Cyprus-Forum.com

[devil]

The Mail has an article mourning the drop in exports.

This article is totally off the mark. The problem is not just price, but quality is more important. Of course, no one will buy a Cyprus wine of plonkish quality at €3/bottle when they can get an equally plonkish French wine at €1.50/bottle (£3 in Cyprus) or a really good Spanish wine at €3/bottle (£5 in Cyprus).

If Cyprus wants to export wine, they have to produce quality wines that sell on their merits, rather than price, while nevertheless remaining competitive. They cannot compete in the plonk market and Cyprus wine has a bad image amongst wine experts (there are a few exceptions) and are often justly relegated to plonk.

Let me cite the Neuchâtel wines from Switzerland. They produce some good pinot noir reds and an excellent rosé (Oeil de Perdrix). 30 years ago, their main production was an extremely mediocre white from the Chasselas grape. It was said that it was just about good enough to fill car batteries. The vignerons got together and said that they have to do something to improve their image. The first thing was they started to tend their vines better and, by selective culling, reducing the output to 1-2 kg of grapes per vine (instead of 10 kg). This produced better and sweeter grapes. Instead of flooding the market with hectolitres of undrinkable stuff, they selectively classified the better wines from this new type of viticulture and started publicising it. Their chasselas wine today is every bit as good as the Vaudois and Valaisan and the vignerons are making more money per hectare producing less wine, but of much better quality. This is what should happen here.

[karma]

U cant fight Big Companies and damn Globalization tht easily..it seems hopeless case

[devil]

Sorry, it has nothing to do with globalisation and big corps. It has everything to do with producing a quality product at an acceptable price. Cyprus produces (on the whole) mediocre products at an uncompetitive price, probably because the producers are too greedy. The world is flooded with mediocre wine, but there is always a demand for good wine and people will pay more to get it. The article cites South Africa, Australia and Chile. These countries are not exporting plonk, they are exporting wines in the good to excellent range and their prices are often higher than that of some of the quality European wines. How has this come about? Because they have pulled themselves up by their bootlaces.

A lot of the Cyprus wines for export were produced by Sodap for the UK market through the Co-op chain, such as the Island Vines range. Originally, Sodap sold all this range to the UK, but the demand dropped because you could buy better for less in Britain. They therefore tried to sell the excess here at >£2/btl (£1.80 when on special offer). Both the Island Vines are acceptable table wines but to pretend they were anything better is to exaggerate. Their correct selling price in Cyprus should be <£1.30 to compete.

Another popular one in the UK used to be what was known as "Cyprus sherry" but the labelling had to drop the word "sherry". It is certainly not the same quality as a good Amontillado Fino but it used to be a lot cheaper, but the makers have almost doubled the cost in the last few years. In the UK, you can buy a medium quality real Sherry for the price of a lesser quality Cyprus one (incidentally, EMVA seems to have reformulated their dry one recently: it seems slightly better). Over here, you can buy a bottle of Scotch whisky for the same price as a "Cyprus sherry". Crazy!

Quality counts!

[karma]

Sorry, it has nothing to do with globalisation and big corps. It has everything to do with producing a quality product at an acceptable price. Cyprus produces (on the whole) mediocre products at an uncompetitive price, probably because the producers are too greedy. The world is flooded with mediocre wine, but there is always a demand for good wine and people will pay more to get it. The article cites South Africa, Australia and Chile. These countries are not exporting plonk, they are exporting wines in the good to excellent range and their prices are often higher than that of some of the quality European wines. How has this come about? Because they have pulled themselves up by their bootlaces.
Quality counts!

As BirKibrisli told me, in Australia the wine producers turn almost slaves , they r having hard time coz of BigCompanies but they dont have other option to survive...may be Cypriots r not that greedy but others are helpless...

[denizaksulu]

I've said it before and I will say it again. Joining the EU is no plain sailing, is it KIKAPU? Lots of peasants in the EU cannot afford to live. I feel sorry for the Cypriots who expected a better future!

[Get Real!]

I've said it before and I will say it again. Joining the EU is no plain sailing, is it KIKAPU? Lots of peasants in the EU cannot afford to live. I feel sorry for the Cypriots who expected a better future!

I for one never expected a "better" future Deniz. A sudden surge of red tape and the implementation of myriads of new standards (most of which are time wasting nonsense) can't possibly be a "better" future but a much bigger overhead.

[denizaksulu]

...and that too! GR . Somebody must benefit, I wonder who?

[denizaksulu]

....maybe the consumers! Hurrah for the wino's.

[Radio]

I can remember my local Tesco offering Othello @ 7 years ago. It was priced at £3.99 then !. Needless to say that was the end of that.

Somebody asked me if Cypriot wines travel well. From the glass to the palate is o.k. but anything beyond that.........