eBay: The Las Vegas of Wine

Recently, the Château Lafite 1982 has experienced an astronomical rise in value. Perhaps too astronomical, and perhaps not based on the quality or uniqueness of the wine itself. Still, month after month auction houses report new record prices and I expected that to happen again recently. Up for auction was the perfect bottle. The starting price was exceptionally low, but as around thirty bidders competed for it, the price rose to EUR 500 in just a few hours. In the end, the Lafite was sold for EUR 650 – a high price for an empty bottle.

The fact that the auction took place on eBay a few months ago is not enough to explain the high price – significantly higher than what I paid for a full bottle in 2000. I feel that the only logical explanation for the price is that in a few months’ time the same bottle will reappear on the market, either on eBay or in China, although this time it will be full, equipped with a fancy new foil and with another zero added to the price.

The sale of fake wines online, especially on eBay, has been common for years, and business seems to be thriving. The most obvious proof of this are the prices paid for empty bottles. Recycling is evidently the topic of the day, even on eBay.

eBay is both - heaven and hell for the wine buyer. The selection is endless and endlessly changing (as I write this there are around 89,000 bottles of wine for sale, and thousands more will appear next week), but there are huge fluctuations in quality. Practically any wine at all can be found on eBay, from the famous Lafite 1787 to the latest Romanée-Conti. Often the price is only one tenth of the price in international auction houses, but so is your chance of making a successful purchase. I have acquired hundreds of wine bottles through various countries’ eBay sites. Many of them have been genuine, in good condition and well packaged. Unfortunately, many have also arrived broken or proven to be fakes. Around one in ten wines have failed to arrive altogether. 

eBay offers opportunities for real bargains, because the sellers are usually private individuals, selling directly from their own cellars without intermediaries. Usually when buying from a private vendor, the main problem is not the reliability of the wine’s origins, but the transport. Few people have access to the proper packaging materials needed for wine, and even fewer know how to insure the freight. On average, two out of ten bottles are broken on arrival.  

eBay is also used by hundreds of “real” wine dealers, but many of them do it mainly to dump their worst bottles onto the market. eBay is also paradise for wine counterfeiters and thereby an excellent place for us professionals to learn to recognise fakes. I would argue that more than half of the bottles sold on eBay for over EUR 500 are counterfeits. Some of them blatantly obvious, like the Jefferson Lafite 1787 mentioned above (although even that was sold for over EUR 15,000), and others extremely skilful, like a Romanée-Conti Montrachet from 1982 that I recently acquired. Unfortunately there are also sellers who offer wines they do not even have. Having received payment, they disappear from the system, only to register again the next day under a different username. 

Thus it is only worth buying wines on eBay if you are ready to take on risks regarding their authenticity, transport and condition – even their existence. In fact, I can only really recommend risk-free use of eBay for selling your wines. Selling on eBay is easy and the whole world is a potential buyer. You do not have to send out your wine until you have received the money. It’s simple and it’s safe.

The risk of being defrauded on eBay has grown exponentially in the last 24 months. Therefore it is necessary to be alert and not to set your hopes too high. I recommend observing the following rules when buying on eBay:

• Only buy from sellers with at least 200 positive ratings from buyers. Ensure that the seller did not receive the positive feedback by selling 50-cent pens but rather products similar to what you are buying.

• Look for sellers who are based in your country whenever possible.

• Check that the seller has sold wines before and that the feedback received for postage and packing is a full five stars.

• Ask the seller to send pictures of the wines directly from his or her private email address. Particularly pictures of the foil and the wine’s surface level.

• Ask for photographs with a date stamp.

• Always ask the seller to insure the wine for its full value.

• In the case of expensive bottles, ask the seller to use a courier service rather than ordinary post.

• Only use PayPal or a similar payment method; never agree to wire transfers or Western Union. Never give your credit card details to the seller.

Following these principles already improves your chances of buying a genuine, full wine bottle in good condition on eBay by 50%. But it is always a gamble. In fact, many sellers’ favourite expression is probably “What happens on eBay, stays on eBay.”

Wine Advertising – Have You Seen Any?

How many wine advertisements do you remember seeing in magazines and newspapers? How many mottoes or slogans do you recall? Probably not many. In fact, remembering even will place you above the average.

This is no surprise. In a fiercely competitive wine industry, valued at an estimated EUR 19 billion in 2015, the majority of wine producers have no marketing budget whatsoever, not to mention any advertising budget. Consumers generally do not like to spend money on things they do not know. It is hard to get to know someone without communication, and advertising forms a part of the communication between a product and its customer –  a step forward on the path of getting to know each other.

Therefore one of the best ways of standing out from among more than 300,000 wine brands is still traditional marketing and advertising.

