Make Benefit Glorious Zinfandel

"Consumer Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Zinfandel Future"

Christian Miller, owner of Full Glass Research—a wine industry research firm—chose this title for a presentation he gave in Paso Robles as a joking reference to the movie Borat.  (See the movie's wine episode here.) And it’s pretty appropriate, because depending on who you talk to, zinfandel means different things to different people. There’s an almost Babel-like confusion involved in the language of zinfandel.

Some people expect jammy wines. Some people expect spice and pepper. Some people don’t like it because they don’t know what to expect. Only 17% of hard core wine geeks would drink zinfandel with a "gourmet dinner at home," but 51% of the same group agree that zinfandel "complements a wide variety of food."

Zin winemakers reported that direct-to-consumer sales were the most important part of their marketing. But according to the study, consumers want to see more zinfandel in restaurants. One of the significant findings of the study was a difference in trade perception vs. consumer perception. In other words, wine drinkers are not seeing what they want on restaurant lists—versatile, food-friendly zinfandels.