The electronic newsletter TiZwine is a talent scout auditioning the blogosphere on a daily basis. Yesterday it picked up on our Sunday Times interview with packaging designer Peter Curtis. With the Platter sighted wine guide being launched tomorrow, I thought re-posting the interview here will keep the blind/sighted debate alive.

Peter Curtis

Neil Pendock spoke to packaging designer Peter Curtis on the medium and the message in alcoholic beverages.

Q: Is it possible to honestly rate a product with the label in plain sight?

Q: As a packaging designer having working on wine, beer Cognac and whiskey products both here and overseas I’m always amazed by the group of self serving critics who continue to suggest that tasting wine sighted thereby being aware of the vineyard, its advertising, PR, bottle shape, surface graphics and overall packaging is an objective measurement of a wine’s worth.

It is 100% impossible for any taster/critic to make an objective summary on a subjective issue i.e. to blank out both the conscious and subconscious messages that emanate from the vineyard and the accompanying packaging. To think that the hundreds of thousand of Rand spent on creating awareness and communicating the benefits of a particular wine goes unnoticed especially by those ‘in the business’ is frankly absurd.

I say this as I’ve been in countless focus groups, one on one interviews and strategy sessions where the complete marketing armoury is discussed in infinite detail ensuring that the likes of the ordinary purchaser (me) to the intellectual good and great (critics) are at some stage influenced by what the producer has to say. Even if one discounts the validity of advertising and PR for wine (dangerous in the extreme) it goes without saying that the packaging of wine has an enormous impact on the perception of the product being bought or tasted. Time and time again market research bears this out whatever the price of the product. To most the packaging is the product. And just because a critic is a critic does not mean they are impervious.

Q: What is your take on the profusion of wine shows and competitions?

A: As someone who buys inexpensive wine on a regular basis it seems the plethora of wine shows/competitions is both confusing and irritating. It would appear that all one has to do is pitch up and enter a wine and one comes away with a medal or certificate of sorts. What with gold, double golds etc what does it all mean? Let’s have one show where there’s a winner, second and so on from unsighted tastings. Then we all know where we stand. And can we please do away with the elitist and pretentious gobbledegook wine critics love to spout.

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