Showing Up / Woody Allen once said that eighty per cent of success is showing up. Advertising works pretty much in the same way. Show up in popular media and you stand a chance that people will recall your product when they’re making a purchase decision. Simple, but time-consuming and expensive. Still, it is essential if you want to make your brand a success. Good communications, like good advertisements, always have an inexplicable attraction – a strange, almost supernatural or magical pull that stays in your mind. Depending on your attitude towards commercial communications, you might approach this attraction with either spontaneous admiration, cool detachment, childish enthusiasm, straight-laced seriousness or preconceived judgement. One thing is for sure, though: good advertising garners a response and awakens interest from buyers.

Let Your Product Speak for Itself / Browsing the latest leading wine publications, I find plenty of interesting, sharply written and beautifully illustrated articles, but no advertisements fulfilling the same criteria. It’s just one beauty shot of a bottle after the next, without any relevant or memorable statements. Today, companies have to provide more information about themselves and their products than ever before. There are an increasing number of places for customers and products to meet. Therefore I contend that in the wine industry, more than in any other similarly sized industry, advertising offers the easiest and most cost-effective way of standing out from the crowd and having a positive impact on the consumers’ purchase decisions.

For those who make a living out of it, wine is a very mundane product. Working with it daily, they can easily start to view the world and the market purely from their own perspective; they see only their own product and its technical or functional excellence and forget what it is that actually makes people buy it. This is why we need advertising, copywriters and media: to act as interpreters between the product and its buyers.

For consumers, wine is far from mundane. It contains many fascinating, appealing and valuable elements – things that should be brought out and presented to potential buyers. This requires advertising that can highlight the product’s best aspects without undermining its credibility.

Good advertising is always based on solid fact. Its energy comes from verifiable properties of the product or service on offer. Wine, perhaps more than any other consumer goods, contains a huge number of aesthetic and ethical factors on which to build a positive message.

Consumers are smart.

Anyone can distinguish an excellent advertisement from a mediocre one – just like a good wine from a bad one. Anyone can interpret and mentally process a message that is punchy, different, positive and fresh and which tickles our imaginations. That is the definition of a good advert. Although it is crucial to remember and accept that the most important task of advertising, besides imparting information, is to enhance sales – not to act as a free news or entertainment channel for viewers.

The main difference between factual communication and advertising lies in the presentation or tuning. In this way, advertising can seduce its audience more effectively than a purely rational message. It is thus the approach, rather than the medium or even the content, that differentiates advertising from other communications.

The changes in society since the 1960s, arising from information and communication technology developments, economic globalisation, increasing prosperity, liberalisation of ideas, weakening of traditional behavioural norms and growth of market supply, have led to a situation with completely different daily routines and well-being levels.

Advertising and marketing were also in turmoil at the time, looking for their place in the new communication channels and modes that were becoming available. The result was partly a lot of trivial nonsense but partly also the sharpest and most insightful communications of their time. Diversity was not feared, it was turned into art – and not just any art, but sellable art.

Good advertising consists of timeless aesthetics, well-timed entertainment, multidimensional culture and straightforward product information, all at the same time. Advertising is interpersonal communication, without which our environment would be much impoverished – both spiritually and materialistically. 

by Nuikki (Former partner and Creative Director of Advertise Agency Group)

Before founding the FINE publishing house, Pekka Nuikki became famous as a wine investor. There are over 100 wine investing related articles about him and he has visited several television programs to discuss the subject. Since 1998 Nuikki has published the Wine Investing Report on a monthly basis and was also the first person in Europe to publish a book about wine investing. The 450 page ‘In Vino Veritas – How to collect and invest into wines’ publication is the basic book of wine investing. He is also the founder of FINE Wine Index©, world's only unbias fine and rare wine auction price index.

Nuikki is also one of the most productive wine authors in Europe. He has published over 30 books, most of them are from art and wine but also books subjects like Supercars and Poets. Several wine themed books of his have been published in recent years, most recently publications in English and German: Drinking History – Stories from Wines and Vintages 1870-1970; Mouton-Rothschild Art and Wine; and the “Michelin Guide” of the wine world, 1000 Finest Wines Ever Made. Just in last year he published three wine books: The 600 pages Drinking History part II 1727-2010, The Wines of the Century and The Best 100 Champagnes. The latest one, In Vino Veritas II, book about Wine Collecting and Investing was just release on November 2015..
 

Some 26 years ago in London, Nuikki founded his first wine club: The Vine Club, the most prestigious Nordic wine club. The Vine Club is a private tasting group, which has a membership of 35 – carefully selected persons who enjoy wine with the desire to get valuable experiences and thrills. Today The Vine Club holds regular wine tastings and wine dinners in the Nordic Countries. The club has excelled itself with some stunning events. Our past tastings have featured almost all of the world's rarest and finest wines including 108 vintages of Château Lafite starting from 1811, 93 vintages of Mouton-Rothschild starting from 1875, 106 vintages of Château d'Yquem starting from 1819, and 74 vintages of Pétrus starting from 1900 etc.

Nuikki is also the founder of The Premier Wine Club (2005), which holds super rare wine tastings and dinners. Latest event included wines like Quinta do Noval Nacional 1931, Romanee Conti 1929, Petrus 1929, La Tâche 1890 etc.

