Steven Spurrier: July 2007
Global wine authority Steven Spurrier thinks the South African wine industry lacks "ambassadors". Christian Eedes interviewed him.
In April last year, Wines of South Africa, the not-for-profit company that represents all local wine exporters, ran an ad campaign to promote the country's wines in the UK market. It was based on the thinking that the Cape's plant biodiversity corresponds to varied and distinctive wines - summed up in the mantra "Variety is in our nature" - and featured large-format posters placed in underground train stations throughout London.
Despite Wosa spending close on £220 000 (over R3 million) on this initiative, it went entirely unnoticed by Steven Spurrier, consultant editor of influential UK wine magazine Decanter. "It passed me by. It didn't register with me," he says. And it appears a lot of other people must have failed to engage with the Wosa communication effort, as sales of local wine in the UK market declined by just under 16% in 2006.
Before anyone gets too despondent about SA's recent export performance however, Spurrier comments that he is generally sceptical about the effectiveness of generic marketing campaigns. "Positioning statements have to be very, very simple to succeed. I thought the slogan 'Think red. Think Rhône.' was bloody brilliant,
for instance."
One potential positioning for South Africa is that it is the "Old World of the New World" as Spurrier puts it, and while it might be both easy to grasp and factually correct given a winemaking history going back to the 17th century, he feels that it is not that compelling. It leaves local wines as "neither fish nor fowl".
It's not that the South African wine industry is doing something fundamentally wrong, it's just that other wine producing countries are doing something right. "South Africa is suffering from other countries being more fashionable, at least in the UK," says Spurrier, adding that the wines of Spain, Chile and Argentina have all come on strongly in recent times. "It's about trends. The hemlines of women's skirts go up and down from season to season. Ten years ago you never saw a convertible on the road, now everybody's driving them. The same applies to wine…"
So what direction should SA producers pursue to regain the ascendancy? UK wine critics have a reputation for appreciating wines of elegance above all else, so it's rather surprising when Spurrier says that if local winemakers are pre-occupied with achieving this, then they are "deluding" themselves. "[Elegance in SA wines] is like trying to put a rugby player into a £2 000 Savile Row suit. The garment won't suit his structure."
Balance, character and style are far more relevant criteria by which to assess quality in the South African context. He uses Barossa Shiraz as an example of a wine style that, while powerful and weighty, is entirely legitimate. "It can hardly be described as elegant but then that's not what you want from it."
Spurrier contends that post political transformation, the South African wine industry has been fortunate to have got "so far and so fast". Nevertheless, he suggests that the "spotlight has moved" with critical and public attention in the UK now directed on the wines of other countries.
Key to regaining top-of-mind awareness for South African wine in the UK market is not so much an adjustment in style or improvement in quality but a better marketing effort. In particular, Spurrier points to the role that "ambassadors" play in representing a wine industry internationally. "Think of Spain, and Miguel Torres is completely inescapable," he observes. Italy, in turn, has figures such Piero Antinori of Marchese Antinori and Angelo Gaja. Chile has Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errázuriz. "There are very few faces that you can put to SA wine," he says.
Spurrier's point is that individuals of the calibre of Torres play an invaluable leadership role in developing a country's wine industry. South Africa meanwhile seems a bit leaderless. "Does the South African 'industry' know where it's going? More to the point, who is the 'industry'? Who decides to spend £200 000 on an ad campaign I haven't heard of?" he asks. It's disturbingly difficult to provide him with answers.
