NEW YORK -- Sales of so-called 187s, single-serve wine bottles named for the number of milliliters in each bottle, are surging, thanks to an unfussy echo boom generation, reported AdAge.com.
Driving the trend are younger consumers who don't view wine drinking as a special occasionthey have shown that they are willing to mix and match wines with food and want to sample new varieties without buying a whole bottle, said the report.
Peggy Fox, vice president of marketing at Centerra Wine, part of Constellation brands, told the publication [image-nocss] that these consumers are expanding the times, places and events at which wine can be consumed, noting that the company's single-serve products, ranging from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi to Arbor Mist, are growing at three times the rate of its base business. Sales of its Tetra packs in the Vendage line have been so successful that zinfandel and sauvignon blanc are being added, the report said.
The single serves are becoming more important to our consumer base, Wendy Nyberg, senior director-marketing for Sutter Home, told Ad Age.
Single serve makes a lot of sense to a lot of people, wine analyst Eileen Fredrikson told the publication. It also makes sense to the wine industry, said the report. The industry, it said, can charge a little more for the smaller bottles and has increased shelving in areas where young (legal-aged) adults get their beveragesalcoholic and otherwisesuch as supermarkets and convenience stores.
But as wine packaging becomes more and more akin to soda and other nonalcoholic drinks, it becomes more of a target for groups concerned with drinking. It's all about making wine an everyday drink, George Hacker, director of alcohol policies project, Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the publication. It's an introduction to wine for a lot of people reluctant to buy a whole bottle. It's treating wine like any other beverage when it is not.
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