Reflections
Last Thursday I attended the conference "Wine tourism in the Ribera del Duero, organized by the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Burgos. I shared a table with a really fancy school. On the one hand, Carolina Toribio de Benito, Managing Director of the Office of Wine Tourism in Valladolid, on the other Ignacio Arzuaga Navarro, Director General of Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro, Pilar Pérez de Albéniz, president of Bodegas Peñalba Lopez, "Torremilanos" and José Carlos Alvarez Ramos, Technical Director Emilio Moro Bodegas Cepa 21. Each count our experiences and activities since our business reality and then gave way to an interesting question time where the critics were unanimous: we are not doing each one for free? Do not lack a backbone? Absolutely. Something similar happens to what I explained in my reflections Prowein around. like every time I'm asked to participate in similar forums, I leave some of the ideas I expressed. Your suggestions, opinions and perceptions will be most welcome.
For some years been increasingly speaking a word wine tourism. All warehouses, or nearly all, are no longer reluctant to show their wineries and vineyards processes, which until not long ago, were almost like a state secret. From PradoRey believe that wine tourism is becoming an essential business tool, not so much of the economic result, pure and simple, but for its potential as a differentiator.
As I have stated many times in this blog, we live in a changing world. Just remember what our societies were 20 or 25 years. One had his family, his neighborhood friends and school, all roughly chopped the same pattern, with similar cultures and values, influenced by the same religion. We saw TVE TVE-1 and-2, there was no more. Our expectations, in short, were very local. Economic globalization has brought an increase in migratory movements unprecedented. What happened in Spain in the period 2000 - 2007, for example, compared with only lived in the U.S. during the nineteenth century. As a result, our society is diverse, plural and heterogeneous cultures coexist and blend, the values \u200b\u200bare different too. Sumémosle the revolution in information technology. Our expectations are now global, but with a special added that everything much more complicated: we live in an era of total interactivity. The earlier we talked about what fun we had spent a vacation in a place or another, stayed for dinner and we had it our friends, who, with a little luck, until they show photos of your trip. Today, the photos are "hanging" on Facebook, write in a blog read by people around the world and thanks to the capillary social networks and the power of internet, anyone, regardless of where you live, you can comment, or ask interact with you. The boundaries are blurred, the distances are shorter, the supply available to the consumer is extended, the companies are made transparent.
The consequences are no less interesantes.Por one hand, global competition has become .. I still compete with the rest of English wine, but that pie is getting smaller. The battle being waged beyond our borders and there enter the wine game and regions around the world increasingly make things more interesting. On the other weight gain versus the intangible tangible. Let me explain. The technologies are imitated, the information has been democratized and flows around the world. Doing well a wine from a technical point of view is becoming less mystery (provided they have good raw material). The consumer, the vast majority is not so expert to evaluate the intrinsic quality of a wine. Of what is, ultimately, is to ensure that the client identify emotionally with my brand and there in wine tourism can play an important role. Do not say it is the single lever, but one of the most important and easy to implement.
In order to understand the value of intangibles in the world of wine, I like to put this example. Unvas Let's take the best part of the Ribera del Duero, obtain the juice, fermentémoslo, let the wine for a good barrel, let him some time aging in the bottle and market saquémoslo unlabeled. Is likely to give us 3 or 4 euros for wine. That wine with the brand Vega Sicilia, worth 100 or 200 euros. And if IMTS is a good add, may even give us 600 euros.
Basically what is stated in the previous paragraph is consistent with what Steve Jobs always says: "We need sexy products." Well, I think that we need wine brands "Sexy." Clearly wine tourism should help us sell more wine, but mostly to create and add value brands, to differentiate businesses, create values \u200b\u200band corporate cultures, ultimately, to emotionally connect consumers to your business.
In a world in which all compete with everyone, it makes little sense to us from wrapping around a war marks. I think we must bet first, by a quality mark Spain and from there we can go down to other brands. I found it very interesting that proposed José Carlos, Emilio Moro and Strain 21, about creating the brand "Duero" as the backbone of all DO Castilla Leon, for example, citing the example of what happens in France.
Focus on what is already there, I think there is more than enough arguments to make a mark Ribera del Duero differential. We still have 130 years of doing good things as Rioja (we are newcomers) or the tradition of centuries of France, but really, and I talk about technical and objective of the climate and soil, there is little global regions as favorable to the vineyard and winemaking as Ribera del Duero. We are talking of a land that will most likely be between 3 or 4 best in the world.
