Please join us at the upcoming 2012 Napa Valley Grape Growers Viticulture Fair. Stop by our booth to see what’s new in glass and packaging, or just to say hello. See you there!

Global Package – Booth #106

November 7, 2012
8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Napa Valley Exposition Fairgrounds
575 Third Street
Napa CA 94559

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New Bottles from Global Package

We’re thrilled to introduce two new lines of spirits bottles and a gorgeous new Burgundy bottle to the Global Package collection.

– The new burgundy bottle—the Claire—is the most recent addition to our Elegant Light line of bottles. It boasts more reserved styling than other bottles in its category, with an elegant swan’s neck, and provides a more substantial label area compared to bottles in its category. And while it conforms to the standards of the superior, lighter-weight bottles in the Elegant Light line—including a 1.5” punt and 31.5mm capsule top—it is a definitive line extension which differs from the sturdier-formed Bella and Carré bottles yet in the same line with its taller and broader body. It’s available in antique green in any quantity and can be also ordered along with brand-printed boxes.

– A new line of competitively priced, mid-weight spirits bottles for the discriminating, high-end market is now available on the shop floor. These bottles come in a range of styles, from antiquity to modern, in high-grade clear glass. The Teo and Millennio have a fatter decanter-style neck, whereas the antique Apotheker has standard dimensions for bottling ease.

– We have also added a variety of premier European spirits bottles that have the capability of being elaborately decorated. Ask for the Pure Glass collection from Estal. The photo of the Senso bottle is an excellent example of the extraordinary silk-screen detail that’s possible with these unique bottles.

Of course, we still have an extensive local inventory of stock bottles, as well as metallic label and design services from internationally acclaimed Tucker Creative.

Intellectual Assets

Industry veteran Mike Meneghilli recently joined Global Package as Sales Representative. Mike comes to us with over 35 years of wine industry experience, beginning in 1977 in the cellars and aging winemaking departments of the legendary Robert Mondavi Winery. While at Mondavi, he also honed his technical technical knowledge of the relationship between bottles, corks, capsules, and labels all integrate to make a brand succeed in the marketplace. He later moved into sales and marketing to help educate distributors, sales teams, and consumers on all facets of the winemaking process. We are extremely happy to have his marketing expertise and customer service skills on our team.

– Those of you who have visited our Napa showroom may have already met Kathy Feder, our Office Manager and Assistant to the President. Kathy has been in the industry for over 15 years in the areas of customer account management, order fulfillment, sales and margin improvement, bookkeeping and cost-reduction strategies, and customer satisfaction enhancement. Prior to joining us, Kathy was Senior Account Manager at Bergin Glass Impressions and Operations Manager at Etched Images, two wine bottle-decorating companies specialized in custom screen printing and etching. Kathy’s background in high-quality, customized packaging make her an ideal fit for Global Package, and we’re very happy to have her with us.

Industry Boost

Wines sales in the US rose to a record level in 2011, solidifying our position as the world’s largest wine market. Global California wined sales also increased by an impressive 5.6%, with Napa vintages playing a significant role in that increase. Interestingly, the fastest growing wine varieties were sweet red wines, with Muscat/Moscato growing by 73% in volume and others increasing around 200%. Malbec and blended reds also grew at double-digit levels. Fine wine sales bettered projections, as well. At the same time exports of US wine soared by 22% last year to reach a record US$1.39bn, according to the California-based Wine Institute, which “puts the US on-track to meet the Wine Insitute’s target of $2bn in export sales by 2020.” According to Silicon Valley Bank’s annual State of the Wine Industry report, sales grew 12.2 percent in 2011 for US makers of wine primarily retailing for more than $20 a bottle, up from 10.8 percent in 2010. After just returning from a trip to Kentucky’s wine region, I’m sure that burgeoning region is contributing to those record numbers. In just five years the number of Kentucky wineries has increased from 15 to 50, moving approximately 100,000 cases per year. For more, click here: http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/51321/california-wine-shipments-in-2011-rise-5-6-percent-to-new-record/ and http://www.kentuckywine.com/about/history/.

The Skinny on Wine Apps

With the rise of apps for just about everything, it was just a matter of time for developers to come up with iPhone and iPad apps for the serious oenophile, as well as the easily intimated wine consumer. Here’s a review by MacWorld’s Ben Boychuk that discusses four apps—Drync Wine Pro, Wine Snob, The Wine Enthusiast Guide, and Wine Cellar Pro by Velvet Vine—that are designed for both serious connoisseur and the beginning drinker. For example, The Wine Enthusiast Guide will let you search for wines that are rated 89 or higher for $15 or less. The Wine Snob “lets you track and rate the wines you drink, while letting you search for wines you might like, providing basic definitions, and offering helpful suggestions such as general food and wine pairings.” Drync Wine “lets you keep track of the wines you’ve drunk, the wines you own, and the wines you’d like to add to your cellar.” The Velvet Vine Wine Companion is a “full-featured experience …with a rich database of user-generated reviews and recommendations …much like a social-networking app for winos.” For the complete reviews, click here: http://www.macworld.com/appguide/article.html?article=139106

