Consistency is the key

Is this what they mean by uniform?

When you buy a tin of baked beans, the first thing that you usually do is seek out the brand that you like (assuming that the price is right). Of course when you open the tin you also assume, or should I say, take for granted, that the taste will be exactly the same as the last time you bought them. Establishing this level of consistency is without doubt the most important factor in building any brand and creating the vital element of brand loyalty.

Well, the same rule applies to wine, the only difference being that the quality of our end product can sometimes be influenced by the vagaries of the weather. Despite this slight handicap a good wine cellar, using a bit of meticulous wine making, can usually ensure that their quality is consistently high no matter how nature decides to do intervene.

Although much of our quality is already established in the vineyard, a grape is still a grape and the final nuances are only determined by what you do to them, in the same way that a bean is just a bean until you cook it using your own recipe.

It's all about attention to detail, and knowing how to handle the fruit in order to ensure that not only do you get the best out of it, but that you end up with the quality and style that your customers will recognise. As I have already mentioned, the difficulty sometimes lies in the vintage, in that not every year is the same, and this is where the real skill of the winemaker comes into its own. You still have to produce a wine at a level of quality that your customers will enjoy no matter what the harvest throws at you - when they follow your brand, they are putting their faith in that skill.

It goes without saying that there is another type of consistency that plays an important part in the equation, especially these days...... that of price!

The 'Holy Grail' of any wine buyer is to discover a fantastic wine that represents really great value for money. It doesn't matter what the language, buyers and sellers will always talk of the price/quality ratio. Being able to maintain that ratio is another story and makes for a lot of hard work, bordering on a degree of obsession.

In the end this is probably the the real recipe for success..... a really good, consistent wine, at a really fair and consistent price.