Diam To Host Panel of Wine Industry Experts

Wine Industry Experts are Intent on Finding the Real Level of Bottle Variation in the US November 18, 2009
Panel of industry stakeholders and analysts are being convened to design a trial that will, once and for all, provide unequivocal data showing the true level of bottle variation on retailer’s shelves.

San Francisco CA, November 16, 2009 – Technical wine closure producer Diam will fund a major research study to provide the first quantitative data on the level of bottle variation among the best-selling wines in the United States. Discussion at a blue ribbon industry panel gathering on November 18th will focus on developing relevant and meaningful parameters for this groundbreaking study. Leaders from every facet of the wine industry including retailers, master sommeliers, winemakers, researchers, along with trade journalists, have been invited to frame what will be one of the more revelatory studies about closures in the wine business.

The meeting will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown San Francisco. Among the expected attendees are Bruce Cass, editor of the Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America; John Cunningham, Senior Manager of Research and Development and Process Improvement at G3 Enterprises; Karen Fletcher, Wine Buyer for Fresh & Easy; Tim Gaiser, MS, Education Chair for the American Chapter of the Court of Master Sommeliers; Jamie Goode, Wine Columnist for the UK’s The Sunday Express; Neal Hagiwara, Senior Manager, Corporate Quality at G3 Enterprises; Helen McGinn, Director of PR/Marketing at Copestick Murray, a UK-based global wine business; David Stevens, Senior Consultant at Davon International; and Wilfred Wong, Director of Ecommerce at Beverages & More.

Commenting on the statistical significance of the study will be Humboldt State University Professor Emeritus Robert T. Hodgson, author of the scientific paper An Analysis of the Concordance Among 13 U.S. Wine Competitions, published in the Spring 2009 Journal of Wine Economics.

The research study proposes to purchase the best selling wines in the USA bottled in 750mL for technical and organoleptic analysis of bottle variation. From this, a report exploring the costs to the American wine trade of bottle variation will be authored by an independent source.

Details of the discussion will be released on December 1, 2009.

This meeting is organized by San Francisco-based marketing communications firm Charles Communications Associates (CCA) in conjunction with UK-based Cube Communications and Diam-USA. The Intercontinental Hotel was selected for its shared commitment with Diam and CCA to green initiatives; the hotel applied for and will receive LEED status in 2010.

About Diam
Globally, DIAM is the leading technical cork closure with value sales of $82M in 2008, and enjoyed an 8.5 percent increase in US market share in 2008. Diam is committed to engaging with winemakers, retailers and distributors to drive awareness of current issues and to ensure all key stakeholders start to ‘think’ about the benefits of the closure options available.

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