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NEW NORMAL

best of the smaller ones continue to export.
Those where the import is optional and not
essential, are not being ordered. To summa-
rize, those wineries dependent on HORECA,
export or cellar door sales, have found a large
part of their potential sales cut overnight.
The essence of the market has shifted to the
home. Here the woman is purchasing more of
the family wine than previously and becoming
more dominant in the buying process. More
wine marketing should be geared to them,
and less to men only. Online purchases have
increased. I suspect wines like rosé, the inex-
pensive sparkling wines and semi dry wines
will continue to increase in sales. The move to
different packaging has barely arrived in Israel.
However I expect cans, tetra packs and in par-
ticular wine boxes to arrive in Israel as wine-
ries look to innovate and consumers look for
easier and alternative ways to enjoy wine.
Top kosher winemaker and musician Itay BenHaim

The contact of wineries with the end custo-
mer will need to be developed far more. Wine-
ries will need to develop real customer clubs,
with interaction with their data base to create
brand loyalty and interest. There are no short
cuts. Direct customer sales, cutting out the
middle man has to be the way forward. Tho-
se wineries that have invested in direct sales
over the years, have seen the benefit this year.
Those who have not, need to play catch up.
However, for those wine lovers, who enjoy to
talk about wine as much as drink it, and love to
share their experiences, this continues as be-
fore via social media, uninterrupted by Covid.
The most salient evidence that life goes on is
in the vineyard. The grapes ripened as usual,
the harvest took place and wine from the 2020
vintage is being made exactly as usual. Despi-
te everything we are used to being juggled
and maybe changed forever, the basic wine
cycle goes on unaffected. ƅ

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