The Tail has landed
MANILA, Philippines - The most successful international wine brand in the new millennium, Yellow Tail from Australia, is now in the Philippines. Yellow Tail wine sales have been on an upswing over the last two to three years, registering very impressive double-digit growth annually despite economic concerns in the country. Yellow Tail also contends in the highly competitive mid price range that retails between P300 to P500 a bottle. The Philippines is still predominantly a price-sensitive wine market, with over 70 percent of the wines coming from the entry level and low-priced range (P300 and below), led by undisputed market leader Carlo Rossi, California’s generic wine brand. But Yellow Tail is already gaining some ground in converting some of the low-priced wine drinkers to trade up. Brisk sales from leading supermarkets and warehouse clubs, including Rustan’s, Robinsons, Landmark, Hi-Top, Shopwise to SnR show even more potential for the brand in the near future.
Last Oct. 22, Golden Wines, Inc., the exclusive Philippines importer and distributor of Yellow Tail, staged a wine party at the souped-up and newly renovated Fiamma Bar in Jupiter Street, Makati City. Entitled “Yellow Tail, Play By Your Rule,” the wine party also featured a mini concert by the hottest female singing group in the country today, Mocha. There were free-flowing Yellow Tail wines, food, raffles galore and a blind wine-tasting contest. This was a Yellow Tail thanksgiving party for loyal customers and supporters of the brand, and a majority of the invitees were from the wine trade. During the event, Golden Wines, Inc. announced that the company would donate P100 for every person that attended the event, and give the lump sum total in cash to the “Sagipkapamilya” fund of ABS-CBN Foundation as a modest contribution to the victims of Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.
Wine Drinking and Much More
From the first guest who arrived around 7 p.m., to the last that left past 11 p.m. after the Mocha concert, Yellow Tail wines were served bottomless. Attendees got to choose from the four most popular varietal names, the Cabernet Sauvignon, the white Chardonnay, the Merlot and the no. 1 Syrah (or “Shiraz” as the Aussies call it) in the world, Yellow Tail Shiraz. In the final reckoning, based on consumption that night, it was a toss-up between Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon and Yellow Tail Shiraz as the favorite Yellow Tail wine of the evening.
After a series of lucky pick raffle draws, where imported jackets, wine cooler bags and wine buckets were awarded to winning stub holders, the stage was set for a blind tasting contest. The contest was to determine who knew their Yellow Tail varietals best in a blindfolded contest. Since there are three Yellow Tail Red varietals — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz — and it would be relatively easy to guess all three, I decided to complicate matters by creating a fourth Red, blending 60 percent Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon with 40 percent Merlot — a classic Bordeaux blend, one might call it. So, contestants now had to guess or identify all four Reds, the three varietals plus my “mystery” blend. At stake was a rare bottle of the highly touted 2004 Yellow Tail Limited Edition Shiraz. This multi-award winning wine from Mclaren Vale, South Australia is not and will not be available in the Philippines due to very limited production, and is a real wine collector’s dream. We got three confident Yellow Tail drinkers to do the blind taste — and after another five minutes, a winner emerged in the person of Atty. Bodjie Tobillo, one of the owners of the Decanter Wine Bar in Tomas Morato, and a staunch supporter of Yellow Tail.
Capping the evening off was an energetic performance by the sultry Mocha girls. Mocha is composed of leader and group namesake Mocha, Hershey, Bes, Grace and new member Heart. Incidentally, Yellow Tail has been the official wine sponsor of the group Mocha since last year. The Mocha girls typify the Yellow Tail brand character of being fun, free-spirited, unpretentious, and full of life. Mocha herself is a wine lover and counts Yellow Tail Chardonnay as one of her favorite wines of all time. “I love Yellow Tail Chardonnay because it has a nice aroma, very refreshing, and so delicious to drink anytime,” said Mocha.
Judging from the smiling faces of the jam-packed crowd at Fiamma, Yellow Tail has indeed arrived in the Philippines. The yellow fever is catching fast… and we’re not talking politics here.
