In the 1980s, Glen Ellen shook up the wine industry by creating quality varietal wines at a time when low-priced generic jug wines dominated. In 2000, Glen Ellen re-created their wines from the inside out – grapes obtained from prized vineyards, stronger relationships with growers, and consumer feedback to fine-tune taste and new product packaging.
The “new Glen Ellen wines” were winning consumer taste tests as well as kudos from top wine experts and media. The wines were better than ever, yet still affordable prices. Glen Ellen needed to re-introduce their wines to consumers who were becoming more and more wine savvy and drinking more expensive wines.
Since wine choice is often based on the psychological influence of the bottle label and price, we set out to demonstrate that these factors are not always an indication of wine quality and taste. To introduce the “new” Glen Ellen wines to the media, we decided to host a blind wine tasting of five wines, including Glen Ellen’s competitors, to let the media decide which wine they preferred without knowing which wine was which. To entice them to attend the event, we offered them the opportunity to experience the Sonoma wine country in a unique fashion: via helicopter.
The blind tasting, although risky, was public relations gold for Glen Ellen. When the bottle labels were revealed, the media selected Glen Ellen as first place among the competition. The tasting proved that wine price is not always an indication of quality as Glen Ellen wines beat wines costing double and triple their price. The publicity following the event generated more than 40 million impressions and with articles appearing in the Marin Independent Journal, Desert Sun, Sunset and Cooking Light magazines.
