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 Ask anyone about Sogrape in India and they are likely to say ‘So! Grape!! What about it!’ But ask them about Mateus Rosé and you will find that most of them may not only have heard of it but tasted it too, sometime or the other. Ask me and I would tell you it was the staple wine served during every party or a casual evening during my student days in the graduate school in the USA. It was cheap, cheerful and choice of any student soiree. I was told then that even though it was a bit sweet it was a good quaff, especially for the young ladies (they used to be mostly under 25!) and many of the male students (I was a teetotaller then, so never had a chance to taste it).
Jakub Wierzba, Hong-Kong based Sales Director for Asia for the Portuguese family -owned wine company Sogrape who was in Delhi for 2 days after spending the same time in Mumbai agreed with me somewhat when he said, ‘Mateus Rose might have been slightly sweet but was so popular that it sold over 24 million bottles at the peak of popularity.’
Mateus Rose may have fallen from grace during those days of high popularity of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, especially in the US and UK, but the sales never came down below 16 million he tells me (I had always estimated a low of 10-12 million) and currently are back up to 20 million bottles, he insists. One of the reasons has been the reduction of residual sugar to 15 gms./liter. ‘We could reduce the sugar to 12 gms. but we find that our market won’t like that,’ he explains.
Jakub has 11 years of experience in the wine industry in Portugal, out of which four and a half years has been with Sogrape. It has revenue of €200 million and is considered one of the highest revenue earning family-owned companies in the world -like Torres, Zonin and Antinori; it is the biggest family-owned winery in Portugal. He is quite familiar with the history and philosophy of the company which he shares with me over Lunch.
Mateus Rose
Mateus Rose was the brainchild of the founder of the company, Fernando Van Zeller Guedes who founded the company in 1942 and launched it in a special flask-type bottle with narrow neck. ‘The idea of our founder was to make it easy drinking, fresh and fruity so people could have fun and enjoy the wine. It was targeted at women and younger novices. It became so popular that 1.2 million cases were exported to US alone in 1972’, says Jakub. Till the early 1980s, Mateus was basically the only product being sold by Sogrape, but then Fernando’s son started expanding the operations and started acquisitions in 1986.
Expansion by buying
 Unlike big companies like Torres who became bigger by introducing brands and names after them, the company became larger by acquiring new companies. But it did not change the winery names or the brands to reflect the new management. Therefore, Sandeman (popular port house with the Brits) bought in 2004 and Ferreira (making fine Ports claimed to be the most popular in Portugal) with different styles were allowed to keep their name and style. The company also owns Casa Ferreinha and Hardad de Peso (Alentejo)
Finca Flichman in Mendoza is one of the oldest wineries of Argentina. Founded in 1910, the vineyards were even older. Interestingly it introduced Shiraz in Argentina and is selling in India as well.
Chateau Los Boldos is a family wine estate in Cachapoal Andes in Chile which was started by a Frenchman who had taken the right to use ‘Chateau’ in their wine labels and is the only company to have been fortunate to have done so. It was founded in 1991 and sold to Sogrape in 2008.
With 170 hA of vineyards and an annual production of 150,000 cases, it is considered a medium sized winery. It makes old style wines with less body and more acidity-earlier it used to be even Burgundy style. It makes 6 varietals two of which Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon were available for tasting at Lunch. But I chose to stick to the Mateus Rose Sparkling wine earlier and Chateau Los Boldos Cabernet with the Seekh kebabs, Kali Daal and roti that were a perfect match.
Sogrape added Bodega LAN to its necklace by acquiring it in 2012. ‘The medium size Spanish company is known for its premium Rioja wines and it took us about 10 years to acquire it,’ says Jakub who asserts that the company has the policy of only buying premium wines and nurturing them till there is a value-add in terms of quality and branding or the reach. ‘We also do not buy or sell bulk wine although we sell 7 million cases every year.’
The conversation with Jakub reminded me of Jean-Charles- Boisset whom I met in Hong Kong a couple of months ago. He loves to acquire wineries in California and once he sets his sight on a winery, he focuses on tit for years till he acquires them. I am also mindful during the chat that the company has a policy like Zonin in Italy. Almost the same size as Sogrape, Gianni Zonin’s family owned winery which was known earlier to make low ended high volume wines, has been buying premium wineries in different regions of Italy and also in Virginia, USA with the family name not attached to them. Coincidentally, Zonin is also being imported by Aspri.
 Framingham in New Zealand is another small winery making super premium wines, acquired from Pernod Ricard in 2007. ‘We like to believe we compete with Cloudy Bay which is around 10 times our size with 400,000-case production and so it is not really fair to compare.’ The 50,000 cases produced annually include not only Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir but also Riesling which is apparently very popular with high-ended restaurants in India. ‘Our production is so small that we have to keep the distribution in allocation,’ says Wierzba, promising to bring the wines from this winery for tasting on his next visit. Well, perhaps not the high ended F series of which only 500 cases are produced and is not imported in India.
The company has operations now in 5 countries- Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Chile and New Zealand. Mateus Rose retails well for Aspri at Rs. 1950. The Mateus Sparkling Rose, made from the Baga (a local grape) and Shiraz grapes is a delicious, fruity and juicy wine that I relished with kebabs, it appears to be a bit expensive at the retail price of Rs. 2587 because of the advent of cheaper Proseccos but as a Rose it does enjoy a special status and one can understand if it is doing well in the market. It was interesting to learn from Jakub that while making wines in Portugal for the foreign markets the company makes concerted efforts to use an international variety in the blend for the customers to understand the wine better and hence the Shiraz in the Rose sparkler. Mateus Rose, however continues to use -hard to pronounce indigenous grapes.
As usual, the Lunch had gone way beyond the closing time of the restaurant and we part with the promise of another chat over lunch when he is here on his second visit and we taste the Framingham as well.
Subhash Arora |