Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/643683
50 WINES&VINES March 2016 PACKAGING BOTTOM'S UP: CAN NEW ELEVATED-PUNT BOTTLES RAISE PRICES? Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards, a 50,000-case family- owned operation in St. Helena, Calif., established in 1978, hopes that new packaging and bottles with fancy punts will help elevate prices for its top-tier wines, single-vineyard Solilo- quy Sauvignon Blanc and Trilogy, its flagship red blend. Flora Springs' third-generation vintner and general manager Nat Komes told Wines & Vines that the redesign is only the third in the winery's history. "We're family owned and tend to do things within the family. We were going for a great look to match the wine: We know the product is good and wanted to make that clear in the first impression," he said. After three months of research, Flora Springs chose Affinity Creative for the redesign, which includes modernized labels and upgraded bottles from Saverglass with a custom mold and distinctively textured punt. The first 300 cases of the new packages were re- leased in December 2015. The Soliloquy Sauvignon Blanc comes with a fascinating back-story. After its first release in 1989, Komes said, the vineyard became infested with phylloxera. "We dropped out of the super SB program," he recalled. Working with the viticulture department at the Uni- versity of California, Davis, Flora Springs was able to develop an entirely new Sauvignon Blanc clone. "No one had ever seen this clone," Komes said. The vineyard was replanted, and the clone is officially named "Soliloquy." Flora Springs now sells a lot of these grapes to other vintners after fulfilling its own program. The custom glass bottles were ordered a year ago from Saverglass. Komes estimated the additional cost at about $1 per bottle. "We're the first to use it," he said. The significance of punts on wine bottles is not well known, and their importance to consumers is debat- able. "The punt is a throwback, going back to hand-blown bottles," Komes said. Although its original purpose may have been to collect wine sediment, that issue is uncommon in commercial wines now. Nevertheless, the flint-colored bottles were chosen for the punt and the quality of glass, according to Ed Rice, director of strategy at Affinity. "We helped them with the design up- date of Trilogy and then extended a similar look and feel to Soliloquy. Their plan is to raise the cost of Soliloquy; the goal was to source a unique-looking glass bottle that helped support the high price point and underscore the price/quality relationship of the liquid inside the bottle," Rice said. Napa's Collotype prints the labels, which are applied at the Flora Springs estate bottling line. Does Flora Springs plan more packaging changes? "We'll see how this one goes," Komes said. "This one took all of last year, but we've got a few more tricks up our sleeve." A R C H I T E C T U R E D E S I G N P L A N N I N G M A N A G E M E N T 7 0 7 . 9 3 5 . 7 9 4 4 www.strataap.com 1_6 Ad_2015.indd 1 11/5/2015 10:54:11 AM bottles explode after filling—especially on sparkling products. There are lots of critical issues on the neck and finish as well." Verallia has introduced innovations in- cluding luminescent glass, internal emboss- ing, extra-black and the intense, dark-green tradiver color—plus new bottle shapes for rosé and late-harvest wines, she said. Erica Harrop, founder of Global Package, commented, "Glass costs might be inter- preted as coming down because more cus- tomers are purchasing their fancy glass from different factories that can offer high quality at lower pricing. This is true for Europe and China. And if glass is coming from Europe, some of the factories will pass along their savings from the better exchange rate. Cost savings can be up to 50% for very expensive glass. But there is less variety, and glass fac- tories may not always have that stock." Price changes are based on factory run sizes and location, she explained. "Freight is a heavy cost, too, for glass. Bottle weight also affects the base price." Harrop added, "China is still much less ex- pensive, and they make some very fancy bottles now. But the glass is not always in stock, and the runs are much larger. This is the biggest change for the wineries with regard to use and pricing. I would say that most wineries now have some Chinese glass purchased, and there is cost savings of 10% to 50% based on the product….However, stocks have to be secured much longer in advance."