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PACKAGING INTERVIEW 44 WINES&VINES May 2018 W hen Chicago native Lisa Ehrlich was growing up in Wisconsin, wine was always on the table. But her interest in wine and food deep- ened when she spent her junior year in college in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she also picked Grenache grapes during a harvest. Although her studies had prepared her to become a law pro- fessor, wine and food turned out to be a bigger attraction, and Ehrlich went on to become a co-founder of Chicago's famed Charlie Trotter's restaurant, where she developed the wine program. When she left Charlie Trotter's in 1990, Ehrlich embarked on a career in wine sales, marketing and management at com- panies such as Seagram, E. & J. Gallo Winery and Robert Mondavi Winery. More recently, she spent 12 years as an executive at Purple Wine + Spirits in Graton, Calif., where she developed more than 40 brands, including Cryptic, Rae- burn and Calista. She also launched a spirits division. Since 2016, Ehrlich has run her own consulting company, Lisa Ehrlich Consulting. She's a frequent speaker at marketing conferences and a guest in- structor at the University of California, Davis, Extension. Q Lately, you've done some work with spirits brands. What do you think the wine in- dustry could learn from the spir- its world about packaging? Lisa Ehrlich: Spirits packaging serves a bit of a different function. On premise, spir- its need to be recognizable from a distance, on the back bar, as opposed to a wine bottle on the table. At home, a spirits bottle, once opened, has a longer-lasting relationship with the consumer than a wine bottle. Possibly these things have driven spirits producers to take more risks with their packaging to stand out and differentiate themselves. Even with wine packaging being more standardized than spirits, there is still some room to play, and one of the areas that could be the next frontier in wine packaging is glass. Custom glass can be expensive, requiring the purchase of cus- tom molds, long lead times and relatively large volume com- mitments, but with the surge in craft spirits, some glass producers have developed custom glass programs with shorter lead times and smaller volume commitments. They also are offering customization of an existing glass mold where it doesn't fundamentally change the shape of the mold — for example, the neck finish, the punt or adding a custom cartouche. You can see this trend in one of the most dynamic wine segments, rosé wine brands, where they're using both glass and non- traditional closures to stand out. Rosé producers, particularly from southern France, are leading the way. The Gerard Bertrand Côtes des Roses glass bottle has a rose sculpted into the punt and a Vinoseal closure, giving it a real luxury feel and, at the same time, a look that stands out. Whisper- ing Angel has a branded cartouche on the front of the bottle. These are things you might see in spirits, but not as often in wine. Other packaging features used in spirits are combining silkscreen with a printed paper label, using leather, wooden and metallic materials for labels, as well as clear, colored or adhesive medallions. While more expensive than a simple printed label, these are elements that can really set packaging apart. Q You've developed brands that have fairly traditional packaging, while others have a more innovative look. How do you decide which is more suitable? Ehrlich: It's really about who is drinking the wine, which seg- ment you're talking about, where it's being sold and how it's being consumed. It works to be daring and clever for rosé wines, red blends and other popularly priced wines (such as Spanish Garnacha) that have a strong retail presence and are en- joyed in more casual settings. Packag- ing in these segments has a good deal of leeway to experiment and be creative. For wines consumed in upscale restaurants, and for more traditional market segments, such as wines from the Russian River or Napa Valley, Bordeaux or Burgundy, it's harder to break the rules. It's riskier for a wine drinker to buy these bottles, and more traditional packaging is reassuring. Luxury packaging can be a guide for consumers as to what to expect inside the bottle. You can't stray too far from the packaging conventions in well-established luxury categories without po- tentially losing some of your key customers. Q You've launched many brands. Are there instances where the concept didn't work? Ehrlich: You can have the best package design and concept, but if the wine in the bottle doesn't match the wine drinker's expecta- A CONVERSATION WITH Lisa Ehrlich Connecting brands and wine packaging, and how to work with a designer By Laurie Daniel