Gallo, Bolla Seek to Upgrade Image

Your perception of a product is linked directly to your past experience with it, which is why it’s hard for a company to change its image from moderate quality to super premium.

You can see it all around you. The best minds on Madison Avenue and other ad streets write copy seeking to upgrade the image of everything from soap to automobiles. Yet no matter how appealing the message is, it’s still mighty hard for people to accept the fact that something once mundane has gone uptown.

A case in point is Gallo, the world’s largest winery and a producer since the 1930s of everyday, basic, down-to-earth table wines. For the last two decades, Gallo has tried to persuade the American public that its premium products are really much better than jug quality. And many of Gallo’s wines truly are excellent.

The recent Gallo ad campaign speaks of one of the company’s latest wines in glowing terms, and you think the ad is for this wine. But no. Gallo is not selling wine here. They’re selling image. The last line of the commercial is, “It’ll change the way you think about Gallo.”

It’s true that Gallo’s image ought to be perceived on a higher plane by many Americans than it now is. But old habits and images change slowly and many people still equate Gallo with inexpensive wine (which they continue to make).

Another case: Bolla Soave, one of the greatest success stories in wine marketing history. At one point a decade ago, a huge amount of this Italian white wine was being imported to the United States (more than a half million cases), and a lot of people frankly didn’t know if Bolla was the producer and Soave was the region it came from or vice versa.

The Soave from the house of Bolla sold so well partly because it was clean and innocuous and also because it was inexpensive, less than $5 in most every location in the country and a lot less in some of the bombers. And the other Bolla wines, such as Valpolicella and Bardolino, were pleasant, simple wines you’d order if there was nothing else to drink. No pretense or price-tag overkill.

I met the other day with Francesco Bolla, great-grandson of Abele Bolla, founder of the company in 1883 and son of the late Franco Bolla. We tasted a new line of wines that makes me change the way I think about Bolla. The problem is: will Americans buy the idea of a $10 Soave?

I asked that question, somewhat rhetorically, to Francesco, and he smiled a knowing smile and said the idea is, he admits, a bit curious in view of the fact that Soave is a fairly light-bodied, crisp and fast-finishing wine that requires little thought to order or consume. And that has meant that virtually every bottle sold in the United States in the last couple of decades has been sold at $7 or less. Most of them, a lot less.

The new Bolla Soave is called Castellaro, from the 1988 vintage, and it is produced from grapes off a single vineyard--a vineyard Bolla feels produces a unique wine. And indeed it is unique, with a marvelous spiciness weaving in and out of a flowery, perfume-y base aroma. The crispness is not austere, though, and a lovely textured finish means the wine works well with lighter foods.

Made since 1977, Castellaro now is being sent to this country, and it will test the American public’s ability to spot a winner even though it has on the label that word Soave. (The word Soave is, however, in small print, so it may not be noticed by some.)

I compare this wine favorably to the new Arneis wines coming in from Italy, wines that sell for $12 to $16 a bottle and also offer a spiciness. (Two attractive ones are from Ceretto and Giacosa.) Considering the Castellaro will be discounted a bit, it’s recommended for those folks seeking an alternative to the current wave of heavily oaked Chardonnay.

More impressive in some ways is another new Bolla wine, the 1986 Creso, a bold and brassy red wine. And it is this wine that Francesco and his family (not to mention their U.S. marketing agents, Brown-Foreman) are banking will change the way you think about Bolla.

Before getting to the wine, I must admit there are three drawbacks for me about it, and over the course of the three hours with Bolla at dinner, I kept going back to the Castellaro and sipping it, and realizing what a joy it was. Bolla was amused by this, figuring I’d simply swoon for the rosso.

The fact is, Creso is, indeed, a spectacular wine when you consider what it is. It is a Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine (60%) from the Veneto, a region whose history is not with Cabernet; it is 30% Corvina, the main grape of the light-bodied Valpolicella, and 10% late-harvested Valpolicella grapes.

The wine, aged in French oak barrels (a new trick for many Italian producers of top quality vino da tavola), exhibits a fairly rich, quite ripe, cooked cherry and blackberry aroma with hints of the toastiness from the barrels. The finish is pure silk and lovely to drink now, but it should age handsomely for a number of years.

My reservations about this wine are somewhat technical in nature, but they gnawed at me on my long drive home that night, and I couldn’t reconcile them:

--The aroma has a definite trace of late harvest character, though late harvest wine makes up only 10% of the blend. This aroma is, for me, a little too much--almost like someone tried to make a wine “impressive” rather than letting the natural ripeness of the fruit do all the talking.

--How long will it age? I’m guessing the wine will be wonderful in two to four more years, but since this is the first vintage, we have no clue to its age worthiness. Which leads to the biggest drawback of all: price.

--At a suggested retail price of $22, this wine is at the upper-echelon of Italian red wines--and it’s the first pop out of the winery. It’s excellent wine, but I wonder if the public will be curious enough to buy it when they see it on a restaurant wine list at $50 or so.

A Bolla third wine of interest, a 1986 Jago, which is a single-vineyard Valpolicella, is more delicate in nature than the Creso, with a faint anise quality. I liked the Jago, but felt the $10 price was slightly high, considering what’s out there in the marketplace today.

In any case, one sip of Creso will prove the point that a winery once considered a producer of merely passable red and white wine can step into the major leagues and hit to left. And the other two wines are able pinch-hitters.

Wine of the Week: 1987 Taja (Mahler-Bresse) ($6)--Here is another find in dark red wine. Taja is a red from Jumilla, Spain, made entirely from the Monastrel grape variety. The aroma is an interesting combination of the old (faintly oxidized) and the new (deep fruit and concentrated mid-palate). It’s a simple, one-dimensional yet rich wine that goes well with a plate of pasta in tomato sauce.