Ep 21: The Real Reason You Can Remember the Name of Your Favourite Spirits, But Not Your Wine

Wine is the original luxury product, so why are there so few memorable wine brands?

In this episode, Felicity and Lulie dig into wine’s historic allergy to the word “brand” – even as wineries are being told their life’s work isn’t worth what they thought, because nobody remembers their labels. Drawing on IWSR data, they look at how few wine brands normal drinkers can actually recall, why most wineries sit at the bottom of the brand pyramid, and what Ehrenberg-Bass really means when it says brands grow through availability, not vague “loyalty”. Along the way, they pit wine against gin and beer, unpack why Champagne wins the memory game, and explain why fine wine secretly uses every trick in the marketer’s book while pretending it’s all just terroir and tradition.

From there they rewind the clock: Bordeaux négociants, aristocrats who thought money was vulgar, the rise of spirits brands like Gordon’s and Hennessy, the invention of glass bottles, appellations as proto-brands, and how varietal labelling became the default. It explains why wine itself is memorable, but individual wines are not.

Meet Your Hosts:

Lulie Halstead founded and led international consumer research and strategy consultancy Wine Intelligence, and led it to a successful PE exit. Today she is a renowned global beverage alcohol and wine sector specialist, focused on consumer behaviour, strategy, retail and hospitality. An accomplished keynote speaker, she has spoken at more than 70 international events over the past 20 years.

Felicity Carter is an award-winning wine and drinks journalist, editor and content strategist. She led Meininger’s Wine Business International to become the world’s most must-read wine trade magazine, and was founding Executive Editor of The Drop/Pix, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the most trusted sources of wine information. A regular keynote speaker, she was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly. Her Drinks Insider podcast won the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award for Audio.