Wine Drinkers Know Bugger-All About Sonoma.
January 27, 2013
Not my most eloquent of headlines…but I think it gets the job done.
The Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance recently announced they are starting a new campaign to educate wine drinkers on the difference between Sonoma Coast and Sonoma County.
A survey of 1,000 US consumers has shown that, when choosing a wine to purchase, very few wine drinkers differentiate between Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley.
“We know that Sonoma Valley has very distinct appellations, but there is confusion with the title. Is it a coast? Is it a valley? Is it a town? A county? Or all?” stated Maureen Cottingham, executive director of the SVVGA.
‘While a substantial number of consumers (42%) can comprehend that a “Sonoma-named” AVA can reside within Sonoma County, over one-quarter are confused by combinations like ‘Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma County” and 22% believe that this indicates a blend of Sonoma Mountain and Sonoma County fruit.’
Click here for the full article from Decanter.com
My Thoughts…
I sincerely hope that the SVVGA didn’t pay to have this research done. Ask the Somm in any restaurant and they’ll tell you that wine drinkers are CLUELESS about the various appellations of, not just Sonoma, but in-fact most of California.
“A recent survey of 1,000 US consumers shows that, when purchasing wine, few differentiate between Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley.”
Errrrmmmm…..seriously?
I don’t differentiate between Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley, so I’m bloody sure a survey of 1,000 “people on the street” will come to the same conclusion! For that matter, I know for a fact that a survey of 1,000 people couldn’t explain the real differences between Sonoma and Napa, let alone two regions starting with the same name!
I’m going to throw this out there: Wine drinkers don’t care. They really don’t. The only way you can potentially get people to care is to give them a reason to, i.e. illustrate the difference in TASTE between Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley. The taste (as with all things wine-related) should be first-and-foremost, then after that is clear, we can start to get into history and heritage etc etc etc….
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