Who is your Wine Critic

Many of the choices that we make in life are influenced by critics. These loved and loathed experts tell us which London restaurant is now serving the best Anjou pigeon, why you just have to see the minimalist exhibition at the MoMA, whether it is worth catching the latest Hunger Games at the cinema…

However, would you choose to go to a movie that was recommended by a critic who spends most of his day watching music videos and reality TV and has not yet seen the masterworks of Fellini, Truffaut, or Tarkovsky? Moreover, one who has also never seen the performances by Robert de Niro as Taxi Driver, Holly Hunter in The Piano, or Chaplin in Modern Times.

On the other hand, perhaps you would take your partner out for a birthday celebration at a restaurant recommended by a critic who has spent his time in fast food joints and eating ready-made meals, but has not experienced the atmosphere of the French Laundry, El Bulli, or perhaps the Fat Duck. Or perhaps who has never sampled the magical creations of Gordon Ramsay, Alain Ducasse, or Wolfgang Puck.

Probably not.

To make a worthwhile, credible judgment, the critic at least needs to know what he is judging and possess extensive knowledge of the subject.

Nevertheless, most of us follow the advice of those wine critics who mainly spend their time trying out cheap, nondescript wine and young, raw bottlings. Many such critics have never tasted the perfection of a 1947 Cheval Blanc, savoured the sheer elegance of a 1928 vintage Krug champagne, or experienced the sublime balance of a 1962 Vega Sicilia. Or perhaps who have never tried the best vintages of Jean-Claude Berrouet, Henri Jayer, or André Noblet. What if he or she has never tasted the world's best wines when they are at their peak? What then is his or her evaluation based on?

Wine critics often seem to try to hide their lack of expertise and experience behind glib remarks about the product, often at its own expense. The judgment made is simply the critic's opinion, and has little to do with the product's real essence.

Wine culture these days is for the mass market, the same way that cinema is. Efficient production machinery churns out products for the general public from the same old and often regrettably indifferent sources. Amid all of this greyness and in this atmosphere of paucity, the wine critic’s role is to act as a ‘quality’ filter between wines and consumers. The critic analyses the wine, gives their opinion, and thus influences their thirsty – and very busy – clients.

Although critics quite rightly think that they should cater to their readers, their reviews more often than not affect those who make a living from wine. A negative, inexpert, or inappropriate judgment can have repercussions, for example, for the sales of an individual wine, its appearance in shops, investment in its advertising, and the unwillingness of a merchant to bring a new vintage onto the market or of a restaurant to put it on the wine list. On the other hand, one should not make too much of this, as a positive criticism cannot rescue a wine either, if it simply does not deserve the praise and high scores that it receives.

The wine critic's most important tool is experience. Without extensive personal experience, it is impossible to rate a wine or explain the way that it relates to other wines. A good wine critic examines the wine from different angles and considers its qualities and significance in its broader cultural context and against its background as a product. The wine engrosses them, but at the same time, they keep a distance from it. They are also required to distinguish between the best and mediocre, and to take the trouble to provide a detailed explanation of their opinion of the wine. Such an expert discovers each wine's personality and characteristics and acknowledges its uniqueness. Furthermore, more than anything else, a good wine critic is humble and all too aware of the power that they wield.

If your wine critic matches these criteria, you can go off to the wine store and confidently serve what it has to offer to your friends at dinner. As long as you remember that the most important critic is to be found within yourself. That one is always right, even when your very own official wine critic thinks otherwise.

In earlier life Pekka Nuikki has travelled as an fashion photographer in over 100 countries and worked as a advertisement film director. His photographs have been published in hundreds of magazines and publications. He has studied photography in e.g. London College of Printing Art and film directing in the British Film Institute. Furthermore, he has taught in a number of educational institutions e.g. in France and England. His commercial work has been published in two volumes: Eye of the Vision and Eye of the Vision in Colour.

Pekka Nuikki has also devoted part of his workday into being Partner of an advertising agency group. He has been responsible of the look and marketing of several international brands since 1996. Commercials, photographs, logos, volumes, and publications of his creation have been awarded all over the world with over 150 international awards incl. Kodak Pro Prize, Montreaux Film Festival Golden Palm, Clio Gold Award, Epica Gold Award, LIA Grand Prix and Dialogue Grand Prix.

Many significant museums and private collectors have his work in their collections. His wine related work was exhibited at the Bordeaux festival Fête de la Fleur, in Wien at Coburg Palace, in Frankfurt at ProWine, at Meadowoods in Napa Valley, In New Delhi etc. Many books have been published on his art, the latest being on the subject of motherhood - Inside World. 

Pekka is also a good tennis player (has played his country´s nacional team), a keen golfer with handicap 1 with seven hole in ones (two of them in Par 4). He lives in Helsinki with his family.

Pekka Nuikki is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the world's leading Fine Wine Magazines - FINE-magazines. He is also founder of the world's only Champagne Magazine and FINEst WINEs - Wine Investing and Collecting Magazine, founder of Tastingbook.com and founder of BWW - Best Wine of the World-competition.