Disney is marketing wine?

According to the LA Times, in connection with the release of Ratatouille, Disney will be marketing a Ratatouille-branded "French chardonnay wine" through Costco for $12.99. I didn't think this was an area Disney would touch, but guess I was wrong.

Link to the LA Times story:
http://tinyurl.com/2pyy58

cheers,
al

Some of the Disney hotels have developed decent wine lists from what I hear. (Have never stayed in a Disney hotel or visited Disneyland or Disney World although my parents took grandsons to Epcot).

DisneyWorld in Orlando is the largest wine retailer in the world. Some of the restaurants have extraordinary lists, and the French Pavilion offers some really interesting wines at very attractive prices. They also have at least one major wine tasting even every year.

[David M. Bueker]

Hmm...I can see it now, 9 year old kid saus to Dad (or Mom): "Buy the Ratatouille Chardonnay!!!"

If it was a cigarette people would be outraged.

That's true about DisneyWorld but seems to me that's a rather different ballgame from putting your brand on a wine label, and trying to sell a bottle of Chardonnay based on association with a movie. I'm still trying to figure out who the target audience is here...

cheers,
al

DisneyWorld in Orlando is the largest wine retailer in the world. Some of the restaurants have extraordinary lists, and the French Pavilion offers some really interesting wines at very attractive prices. They also have at least one major wine tasting even every year.

Plus, we must add the failed Disney/Mondavi venture in SoCal that contributed to the problems that Mondavi had, leading up to their demise. It was a "wine garden" concept which never really worked.

The Disney Florida empire is truly an impressive operation. Or series of operations. not necessarily for connoisseurs and geeks, but they generate a lot of wine sales (and hopefully, more budding wine consumers). The EPCOT event each year is big time. I've participated a couple of times. Each country/restaurant/pavilion gets to showcase, and lots of people promenade from wine tasting to wine tasting.

And one should never....NEVER...underestimate Disney's ability to effectively market, sell, and separate people from their money with brutal efficiency.

[David M. Bueker]

That's true about DisneyWorld but seems to me that's a rather different ballgame from putting your brand on a wine label, and trying to sell a bottle of Chardonnay based on association with a movie. I'm still trying to figure out who the target audience is here...

cheers,
al

Want to bet Disney will make sure the wine is available at Vons where mothers push around shopping carts with kids. They'll probably put the cute, little rat on the label.

"That's true about DisneyWorld but seems to me that's a rather different ballgame from putting your brand on a wine label, and trying to sell a bottle of Chardonnay based on association with a movie."

The wine branding is part of an overall Disney strategy to license upscale consumer goods trading on the value of the Disney name (as opposed to characters' names, like Micky or Minnie); for example, Disney recently announced deals for lighting products made by the Minka Group, a fashion bath and bedding collection with Dan River, and outdoor table tops and entertaining products with Zak Designs.

At a recent analyst's briefing, Disney said that non-character branding will be between 10 percent to 15 percent of Disney's licensed business over the next five years. Disney's consumer products arm said it expects its retail sales by the company and its licensees to rise 13 percent to $26 billion in fiscal 2007, double the level seen 5 years ago.

As Hoke points out, these are very aggressive and very clever marketing folks. And, in this case, they've tied the wine brand to a very sophisticated movie, one which seems to have great appeal for adults. The New York Times has been following the film recently, from Reuters:


Critics have almost universally praised the film, calling it "a high-water mark for everyone at Pixar" and "so advanced, so sophisticated, it doesn't feel like it was made for kids."

and from AP:


On a fundamental level, sure, children will probably enjoy watching the animated adventures of Remy, a plucky Parisian rat who leaves the colony to pursue his dream of becoming a gourmet chef. There's some slapsticky physical comedy, and writer-director Brad Bird, the mastermind behind ''The Incredibles,'' keeps things going at a lively, engaging clip.

But there's nothing silly or childlike about it. If you stop to think about it, the main character is experiencing an existential crisis: Stay with the family and safely sift through garbage, as his rodent ancestors have done for centuries, or risk loneliness, abject failure and worse -- death -- by chasing after a loftier goal? Heady stuff there.

''Ratatouille'' is also visually wondrous in ways that are both lush and intricately detailed, in ways that seem to have been tailored more toward grown-up tastes and sensibilities. It would seem that computer-generated technology couldn't get any better, but wow -- it just does. The multitude of animators clearly paid close attention to facets of our daily lives that we take for granted: knife marks on a cutting board, the way raindrops splash when they hit the sidewalk, the glow from a street lamp. Sitting through ''Ratatouille,'' it doesn't take long for you to forget that you're watching an animated movie and just allow yourself to become immersed in this glorious realism.

This seems to me to be a bet that adults will like the film and will be encouraged to try the wine. (Although I'm sure Drys will bemoan Disney's encouragement of underage drinking.
)

Regards, Bob

PS: In reflecting on your post, Alex, I remembered that Disney discussed synergistic benefits arising from the Pixar deal -- one of which was product tie-ins from movies that would appeal to adults.

We may see a whole chain of upscale Rat Restaurants, or frozen Rat entrees, or fancy Rat glasses, or ....

