'Women are the most important consumer': Wolfgang Blass

A short, round-faced man comically stands on a delicately trimmed chair of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Well dressed and with his iconic bow tie in place, he jokes, he laughs, he cajoles, much to the delight of the small crowd gathered to celebrate his 75th birthday.

"Let’s have a party," says Wolfgang Blass, the East German-born Australian whose name, Wolf Blass, printed under the spread wings of an eagle, decorates 65 million bottles of wine sold over the world each year. He has been celebrating his birthday since February and plans to continue the merriment until September, when he does, in fact, finally turn 75.

Eccentric? Perhaps. But it as much a stroke of genius. Playing the part of the jolly entertainer to his guests, who thrust forward bottles, booklets and trinkets for autographs while lapping up his humour and his wine, it is clear why Mr. Blass has had such brilliant marketing success.

No doubt, selling a world-class, award-winning product is key. Amid his myriad of awards stands the International Red Winemaker of the Year, 2008. But in a region celebrated for its wine making, it is the entrepreneur’s cunning marketing strategies that have turned his humble beginnings in South Australia’s Barossa Valley in 1966 into a world success.

Nowadays, Mr. Blass exports his reds, whites and sparkling wines to more than 50 markets around the world. This success will be documented in his autobiography Behind The Bow Tie, to be released next month.

"The bow tie has been used in a marketing sense as a touch of class, a little touch of elegance," he said, describing how he would wear it while working in the vineyards in rubber boots. "This is how we created a certain image in the marketing department. They thought, Wolf Blass is the entertainer."

He chuckles, but goes on to explain that it took a lot more than a bow tie to convince the Australian beer drinking, sherry swigging public of the 1960s to embrace wine.

"Table wines didn’t exist!" he remarked, outlining how he broke into the market with a type of pearl wine to be consumed with dinner, targeted women, and linked wine varieties to coloured labels, such as the illustrious Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon, which is among the top selling wines in Canada.

"My thought today is, if we want to go to Asia, that’s where we have to start, because people don’t understand grape varieties," he said. "And it is important at all times: Women are the most important consumer. They’re consumer orientated, they’re the hospitality industry, and we guys, we must know, if we can’t please women, we’re finishing up with absolutely nothing."

These days, Mr. Blass continues to push the boundaries, such as the introduction of a recyclable plastic wine bottle. It is not exactly a product that will send a connoisseur’s tongue wagging, but its a product that can be marketed to party loving, backyard barbecue, picnic packing consumers.

"Yes, I think everybody’s going to buy a bottle because you can walk around and drop it!”"he exclaimed.

As for Mr. Blass’ view of Canadian wine, he said Canada has the best ice wine in the world and does very well in marketing it overseas, particularly to Japan, where it is viewed as an aphrodisiac.