Wines By The Glass

We thought this recent survey by Napa Technology provided some great advice for restaurateurs, wine bar owners, and others in the hospitality industry to meet the growing demand for more interesting by-the-glass wine selections while maintaining margins. According to a panel of industry experts, a preservation system is a top priority for wine-by-the-glass programs to “protect the wine from oxidation either by sparging with an inert gas or by flash-vacuum.” Many of the panelists use the WineStation system, which provides “portion control and eliminates product spoilage while increasing profits through advanced 60 day preservation.” Other suggestions include: Know the Fill Line (Champagne pours are different than still wine pours); Monitor Temperatures; Emphasize Staff Education; Menu Within A Menu (offer unique wine prix-fixe or flights); and Wine Pairing Suggestions. For the full report, click here: http://www.napatechnology.com/press/napatech_winebytheglasstips.html

News ‘n Notes

Some winemakers who are looking for on-shelf differentiation are experimenting with a trend that artisan beer brewers started: aluminum packaging. The newest entry in the market is the Flasq screw-cap aluminum bottle that holds two generous glasses of Merlot, Chardonnay, and Cuvee Blanc per bottle. (http://www.specialtyfood.com/news-trends/featured-articles/food-trends/food-trends-march-2012/). Diageo recently published its first Sustainable Packaging Guidelines, based on three principles: optimize packaging material to reduce its environmental footprint where possible; design with the cradle-to-cradle life cycle in mind; and use leading-edge technologies to minimize packaging and optimize recycled materials (http://www.packworld.com/sustainability/strategy/diageo-publishes-sustainable-packaging-guidelines). Imports of bottled wine to China hit a record US$1.27bn in 2011, up 94% year-on-year, while the value of bulk wine into China fell by 20% in the same period, indicating that the imported wine market is evolving from low-end to high-end, according to Lin Feng, VP of H&J Consulting (http://www.just-drinks.com/news/fy-imported-wine-sales-hit-record-high_id106708.aspx). Millennials are drinking wine at nearly every imaginable occasion, including when showering, reading a book to relax, and even eating Cheerios in the morning. This interesting study by the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State can be found here: http://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataid=90023.

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News for the New Year

It’s show time again! This year we’re excited to be showcasing two new beautiful bottles—the Fiona (photo below) and Claire—at the upcoming Unified Symposium in Sacramento January 24 – 26 (Booth 942) and at the Annual Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco January 15 – 17 (Booth 655).

- The Fiona boasts a daring look with a bar top and strong shoulders. It has the presence of a heavy, stately bottle, but is part of our Elegant Light line and weighs only 600 grams. The top can accommodate a traditional tin foil and the height is comfortably just a bit taller than a standard bottle. It’s a perfect addition to other tapered bottles and for partnering with an elegant new Burgundy Claire.

- The Claire is an elegantly appointed Burgundy bottle that will be available in Spring 2012 as an addition to the handsome line of lighter-weight, larger-neck bottles in the Elegant Light lineup. Its curvaceous lines make it sensually appealing, with a label area that’s extended to satisfy your labeling presence. Samples of both bottles are available upon request. Hope to see you at Unified (http://bit.ly/zmlJ1Y) and at the Fancy Food show (http://bit.ly/yZNgav)

Global Package in the News

One of our prestigious customers, Steven Burrows, Chief Operating Officer for Haas Brothers/Cyrus Noble, was featured in not one, but two packaging publications: Package Design Magazine (http://bit.ly/y32NKC) and Packaging World (http://bit.ly/ynwuw2) Check ‘em out. We think the pieces offer some good insight into updating a legacy brand, and we were honored to be a key player in the process.

Does Customization Pay Off?

As many of you know, for years I have worked with Barrie Tucker of the Barrie Tucker Company in Australia, who over the course of 30 years has spearheaded the design of many of that continent’s leading wine brands, as well as other leading international brands. He was inducted into the Australian Design Hall of Fame in 2008. Together, we have developed a new White Paper that discusses the value, benefits, and best practices of customized packaging for the wine industry (http://bit.ly/x0fX8E). He also contributed a case study (http://bit.ly/w3EebE) illustrating his design process when he created a propriety bottle and label for two premium Merlots for South Australia’s Smith & Hooper brand. Check out the bottles here: http://www.smithandhooper.com/wines.html

