Big wine names stay away from local market

Two of the world’s top producers of wine, Constellation Brands and E&J Gallo, have not included Romania on their investment map so far, preferring destinations such as Chile or Australia instead, as they belong to the area dubbed by specialists the “New World” of wine.

Romania is being avoided by major winemakers because it does not have internationally renowned wine brands, and the domestic market is not stable enough.

As a result, Romania will continue to work with the same small foreign investors whose number is increasing.

“We do not have any investment plans for the Romanian wine market at this point,” Mairead Quinn, Senior PR Manager with the European arm of the US wine producer E&J Gallo Winery, the world’s third largest, told Ziarul Financiar.

US-based Constellation Brands does not find the Romanian market interesting, either.

“Unfortunately, Constellation has no plans to invest in the Romanian wine industry in the near future,” said Claire Wakelin, Communications Manager with the European unit of Constellation.

Wakelin also said that the world leader is mainly involved in the wine industry of the New World, which is very popular with the British market, one of the most sophisticated and highly competitive wine markets in the world.

“New World wines are very popular in Great Britain because they belong to the ‘value for money’ category and have reliable quality. Moreover, these wines can be savored at any occasion. Romanian wines are not very well known on the British market, probably because there are no important brands, which are the key to the acquisition of wine by British consumers,” Claire Wakelin maintains.

Ion Dobronauteanu, chairman of the Inter-professional National Wine Organisation, says that Romania is closer to the EU in terms of its wine production tradition, and not to Australia or the US. “We are closer to the EU and this is why small investors come from this area. On the other hand, major investors such as Constellation are interested in buying amid stability conditions. Romania has not dealt with the issue of vineyard ownership yet,” says Dobronauteanu.

The Romanian wine market, whose annual value is put at 270 million euros, is 95% dominated by domestic wines, which are in their turn produced, to a very large extent, by domestic investors: Murfatlar, Vincon Vrancea, Jidvei, Vinia Iasi.
stelian.negrea@zf.ro