Best selling wine brand in America

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Yellow Tail became the first varietal wine brand in industry history to sell more than 1 million cases in the United States in one month. This represents a 56 percent increase over sales in October 2004, announced W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd., the U.S. importer and co-owner of the Australian wine brand.

Yellow Tail is the top-selling wine brand in America by dollar volume, according to ACNielsen.

Since W.J. Deutsch introduced Yellow Tail to America in 2001, the brand has become the fastest-growing imported wine brand in industry history, with sales of more than 7 million cases in 2005. W.J. Deutsch launched a $7 million advertising campaign in 2004. The company will invest approximately $24 million between July 2005 and December 2006 to expand the campaign and partner with the Independent Film Channel (IFC).
 
I read an interesting article last week that stated that the Australian Red wines sold in the US are specifically blended for that market and can't really be compared with what is available here and Europe.
Specifically, they are sweeter, with a higher alcohol content. They are tailored to suit the tastes of a couple of influential US wine critics, which hopefully garners a favourable review and hence increased sales.
The writer felt that exported Australian wines are generally seen to be good value, easy drinking, and consistent, but nothing really special, and overall weren't deemed to be as good as, say, New Zealand wines.
 
"Ripple? I don't have the crypto key can you decode please?

Ask the guy sleeping it off out by the dumpster!
 
I see that brand advertised around Indy. I passed a couple of billboards yesterday, and they had special offer at meijer a couple of weeks ago.

But I say 'thank you very much, I'll stick to my Italian pinot grigio at local Trader Joes'.
 
Ripple was a fruit juice concentrate blended with corn grain sourced alcohol delivered in 40,000 gallon rail cars.

Ripple (white folks) and Thunderbird (black folks) made the Gallo family millions.

I wouldn't be surprised if Gallo has their fingers in Yellow tail.
 
Actually the guy that brought the brand "Yellow Tail" to America had a tough go of it. He presented it to the person that would eventually import it. John Cassela presented the wine to John Soutter, who really liked the wine, but was dubious about marketing a wine with a kangaroo on the label (it is actually a close relative of the Kangaroo). He gave and and expected maybe 25,000 cases. First year it did 48,000 cases, and was very good for a first year import. Marketing, timing, price and the fact it was liste in Costo helped to propel it to the #1 wine imported into the US, surpasssing Riunite, an Italian wine.

Marketing and sometimes label appeal really makes a difference, along with good price and of course good products. When I started working for Fenn Valley Vineyards we were doing about 20,000 cases / year now we bottle over 40,000 cases/yr. For a small midwestern winery in Michigan that's not too bad. Our sales have really climbed since changing label designs, website info and continually improving on exisisting products. 3 years ago I fermented around 900 gallons of Cherry wine in one of our small/medium tanks. Recently I had to centrifuge the Cherry wine out of 2 of our 5300 gallon tanks, and we eneded up with around 5500 gallons of cherry wine. (made from Balaton cherries)

And so it goes... catch the appeal of the public, have a good product and good prices and market it like no tomorrow!
 
My suspicion is that they aren't counting the infamous "Mad Dog" M/D 20/20 as "wine". That's the cheap stuff like Ripple (which I think has been discontinued) by Mogen David that comes in funky flavors and fluorescent colors. Me, I stay away from wine that glows in the dark.

Once upon a time almost every teen in the US who wanted to get smashed chugged either cheap beer or some ersatz wine such as Mad Dog. I can still taste the grape version over 25 years later. Ugh.
 
quote:

Originally posted by sprintman:

Yellow Tail is the top-selling wine brand in America by dollar volume, according to ACNielsen.


I can understand why, with the massive advertising campaign they've undertaken. I see this stuff advertised everywhere.
 
It's awful. I sell custom wine cellars as my job, and drink wine every day, and have about 60 bottles in my collection. So, I know a lot about wine from all over the world.
Basic rule of thumb.......if the wine has a bright label or animal on it, stay away.
Yellow Tail makes about 4 million cases a year.
My favorite wine makes about 1,000 cases a year (Sea Smoke) of each of its Pinot's. You get diluted grapes, basically, that no one really cares about.
Yellow tail costs around $8-10 depending on where you get it. It's way overpriced if you ask me.
 
I like Beringer White Zinfindel. I bought the big bottle and just put down half of it with my roommates. Not bad. I just forget that drinking half a bottle like that is drinking 8 beers. Oops.
 
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