Its great that we have a brand selling well in the US, but do we really want a cheap and cheerful, uncomplicated and frankly relatively sub-par wine carrying the flag for our wine industry? Stop exporting crap wine and get the decent stuff into the export markets.

Andre, whilst everyone is entitled to an opinion, I would like to point out a few pertinent facts worth considering, speaking as somebody with over 17 years wine industry experience - 10 in building brands internationally:
1) The US wine market is an extremely tough market for South African wines where we as a country have a market share of less than 1%.
2) The AC Nielsen classifications (on which we based this press release) classify wine between $8 and $10.99 as Super Premium and the average price for the beachhouse in this survey was $9.64. Ultra Premium is classified between $11 and $14.99.The beachhouse is therefore more than just a “cheap and cheerful” wine.
3) The second best selling South African wine is smaller producer Excelsior Cabernet which is priced lower at $7.30. Whilst there is an important role to be played by the small Cape estates and private cellars, their constraints of volume mean that it impossible to lead the category on these wines alone.
4) The beachhouse is also ranked no 15 in terms of Imported Sauvignon Blanc’ amongst illustrious wine producing countries and truly global brands such as Oyster Bay at $11.15, Nobilo ($11.05) and Kim Crawford ($14.90) from New Zealand and Santa Rita at $ 6.75, Frontera at $ 8.91 for a 1.5 litre from Chile as well as Yellow Tail from Australia at $6.25.
5) New Zealand is universally recognised as exporting wines with the highest average shelf price points but this is only $2.00 on average higher than the beachhouse, whilst we are on average $2.50 more expensive than Chile and Australia and the average price for a bottle of wine in the US.
6) The US consumer is extremely sensitive and if the wine did not live up to its value in terms of taste and style at this high price point, it would not have been the success that it has been. The crisp fresh style of Sauvignon Blanc is a very attractive package that has certainly hit the spot with American consumers enamoured with the ‘exotic’ look and feel of the brand.
7) DGB is not a big wine company with unlimited resources but we are firmly committed to building brand South Africa by exporting nothing but the best that the Cape has to offer and assisting these efforts with proper marketing support. I personally think that we have been relatively successful in this quest but also believe there is still a long way to go and a lot more is needed.
We would welcome communication with you and invite you to join us to taste through our wines and perhaps change your opinion of the beachhouse being a ‘crap’ wine.

SA's biggest marketing lever for our wines is our SUNSHINE! So glad someone realised it and packed South African Sunshine in a bottle for the biggest wine market in the world! The US! I've tried the beachhouse before and I like the wine just as much as the packaging! So Andre get yourself a bottle in SA and try it! It's a bargain, it normally sells for $10!

SA's biggest marketing lever for our wines is our SUNSHINE! So glad someone realised it and packed South African Sunshine in a bottle for the biggest wine market in the world! The US! I've tried the beachhouse before and I like the wine just as much as the packaging! So Andre get yourself a bottle in SA and try it! It's a bargain, it normally sells for $10!

Unfortunately for the rest of us opinions are like a$$holes everyone has one including Andre, your ignorance exposes your incompetence, no doubt you use a price tag to measure quality. To be perfectly honest we could not ask for a more genuine proudly South African brand ambassador than "the beacchouse" flying our SA flag in the US.
Great product intrinsic, brilliant packaging fetching an attractive price in a very competitive market.

Hi, Can you please tell me where I can get Douglas Greene wine in the US? I had some chardonnay (2009, Vintage) while I was visitng Ireland last year and dreaming about it ever since.
Thanks in advance ..
Ronnie

Hi Ronnie-
Thanks for reaching out and inquiring about our Douglas Green wines, nice to hear that you have been dreaming about them since you last tasted them. We currently sell the DG Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz in most major states around the US. Let me know which city or state you live in and hopfully we can get you some of the wines. Beachhouse varietals are pretty much available in all major stores around the USA and we will be launching the Beachhouse Chardonnay early next year.

Thanks

South African wines still have to make a break-through in USA. Doing that well for any company is fantastic, BUT what is the volume involved? 100 bottles, 1000 bottles, maybe 1 million bottles? It's fantastic to be the biggest, but how big is big?

Hi Danie. The latest Nielsen figures I have (admittedely a few months old now but the brand has actually grown further since then!) show that we sold $2 245 168 worth of wine at an average price of $9.50 per bottle. This equates to 236 333 bottles. You must then take into account the fact that Nielsen does not read certain states where the brand does really well. At the same time Nielsen does not read the on premise business (restaurants, hotels, bars etc) either, so if you add these volumes in as well then I'm sure you can realise that we aren't doing to badly and we are certainly over the 1 million bottle mark!

Hi,
I grew up in Zambia but currently live in the Southwest USA. My company advises US-based firms on investing in Africa but I'm quite keen on seeing the reverse happen. Though biased, I am quite partial to South African wines and would love to see them more represented in the local market. Let me know and I'd love to be in contact and help promote SA wines here locally!

Hi Josh
Why don't you contact Alister Glen on alisterg@dgb.co.za. Alister heads up our American sales team and he can give you information on the way we promote and build our brands.
Keep flying the flag
Greg

Dear Greg,
We would like to import beachouse wine in indian market. pls give us the contact of person looking for Indian / asian market.
Thanks Tarvinder