Latin America’s largest wine producer, Concha y Toro, has launched a brand that ‘breaks from wine convention’ to bring a new and younger audience into the category.
Officially launched in London last night – and 498 Tesco stores across the UK – was Château Jacked, a new aromatised wine-based drink comprising a white and a rosé with added flavours.
Unveiling the product, Clare Griffiths, who is commercial director at Concha y Toro UK, said that the product had been devised to make wine more appealing among men and women in their 20s, who generally drink gin, beer or flavoured cider.
“There are cool drinks, and then there is wine,” she stated, as she introduced Château Jacked in a loft apartment in SE1, London.
Continuing, she said that Concha y Toro has asked “lots of UK consumers” aged 22-29 why they aren’t drinking wine, and has received feedback saying that the format size is wrong – 75cl is too big – and that they prefer fruity flavours and long drinks.
Also, in terms of image, wine is seen as old fashioned – “it’s what their parents drink”, recorded Griffiths.
Jacked has been designed with these issues in mind, so it comes in a 50cl bottle, with a “cool” tear-away label, and “exciting natural flavours”, according to Griffiths.
Also present at the launch event was Preety Johl, senior customer marketing manager at Concha y Toro UK, who said that the brand used “no-nonsense language”, and could be served with fruit and “however you want – in a tumbler or Martini glass”.
“Hopefully Jacked shifts the perception of what wine is doing right now”, she added.
Using a 12.5% Chilean “full-bodied” base wine, she said that Jacked saw “tradition collide with a rebellious attitude”.
Currently, just two products have been unveiled under the Château Jacked brand: a Sauvignon Blanc flavoured with ginger, and a rosé with lychee, both coming in a 50cl format, and priced at £5.
Speaking exclusively to db after the unveiling, Griffiths said that the wine-based drink was launching in the UK, but that “the plan is to go global”, and said that Jacked would include further products in the future, intimating that a sparkling version should be added to the range next year.
In terms of the flavours, ginger and lychee came out of research that tested a range of ingredients on consumers in the UK and elsewhere.
“Ginger and lychee came out of extensive consumer research as the best: ginger is very popular and lychee gave the refreshment people were looking for.”
While the Sauvignon-based ginger-flavoured white has intense aromas of ginger, the rosé with added lychee is more subtle, and wine-like.
Indeed, Griffiths told db that Concha y Toro had been told to “dial up the ginger”, recalling feedback from potential consumers that said “if it states ginger on the label, then they really want to smell it”.
Motivating the Latin American wine producer to launch Jacked has been the group’s largest ever consumer ‘usage and attitudes’ survey, which has shown that a proposition such as Jacked will bring more people into the wine category.
“We found that there is an opportunity to bring new consumers into wine, but they need a reason to come in,” she said.
As for the name, Jacked “came out as being the most cool and trendy,” from the same research.
While “other flavours are in the pipeline” according to Griffiths, as well as further base grape varieties, mentioning Chardonnay, she said that creating a red version of Jacked was proving “a challenge”, commenting that the wine producer had yet to find the “combination of wine and flavour that is right for the UK consumer”, having tried a range, from “smoked, to coffee, cinnamon and Earl Grey tea”.
The wines are in almost 500 Tesco supermarkets from yesterday, and are being sold in the wine aisle in the “fruit wines” section.
The supermarket has an exclusivity on the brand in the supermarket sector until next year, said Griffiths, who is looking to place Jacked in convenience stores and “with a partner” in the on-trade too.
The wines for the product are shipped in bulk from Chile and bottled at Greencroft in the UK. They have around 5g/l of residual sugar and entirely natural flavourings.
According to a press statement sent to db this morning, “Jacked breaks from wine convention, tearing up the rules and focusing on flavour and enjoyment, making it an approachable offer for risk-averse younger adults who are so often intimidated by the retail wine fixture.”
The same release noted that Jacked is focused on the 22-29 unisex audience who currently shop within spirits, premium ciders and beers, while highlighting the potential in the flavoured wine sector, which Concha y Toro said is growing at 6.5%, with over one-third (35.5%) of flavoured wine buyers under 45 years old.