Originality Matters

Every so often a customer will tell me he wants his wine to “look like” the category leader’s wine …a bad idea in my opinion. Not only does knocking-off another brand invite legal action, it’s rarely a smart strategic decision. Here’s a great article by Marianne Rosner Klimchuk, Associate Chairperson, Associate Professor, Packaging Design Dept., Fashion Institute of Technology that discusses the topic. The Trade Dress Protection Act (amended from the Trademark Act of 1946) states that trade dress—which can include “fonts, font colors, window curvature and packaging dress”— functioning as a mark may be registered and protected without the need to show that it has become distinctive if the relevant public is likely to identify the source of the product or service by reference to the subject matter claimed as trade dress. In 1995, a Supreme Court Case stated that under the right circumstances, trade dress that consists purely and simply of a color can be protected; e.g., the Campbell’s red soup can. “Professional designers seek to design original and innovative strategic solutions to marketing problems. Certainly they want to create a design that beats out the competition for shelf visibility, but they seek originality over mimicry,” Kimchuk says. While marketers may sometimes encourage a follow-the-leader design to grab market share, they need to consider potential legal ramifications. In her view, the best solution is “a design that is a competitive instrument providing strategic results based on innovation rather than imitation.” We agree. Click here for the article: http://bit.ly/wIVe8y

Try Before You Buy

Tastingroom.com is employing its “Try Before You Buy” program in a partnership with retailer Cost Plus World Market to provide samples of luxury wines in 100ml bottles to customers, who can buy both the 100ml Wines by the Glass product and the full-size 750ml bottles at Cost Plus World Market stores. Tastingroom.com is already known for creating wine samplers that feature six 50ml mini bottles that hold 1.7 oz. of wine each. The Cost Plus partnership will feature the wineries selections—which will retail for $24.99-$34.99 at over 200 Cost Plus World Market stores across the country—in four 100ml bottles of their premium wines. Participating wineries include Duckhorn Wine Company, Pine Ridge (part of Crimson Wine Group) and Boisset Family Estates. Read the full story here:
http://bit.ly/xuw9Rx

Chinese Wine on the Rise

According to Business Insider.com, 10 French judges and 10 Chinese judges spent 40 minutes on December 14, 2011 in a blind tasting of five wines from Bordeaux and five wines from Ningxia, an autonomous region in Northwest China. The wines were all priced between 200 and 500 Yuan (or $30 to $80 USD) and “were wrapped in black cloth and tagged with a number.” When the results were announced the top four wines turned out to be Chinese …a sobering conclusion for wine exporters to China, particularly given the handicap the country’s import tax places on foreign wines. “We used a price range to compare top Ningxia wines with bigger and better-known Bordeaux brands sold here by major distributors—brands consumers are more likely to know and have access to,” said Jim Boyce, organizer of the Ningxia vs Bordeaux Challenge, and administrator of www.grapewallofchina.com/. But the price difference between the winning Chinese wine (488 Yuan or 80 USD) and the most expensive Bordeaux (350 Yuan or $55 USD) was significant, which presumably would favor the Chinese brands. You can read more and find the winners and losers here: http://bit.ly/w7M6yF

News ‘n Notes

New regulations affecting members of the California wine and alcohol beverage industry in 2012 include clarification on third-party marketing and promotions, a new direct-to-consumer wine retail license, permission for on-premise infusion of wine and spirits with flavors, a change in the definition of “distilled spirits” for taxation purposes, new state Russian River frost-protection water rules and agricultural union elections law changes (http://bit.ly/wkFtDf) …France and Chile currently dominate as major players in the South Korean wine market, with Italy, California / USA and Australia forming an important second tier (see Country Power Chart in South Korea based on Vinitrac® data …62% of the 5.5 million imported wine drinkers in Russia and 72% of the 17.9 million imported wine drinkers in Brazil are under 44 and primarily live in the twin hubs of St. Petersburg and Moscow and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Download the report here (http://bit.ly/xmNFCN) …Loved this video, “How Chinese Learn to Drink Wine.” Check it out: (http://bit.ly/yFf43E) …Ex-basketball player Yao Ming has started his own wine company, Yao Family Wines, in Napa, California and has appointed Pernod Ricard as its exclusive importer in China (http://bit.ly/yfWDM8) …94% of U.S. wine consumers still prefer natural cork, according to a recent study by to a recent survey by Tragon Corp. PDF can be downloaded here (http://bit.ly/A0GnGy).

About Global Package
With an astute understanding of the industry and the needs of clients, Global Package sources wine and spirits bottles and packaging worldwide.
Bottles
• Elegant Light line
• Premium, in stock
• Ultra-premium
• Custom molds
• Competitively priced Packaging
• Pewter labels
• Custom boxes
• Spirits bar-top closures Decorations
• Silk-screening
• Medallions Design
We are at your service.

Erica Hiller Harrop
President

Erica Harrop, GLOBAL PACKAGE, LLC, Napa, CA.
707-224-5670 (phone) 707-294-7899 (mobile) 707-224-5683 (fax)
info@globalpackage.net
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