Campo: time to 'sex up' wine

Besuited fat old men with black teeth droning on about malolactic fermentation is the last thing the wine industry needs if it wants to educate and attract younger consumers.

That's according to Pancho Campo MW, founder of the Wine Academy of Spain, who said that wine's image should be "simple and sexy".

Speaking at the recent Wine Future 11 conference in Hong Kong, Campo said: "The biggest problem of the next generation is that we are losing millennial consumers [aged between 18 and 25].

And he claimed that they didn't want to be educated in a formal sense. "They want leisure time, and if their first experience of wine is exciting and sexy then they will come back for more. We have to get away from the idea that consumers have to be educated about wine before they drink it."

To create loyal consumers wine's image must be "simple and sexy", said Campo, adding that linking wine to sport, art or tourism was the best way to lure younger people into the market.