Thursday, 25 August, 2016
Winemag.co.za, Christian
Head winemaker Johann Fourie has left to be replaced by Wim Truter, who only recently was appointed to head up Fleur du Cap at KWV competitor Distell, while director in charge of global marketing and sales efforts DeBruyn Steenkamp is arranging workshops to brainstorm why KWV’s flagship range The Mentors doesn’t have more of a following in the market, despite winning multiple awards both locally and internationally. “The intrinsics aren’t in question but we’re perceived as corporate and retro,” he says.
No doubt, KWV has a legacy problem dating from its role as a parastatal of the apartheid government but it’s not impossible to re-invent yourself as demonstrated, for instance, by those German companies who played a central role in the Nazi economy but still continue to trade successfully to this day.
The question is: when is a long history “heritage” and when is it a burden that needs to be jettisoned? One brand that was potentially an icon in the KWV portfolio is obviously Roodeberg but with the wine currently selling for around R65 a bottle and now firmly entrenched in the middle market, it’s difficult to see how the company’s brains trust could successfully reposition it as an ultra-premium offering. Distell, of course, has the same problem with Chateau Libertas.
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