Sometimes the world works in odd ways. In three short years, Stormhoek has grown from zero to about 200,000 cases in the UK market. But this alone, was not sufficient to keep our UK importer and ‘partner’ financially healthy. And just before Christmas, they went into administration.

While the issues are being sorted in the UK, back at the vineyard, we are busy thinking about harvest and the more mundane things we need to do to get wines made and in the hands  of customers around the world.

From down in South Africa, we view this as an opportunity for reinvention: Stormhoek 2.0. Stormhoek has been blessed with probably the most passionate group of supporters in the world of wine. We thank every one of you and hope that we will still have your support in the future.

For those members of the wine trade fraternity who may suffer in Orbital’s reorganization, we are sorry and we are working with them to minimize any problems. We hope that we can make it up to you in the future with mutually beneficial business.

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Everyone from my mom, to friends and customers have been emailing and asking “Why aren’t you posting as much as you once were?”

Fact is, we and many other bloggers have come to realize that its hard to do all the stuff you need to do every day to make a living, AND spend the time needed to do cogent, hopefully interesting posts. But, we have all resolved to actually post what has remained in draft on the blog software and even Graham has promised an occasional post on the latest developments in the cellar.

We’ve also been waiting for our long overdue redesign of the blog, which you see here and we hope will make the blog easier to read and follow. Thanks to our buddy Lee for all the hard work on making this happen.

For those of you that were thinking that we were sitting on our butts, perhaps over-indulging in fruits of our labor (you’d be right only about part of that). But, there’s been lots happening and I’ll gradually bring you up to date on all of it.

We did a film in partnership with Brintex for the London International Wine and Spirits Fair, called “Smarter Wine, The Movie”. We reckon a few thousand people saw it over the course of the Fair and oddly, we’ve been getting steady requests from competitors for the DVD, so we thought it might be of general interest:

Many retailers, importers and other friends kindly lent some time to the effort. The video was produced by the one and only, Colin “Spielberg” Kennedy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6dGNN94z-E[/youtube]

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Thanks to Business 2.0 and Tom McNichol, for a really nice article in the August 2007 issue about some of our online work.

The article has now been published online by CNNmoney.com and can be viewed here.

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“BW Small Biz Editor Nick Leiber talks to Greg Verdino, marketing blogger and chief strategy officer at marketing firm Crayon, about how small-business owners can use new, low-cost Web tools to market their products and services.”

Greg’s nice enough to mention Stormhoek and Hugh.

Here’s the Vid

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We all take things for granted: Turning on the light switch, filling up at the pump, opening the tap. Yet without these simple necessities, society would disintegrate overnight. And it seems we in the wine trade are soon about to re-learn this lesson the hard way.

Why? Bottles. Yes, bottles.

A very large percentage of wine is filled in to glass bottles. It is said that the invention of glass containers has been the single most important development in the history of wine. Imagine hauling home a 300 lb. earthenware “amphora” from your local wine shop, and you get the picture.

The wine industry has taken the plentiful supply of cheap glass bottles for granted. Outside the US and Australia, the glass bottle market has been very competitive, with oversupply the rule. There are lots of reasons for the surplus, but one basic challenge for bottle manufacturers is that once they flip the switch on a glass furnace, it cannot be turned off. It must run 24/7, 365 days a year. With every country in Western Europe producing wine, there have always been lots of manufacturers, competition… and supply.

Over the years, we’ve noticed a few anomalies with glass pricing: For example, in a low cost energy market like the US, low end wine bottles have historically cost nearly three times what they cost in Europe, where energy costs are much higher. It never made much sense until one realizes that the glass bottle business in the US is an oligopoly.

Graham was quoted in an article in wine.co.za last week about the shortage of glass in South Africa.
Taken in isolation, the ZA glass ‘shortage’ looks like the unintended consequence of one of the two glass manufacturers taking a furnace out of production to upgrade and add capacity. However, this is not a story exclusive to South African.

The reality is that furnaces are allegedly being taken out all over Europe as well. Coincidence? The way we see it, glass manufacturers are putting the squeeze on the wine industry. Glass prices are skyrocketing and the world’s largest glass manufacturer, Owens Illinois, with dominant market position in wine bottle markets of South Africa, Europe and many other countries, declared a 33% increase in earnings on 15% increase in sales. (Share price has tripled this year)

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but It is not hard to pencil out a carefully crafted plan, instigated by a couple of glass manufacturers to create shortages in the market and take massive price increases. This is just how it looks to me, and glass industry people are talking amongst themselves about it.

Take it from me, to have gone to all the trouble of producing a great wine, only to discover you can’t deliver it because of a shortage of something you had hithero always taken for granted- the glass bottle to put it in- is a mind-blowing experience.

To have your wine sitting in tanks without any way of getting it into consumer’s glasses, is an irony not lost on the bottle manufacturers.

It is a very bad situation for all wine producers. Mark my words, the biggest story in the wine trade this year won’t be about wine, it’ll be about shortages of glass bottles keeping the wine from getting to market.

There is much more to this story and I will try to post more on it.