Ribera del Duero
also has a differential and native grapes, or Tempranillo Tinta Fina. His district is full of history, culture and cuisine has an original and very powerful. It has everything to attract quality tourism, on the one hand, set people on the other, invigorate the region. Without ceasing to be the Ribera del Duero and recognizing that Florence is unique, example of Tuscany we should encourage.
To this must be left to look at the navel. When you go to exrranjero, and leaving aside the professionals, outside our borders almost nobody knows Ribera del Duero, almost nobody knows grapes (some in the markets are still surprised when I explain that Rioja is not a grapes, for example) and hardly anyone knows wineries and brands. The company's globalization has to be firm and decisive. We hampers the lack of critical mass, but we can not keep saying DO proud that our exports and 5%. The aim should be more than 30% of Rioja, but this has to invest in a common brand of which all wineries we'll benefit.
Spain as a tourist destination has much to offer apart from sun and sand. We are already a force of cultural and gastronomic tourism. From there to attract a quality wine tourism is one step. Economic and cultural globalization is a fantastic opportunity to make a claim Ribera del Duero, but also from other wine regions of Spain. Our wines also have an increasing recognition in journals outside of Spain. Just look at the ratings of Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, the Wine Spectator or the Wine Enthusiast.
The problems often have them at home. Many times the public and private efforts are dispersed in the absence of coordination between different agencies. Missing also more strategic alliances and a more professional, maybe not so much of the wineries as ancillary services, when addressing foreign tourists. And by that I refer to issues as simple as that all wineries and restaurants, for example, there are people who speak other languages \u200b\u200bor even, as pointed Ignacio Arzuaga, who just the restaurant menus are in English. In addition, very limited infrastructure investment in Castilla Leon is also a handicap for those who visit us.
Finally, I finish this post we talk about what we do in PradoRey. Differential as we have, without doubt, is the real estate site Ventosilla. In its 3,000 hectares have accommodated 520 of vineyards, the largest expansion of the Ribera del Duero. We are not the most elaborate wine, as in Ribera del Duero not buy grapes from other growers, but those who control a larger area of \u200b\u200bvineyards. Inside the property, in addition to wine, we produce our own milk from cattle, is the only farm in Castilla Leon PMO is certified to sell milk in the U.S.. I that in Spain there is only one dairy farm that also has it, but here I speak from memory. Our milk is sold, some with their own brand (Fresh Milk Ventosilla), part of the Easter Group. In addition, we generate renewable energy with which we self-sufficient, selling part of the grid, and exploit cereals, potatoes, beets and wood. We also have sheep. We developed an external companies pecorino and cosmetic raw material that we sell also own brands Real and PradoRey Ventosilla Site. PradoRey Olive Oil is obtained in a farm business group located in the province of Toledo.
is why it that every time we visited the winery, we like the group in question visit the farm, observe and walk by it, and stops at major payments and feel vineyard soils, see the vineyards and understand by which each wine has its own personality. To understand why Valdelayegüa payment is ideal for our Parenting, why Mina for the Reserve or why the Elite is a clone of Tinta Fina given very well in the payment Salguero. The important thing is that your payments are better or worse than other wineries, but what they are, ie, unique, inimitable, differentials, with its own geological history, climate and orographic, which is what eventually came explains why it is.
owes its title to the Duke of Lerma, who had built a palace in the seventeenth century for King Philip III, which liked to come to hunt on the farm. Today the palace, Herrera style, has been transformed into a 17 room Posada Real. But not just trying to be a hotel, but also organized days of Baroque theater in the summer, recalling the Lope de Vega plays that accounted for Philip III in Ventosilla gardens and baroque dinners are organized in the harvest.
wineries, both the Bank and the Wheel, are visited almost every day of the year in open continuously from 10 am to 8 pm, but we try not to use the visit, if you are looking for through experimental tastings (with candies, chocolates or sweets, for example) give a twist to the senses. Finally, Rueda, having no land of their own, of what has been tried is to make a great winemaking center, cultural and gastronomic between different exhibition halls, the restaurant and the winery itself. In PradoRey also have partnerships with other wineries, caterers and government agencies to offer complete packages to enable our visitors to soak up the reality of both wheel as Ribera del Duero making your stay more attractive for our dollars.
Most importantly, in short, is that the customer experience, feel, understand our products and processes, and ultimately we emotionally tied to our brand and the region. When a consumer feels about an experience both your perception will change forever and can be for better or for worse. In a world in which perception will increasingly playing a more important role when choosing a brand or a product, wine tourism is going far in the stake. Do not forget that today interactivity and, therefore, the word of mouth, are global.
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