possibility to spend more time in the UK.

“The London tasting is usually part of our spring tour, which means that our vintners are normally in the UK for 24 hours and then off to Europe, but they have told us that they want to stay in the UK for longer, so they can work the market with their importers, but, because the spring tour is so packed, they can’t expand the amount of time they spend in the UK.”

Similarly, former Wine Institute international marketing manager, Steve Burns told db that the springtime tasting programme was too packed for producers to do justice to the UK.

“Producers feel that the UK deserves its own standalone tasting rather than one which is part of a tour because they want to work the market too, so it is driven by wanting to do more in the market rather than less… for example, 10 vintners missed the first hour of this year’s tasting because their flight from Helsinki was delayed; it seems efficient from a travel perspective, but it doesn’t serve the [UK] market well.”

Meanwhile, Gallagher confirmed that the contracts for the Wine Institute’s UK representatives, John McLaren and Venla Freeman, were not being renewed.

However, she also announced that California Wines would continue to be represented in this market.

She told db that she would be visiting the UK in the autumn to select a PR agency and a representative for California Wines in the UK, assuring db that there would be a person who would be “the face of California Wines” in the UK.

As for the level of funding, Gallagher said that there had been a 5.5% cut in budgets for all markets, not due to a reduction in the amount of money from the Department of Agriculture in Washington DC, but because of the greater number of industries drawing on the funding.

“The funding pool has been fixed, but more groups are sharing in it, so the Wine Institute’s share has gone down,” she stated.

While she said that this had prompted the decision to “refigure how we support tried and tested markets like the UK”, she added, “but certainly our work is not done in the UK; our share in this market is not high enough for us to walk away and say we are not going to invest any more.”

Indeed, she said that as a result of the changes announced today, the spend in the UK on “media and programming will increase.”

Concluding, she told db, “California remains committed to the UK market, and we very excited about our prospects in the UK market.”

In a statement sent to db following this news, John McLaren, the Wine Institute’s UK director commented, “It is a remarkable turnaround, and I’m very pleased for California. We have been overwhelmed with praise and affection for California’s recent work in the UK, so I am delighted that this will now continue with a fresh injection of funds. I look forward to handing over to the new team, whoever they may be.”

2017 US wine tastings:

• Oregon and Washington State will host its annual tasting in the UK on 13 March 2017 (venue to be confirmed)
• California will host its annual tasting in the UK on 25 September 2017 (venue to be confirmed)