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Next week is the annual London Wine Trade Fair at Excel in the Docklands. Thousands of people from around the world attend, and it is an opportunity to chat with customers, and meet folks who have never even heard of us.

As one might expect, we have a slightly different view of what a Fair should be. And this is the third year of us trying to break through the clutter, confusion and hubbub.

As little guys, we always think about how it is possible to have an impact with a tiny budget, in an industry populated by enormous mega-drinks companies. On the one hand, we don’t want to upset the Big Guys, lest we wind up like the little yellow guy below. But at the same time, we do have a job to do.

Typically, wine fairs consist of many shiny, expensive stands, populated with bottle, and largely middle-aged guys talking about wine, gossiping and nursing their very nasty hangovers (Yes, the wine guys do tend to drink too much) .

While the show starts on Tuesday, we got into gear two months ago (about two months late), but there was no point in rushing, as our London Wine Fair Maestro, Andrew, pictured below, he has an uncanny ability to pull entire families of rabbits out of a single hat- He does his best work under pressure.

Here’s what is going on this year:

New and improved WineFairLive.com, which will be displayed on a (according to Andrew) “fucking huge” LED screen [think Wembley] in the central boulevard of Excel.

Wine Fair Live this year is being authored in part by “Deep Throat”, a faceless, nameless member of the trade, s/he could be your boss, colleague, client or drinking partner, so beware what you say as deep throat tells all, and s/he can be emailed at deepthroatiest@gmail.com, if there are any morsels that you’d like revealed anonymously.

Wine Fair Live this year will have roaming cameramen, the world famous Hugh MacLeod cartooning, Sandra D and Lil’ Jo of Shipwrecked
will be helping out.

When one enters the Hall this year, about 100 metres past the video wall, you’ll see a quite substantial structure which has, in its center, a screening room. We will be showing “Smarter Wine: The Movie”. It stars such luminaries as Dan Jago of Tesco, and Justin King. Justin is a bit of a legend around our office, as he went from being Nick and Al’s boss of the BWS department at Asda, to MD of J. Sainsbury quicker than you can say trockenbeerenauslese [Come on Justin, what’s the recipe for the secret sauce?].

You’ll have to see the movie for yourself, but it is an instructional guide of what you need for success today in the UK market.

Tuesday afternoon, we are sponsoring a seminar entitled: “Terroir is Dead, Long Live Terroir!” Nick will be moderating, and the panel will include number of industry folks. We’re going to see if there is a way to foment a spirited debate on the usually excruciatingly boring subject of terroir. Prediction: tears and rants.

On Wednesday night our sister wine, Camden Park, will be sponsoring the Camden Park Steak-Out in aid of the Benevolent. And we will have a mechanical bull at the Fair, for those brave enough to give it a try.

We will also be showing a “Big Love” flick at our stand from Hugh’s tour around Tesco earlier this year.

There is too much to write about in this one post, so I will update as the week progresses.

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Folks have been asking about the music that was used for the Love Tour vids. The track
on the first video was called “Bunnyboiler” from a Glasgow based group called Pablo Eskimo. Their music is really great – check out their Myspace profile.

Thanks to Colin for discovering these guys.

Hugh and I have spent a bit of time over the last ten days traveling together. One of Hugh’s favorite possessions was his trusty fleece. Hardly ever seen without it, the thing became like an appendage. Some of us who are closest to him, felt it was time for a wash, or a change.

So, on a bet, I took massive action and did the deed, which was recorded for posterity. And, folks do NOT try this at home, cause whatever they use to make these things is, very, very flammable.

[We’ll be taking contributions for Hugh’s next fleece via Paypal]

Now, onto business, Hugh and I also had days to debate the potential viability of a new Threshers viral. He posted about it yesterday. I am still dubious. In fact, while everyone knows that I am a big Hugh fan-boy, it is obvious to me that he is drinking a bit too much of the Gapingvoid Kool-aid. Or, maybe it’s the trauma of having to watch his beloved fleece go up in flames.

Either way: No how, no way. Another Threshers viral won’t work and I’d bet 10p on that.

During a recent dinner, Bruce kindly read the poetry on the back label of his “Love Handle” Shiraz.

In Bruce’s world his women like their men, just like their Shiraz: With Love Handles.

Thank god.

[RSS YouTube link is here.]

UK Retail Consolidation doesn’t just mean that your choice for UK shopping is, say Tesco or Asda and um, Asda or Tesco. It means that for us little guys, these grocers get tougher to deal with all of the time. As a little winery we can’t compete with the budgets of the Big Guys, so we need to try to level the playing field.

It’s no different in Germany where the choices are even more limited.

Al and I stopped off in Hamburg a few weeks back and took some unsuspecting prospects out for a nice dinner. Our weapon of choice that night was a cocktail of Riesling, more Riesling, Rohypnol with a wee dram of Ketamine as a deal closer. [I think some of the K made its way into my glass; -))]

No doubt you will be awed by how these poor folk became putty in our hands. Here, for the world to see, is insight into the secret behind how we are spreading the Stormhoek meme across the globe.

Please don’t tell the Big Guys.