5 Years of XChateau w/ Amanda McCrossin & Charlie Fu

Exactly five years ago, Robert and Peter published the first episode of XChateau! To help us reflect on how the wine market has changed in the last five years, XChateau’s most frequent guests, Amanda McCrossin and Charlie Fu, return to discuss the changes in wine influencing and social media, the wine market upheaval occurring now, wine marketing done right, and wine drinking trends. 

Detailed Show Notes: 

Changes to being an influencer

• AM: did not think TikTok would be big for wine in 2020, built it up in 2021, and created more “snackable content” (<90 sec videos), reaches wider audience (late 20s to boomers, more female) on TikTok
• Influencers are changing, and many get burnt out (including Robert)
• Influencer growth today - e.g., Olivia Tiedemann (@oliviatied) went from 0→4M followers on IG in 2 years, raw, skilled, edgy style caught people’s attention, used collabs to keep growing

Social media evolution

• Things are more video-heavy today vs. the static content of 5 years ago
• Not a lot of male creators (tend to be older, more “academic”), female creators are much better at wine education
• YouTube skews more male, TikTok more female
• Males tend to consume more long-form content, while females tend to consume more short-form content
• IG likes higher production quality, TikTok more “authentic” videos, IG upped video content length to 3 mins
• Rednote (Little Red Book) - a popular Chinese app for local food & beverage recs, particularly in Asian dominated communities

Wine market upheaval

• PY: Anti-health messaging is hitting wine more than other alcohol, reversing the trend of the last 30 years, fueled by the “French Paradox” research on positive heart benefits of the Mediterranean diet
• Premiumization is somewhat continuing - the top 1% are maintaining the high-end market, while others are trading down
• AM: “Wine isn’t cool,” wine is not great at being in pop culture today
• PY: Taylor Swift helping things like Sauv Blanc, but she’s not out talking about wine (AM)
• AM: Wine needs an Alix Earle (@alix_earle) w/ a glass of wine or maybe more medium-sized influencers (100-500k followers)
• CF: Health kick is a major trend impacting alcohol consumption, fewer people at restaurants ordering wine (at least in LA), people pushing NA options
• AM: people not interested in the <$10/bottle category (except things like Kirkland wines), want $30+ bottles but need to sell the wine as there is so much choice
• AM: Wine needs to revamp its merchandising to reach more people (e.g., more by style than varietal)
• CF: High-end wines getting cheaper and more available; when top wine prices fall, alternatives also crash
• AM: No such thing as brand loyalty anymore, NDA wines big for Wine Access (private label w/o being about to say the source)

Wine marketing done well

• CF: Winemakers from Burgundy (e.g., Dujac) are out there a lot more, increasing the popularity of the entire region
• PY: Doing more experiences both at the winery and on the road
• AM: Clean wine movement (e.g., Avaline) has some negatives, but is positive in terms of giving more transparency (what many consumers want these days)
• RV: ingredient and nutritional labeling on the bottle is better than just available on the website; PY: NA wines have full nutritional panels, which could help promote wine’s good sides

Wine drinking trends

• AM: Sauv Blanc is America’s grape right now, theory: women think it’s a healthier option due to its lighter, crisp style
• CF: people not drinking as broadly, but more hyper-focused due to so much available information (e.g., William Kelley and Burgundy); fewer people drinking natural wine

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