VISION 

“A vision always comes first!”

— Bob Mondavi

If there is one single paradigm in our business I have 1000% embraced, then it is Bob Mondavi’s “a vision always comes first!” if you don’t know where to go ... back in the 80s and in particular in the nineties ( working with him personally ), I was a true student of this giant in our industry. Really privileged to have known this icon for almost 30 years.

Vision is key! Yes, and so is the strategy as well, yet they go hand in hand with me. The vision is to be unique, to add true value for the consumer in the first place. Steven Jobs said more than once “the customer experience comes first”. And this is our mantra too when we create brands.                      

The “why buy?” is so much linked to vision and strategy. If you cannot answer this question then you are toast already – it is the acid test for any “me-too” product.

In our case, with the new “baby” coming out on May 5th this year we know exactly what our vision is:

  1. First and foremost, our new wine is NEW. It takes on an exciting “new” grape variety and creates a new attitude and taste profile – therefore having a real purpose to bring this wine  and category to the world 

  2. It will re-discover a famous, yet somewhat dormant region, put it on the global wine map – something we have done successfully also with China ( pfeeeww ;-) – compared to this task the new project is a “walk in the park” ( my partners Rita, Gabor and Karoly – please don’t kill me for that ;-)

  3. We are going for category leadership in our bracket of the market, and we shall benchmark ourselves also to all global leaders in white from 30-60 € a bottle on the shelf

  4. In our wildest dreams, this wine will be available where ever there is Cloudy Bay on a list, on a shelf. Cloudy Bay is by far the most successful wine in the 30€ category ( how many million bottles are sold each year ?)

  5. And even wilder: in 10 years this new “thing” will be synonymous with the category, stand for the category – farfetched, yes! Yet, I did learn if you don’t aim high enough ...