Piat d'Or's SA connection
Big Thinking
French super-brand Piat d'Or has a South African connection.
The UK is a nation of binge drinkers, and when Sharon and Steve go big, they binge on big brands. Spirits, liqueurs and beer are famously brand dominated, and thanks to the increasing domination of supermarkets in wine retail, so too is the fruit of the vine. Of the top 10 UK wine brands according to the 2008 Wine Intelligence Report, only Kumala hails from South Africa.
While it may now be made by Bruce Jack, it's owned by US conglomerate Constellation. Urban legend ascribes its success to confusion among consumers that it's actually Australian - an easy mistake to make, given the lizard on the label. Which makes sense as Down Under owns half of the top 10 (Jacob's Creek, Wolf Blass, Lindemans and Banrock Station) with Hardy's the top seller overall. Adding salt to the wound was the observation by former Kumala kingpin Don Paul that the name came from Alan Paton's seminal Cry the Beloved Country - but then it would have been Kumalo, give or take an "h".
Only two of the top 25 hail from France, including Le Piat d'Or, a retro flashback from the swinging '70s. What is less well known is that this first global French wine brand was invented by a South African.
James Espey may now be a quintessential British old fart, living in Wimbledon 400m from the centre court with the patrician air and silver mane of a well preserved Peter O'Toole, but in the '70s he shared digs in Rondebosch with a couple of other heroes of the SA hospitality industry: Adrian Gardiner of Shamwari and Steenberg fame, and Peter Fleck, founder of The Last Word chain of boutique B&Bs.
He was also the first non-Englishman to become global marketing director of International Distillers and Vintners, the predecessor of Diageo, as well as United Distillers. He founded Keepers of the Quaich, the whisky world's version of the Free Masons with various hazing rituals involving kilts and funny songs at Blair Castle, seat of the Duke of Athol (who, incidentally, lives in Haenertsburg, a former gold rush town in the Limpopo Province).
Espey remembers: "It got to a million cases in the UK quickly and at least a million overseas, and was a runaway success. It was essentially a quaffing wine in an attractive bottle with a pleasant taste. In the late '70s other than amongst the upper classes, not much wine was drunk in the UK. Blue Nun was, for example, a major brand. It was easy to pronounce and drinkable. We decided, therefore, to market a white as an off-dry, slightly drier than Blue Nun, and a red with a hint of sugar almost like a Beaujolais, and it worked."
But then he did have practice. While national sales manager for Gilbey's on the princely salary of R300 a month plus R200 product allowance, he'd launched Carafino, essentially Graça in a carafe, which can still be found on internet auction sites.
"When I was a little schoolgirl," Tessa de Kock from De Kock Communications reminisces, "he launched Carafino to the media (or that was how it was presented to the neighbours) at a house very close to our home in Claremont. There were loads of cars and music and happening people, and it all seemed so chic and worldly and continental and sophisticated to my sister and me, who hadn't ventured further than Johannesburg at that stage of our lives. We couldn't wait to grow up and live like that. I remember using the carafes to chill water for years afterwards."