Based on folks I've spoken with, Disney is a very tough licensing partner, and won't lose money on any single license. B.

Plus, we must add the failed Disney/Mondavi venture in SoCal that contributed to the problems that Mondavi had, leading up to their demise. It was a "wine garden" concept which never really worked.

Hoke, am I mistaken in my recollection that Silverado Cellars in the Stag's Leap district was owned at some point by Disney?

Mark Lipton

Plus, we must add the failed Disney/Mondavi venture in SoCal that contributed to the problems that Mondavi had, leading up to their demise. It was a "wine garden" concept which never really worked.

Hoke, am I mistaken in my recollection that Silverado Cellars in the Stag's Leap district was owned at some point by Disney?

Mark Lipton

Originally owned by a descendant of The Walt, Mark, but not, I think, "by Disney" in the corporate sense.

The Disney Florida empire is truly an impressive operation. Or series of operations. not necessarily for connoisseurs and geeks, but they generate a lot of wine sales (and hopefully, more budding wine consumers). .

OK, here's a confession. I once spent several days at Disneyhell. I was single, my parents wanted to take whole family (themselves, me, my brother, his wife and daughters) to Disney. I sucked it in, and went. For me it was pretty awful, except for two things:
1) my nieces, I did enjoy being with them and their wide-eyed enjoyment.
2) wine. My parents booked us in a hotel themed around the Pacific Northwest (7 story totem pole in lobby, etc). The main restaurant in hotel was the first place I ever ran across wine flights. Each night I enjoyed 2 oz pours of 3 different wines. And not slouches either- things like Patricia Green, Bergstrom, etc. were in the Oregon PN flight, and good WA cabs (before I had ever heard much re WA wines- this was 8-9 years ago). The salmon at restaurant was excellent, too.
Other than that, I pretty much hated the trip. I guess I enjoyed hot tub under stars, but as almost everyone else was in couples, pretty awful.

Right on guys; according to A Companion to California Wine: An Encyclopedia of Wine and Winemaking from the Mission Period to the Present, by Charles Lewis Sullivan, 1998:

Silverado Winery. An impressive operation that goes back to 1976 when members of the late Walt Disney's family purchased land in the Stag's Leap District of Napa Valley. Vineyards were planted and a beautiful winery was built in 1981 on a hill just west of Silverado Trail. Today the winery is run by Disney's daughter Diane Disney Miller and her husband Ron."

I work for a grocery chain who has bought into the DISNEY food items like cookie dough and bread among other things. I hear that Chave will be making their Northern Rhone wines and Pegau will be making their Southern Rhone wines... Just kidding.

Originally owned by a descendant of The Walt, Mark, but not, I think, "by Disney" in the corporate sense.

Thanks for the explication, Hoke. That liitle detail I either forgot or, more likely, was omitted from the description when I was told that factoid.

Mark Lipton

Mark, thanks for noting this interesting sidelight to the Walt Disney story. Here's a very interesting report of a visit to the winery by another wine lover:

http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mm050726fa

Regards, Bob

Hmm...I can see it now, 9 year old kid saus to Dad (or Mom): "Buy the Ratatouille Chardonnay!!!"

If it was a cigarette people would be outraged.

And rightly so. I don't think I need to explain why marketing cigarettes to children is a bad thing.

Wine? A bit more complex. I'm sure everyone agrees that children should not be getting drunk, but the idea that children should not ever have anything with alcohol in it is not universally accepted.

Personally, I think marketing anything at all to children is a bad idea and, if they put the rat on the label, this would certainly fill the bill. However, I don't know that they're doing that, so I will withhold judgment for now.

Disney has now dropped the idea in response to complaints, some of which echo the concerns expressed in this forum.

http://www.latimes.com/la-fi-ratwine28j ... 1322.story

cheers
al

[Robin Garr]

Disney has now dropped the idea in response to complaints, some of which echo the concerns expressed in this forum.

It really bugs me to see an organization like Wine Institute essentially wimping out in the face of anti-alcohol advocates. This is a culture wars issue in which the other side will never compromise.

I'd have a lot more respect for the industry if it would take a tough position and say, "Look, if you want to be a teetotaler, fine, but we will not cooperate in your efforts to impose your Puritanical morality on the rest of us. If you don't want your children drinking alcohol, then make <i>your</i> children <i>your</i> business. Frankly, wine in moderation is beneficial to adults, and it's actually not the end of the world if a youngster takes a taste."

I have an attitude similar to Robin's when it comes to television programming. I was queried by phone once where the caller got into "I'm sure you don't want objectionable programming on television that children might see" and I interrupted with "I believe it's the parents' job to supervise their children's tv viewing. I don't want television dramas geared only to what is suitable for children. That interferes with what I may want to view." The caller seemed quite shocked that I would take that stand.

I had to laugh in frustration at a newspaper letter about pro wrestling (which is fake and glorifying violence and a totally different animal than legitimate high school, college, Olympic wrestling). A mother took her young children to a pro wrestling match in town (bad idea) and then wrote a letter to the editor complaining that a woman in the audience bared her breasts during the match--in front of children! So it's okay to expose them to gratuitous violence but not to a woman's breasts. Probably neither exposure is a good idea but I think the violence does more harm.