During the recent Masters of Wine Symposium, distinguished advertising and marketing specialist, John Hegarty, recommended a simplification of the advertisement of wine, in particular disconnecting the pairing of food and wine and table wine. Does his speech explain the disparity that exists between British concepts of wine consumption, and a more Latin viewpoint ? We asked Jacques Lurton, co-organiser of the Symposium:

Jacques Lurton: ‘‘John Hegarty is not a professional in the wine business, even if he did recently acquire an estate in the Languedoc region. He is discovering the complexities and difficulties of marketing wine, and the type of message he needs to communicate. If, for a moment, we think about wine as an infinitely reproducible, purely industrial product, like beer or high street fashion, we could use the type of marketing that Mr Hegarty describes. It’s an interesting position, because there is definitely a place in the market for wines produced in this manner, by big brands on a large scale. It is logical to separate the type of marketing that we use for these everyday wines, from the type of marketing we use for more complex wines which, when accompanied by certain foods, provide the connoisseur with even more pleasure.
We can however, reconcile our strategies, as was the case with the Bordeaux Wine Festival. Here a wine was created with strong links to the city of Bordeaux, a synonym for relaxation and conviviality. The wine could be drunk as an aperitif, after a night out, or over the course of a meal.
I don’t believe it’s necessary to detach food from wine, but it should be possible to drink with food whatever wine you please. To this end I often drink red wine with fish, and I gladly go through entire meals drinking just white wine or champagne. There is a happy and accessible halfway point between France’s gastronomic traditions, and the more democratic attitude of the British, which is beneficial for the consumption of wine: in Australia they offer wines to quench your thirst after a hard day’s work, or as an aperitif. It’s extremely rare in France to be offered a glass of water before your alcoholic aperitif or glass of champagne.
Simplifying the advertisement of wine without making it a banal, all-purpose product remains the most complex part of our message. Even wines from the New World advertise nowadays their terroirs and traditions, their winemaking history, even if their vines are still young. It’s a quest for legitimacy, which, in the winemaking world, calls for history and precedence. This gives wine a very human quality, wherever it is produced in the world.
The thoughts of John Hegarty beg another question: how can we unify our message when we are so diversified and fragmented? Last week I was around the Loire, the magnificent river that connects so many different growing regions, but these regions find it hard to communicate with one voice because everyone has their own identity. Wine producers must realise that we all make wine, and that our particular region, village and terroir comes after that. On the large scale of the Lurton family, this is what I wanted to achieve with two of my cousins, by bringing together the thirteen Lurtons who produce wine in Bordeaux, and in many other areas all over the world.’