A million labels is not a business
Robert Joseph tells Vitisphere there are at least a million wine labels. After a 15% vine-pull, he asks whether the trade will just be smaller — and still badly designed.
There is too much wine. Robert Joseph puts a number on it: at least one million labels.
Vitisphere’s Alexandre Abellan published the interview on 30 August. The open page is the brief. Producers should look at each cuvée and ask whether it earns the bread. If it does not, drop it.
Europe is taking vines out of production. Joseph’s question is colder. After a 15 percent vine-pull, will the trade still be badly designed and barely profitable — only smaller?
A smaller vineyard map is not a plan. A million labels is a shop window, not a business. The work is to keep the bottles that someone actually buys, at a price that pays the people who grew the fruit.
Joseph is a journalist who also makes wine. In this interview he argues for marketing as a rebound, not a slogan pasted on a tired range. The public lead does not need a château tour. It needs an honest catalogue.
Mini-concept: pulling vines does not fix a list that never paid.
A flavoured can has one SKU. A cellar with a million labels has a filing problem.
Remember: at least a million labels, and most of them do not pay the rent.
Source: Vitisphere