The fifth annual Wine Intelligence Global Wine Brand Power Index has revealed the top 15 most powerful global wine brands, with Australia’s Yellow Tail and Chile’s Casillero del Diablo leading the pack.
The Wine Intelligence Global Wine Brand Power Index is curated with feedback from over 25,000 wine consumers in 25 markets, representing over 400 million wine drinkers globally.
The index takes account of three key measurements, which are brand awareness, recalled purchase and brand connections. It is calculated in both global level and country level across 25 key wine markets.
After aggregating the market scores, the index would be weighted by the size of the wine drinking population in each market.
This year’s index did not survey the Russian market and included Denmark as a substitute.
However, the 2022 score still could not offset the steep decline in 2021 and remained substantially lower than the pre-pandemic figure in 2020, which was based on consumer surveys done in 2019. This suggests that global wine brand equity has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
From the report’s observation, the main driver of change in the index from 2020 to 2022 could be the declining purchase and connection scores, which both fell significantly for the top 15 global brands in 2021.
This can be explained by the closure of on-premise and lockdown during the pandemic which weakened consumers’ consumption and connection to wine.
On the other hand, the awareness levels tended to be more resilient from 2020 to 2022. This indicates that wine drinkers still paid attention to wine brands amid the pandemic even if they are not buying or drinking wines.
World’s top brand revealed
Yellow Tail and Casillero del Diablo again topped the no.1 and no.2 spots respectively in the 2022 Global Wine Brand Power Index, with scores well clear of other wine brands.
Yellow Tail is owned by one of Australia largest wine exporters Casella Family Brands, while Casillero del Diablo is owned by Chile’s leading wine group Concha y Toro.
Both brands became the top brand in three out of the 25 markets, with Yellow Tail securing a top ten ranking in 10 markets and Casillero del Diablo in 14 markets.
According to Wine Intelligence’s report, Yellow Tail’s strength in the US market helps
cementing its top spot in the global ranking.
Yellow Tail was first launched and exported to the US in 2001 and has since become a huge success. The initial year, it was expecting to sell 25,000 cases but actual sales rounded up to half a million.
Today, the US market makes up over 50% of Yellow Tail’s global sales volume as of February and accounted for half of Australian wine sales in value as of March, Frankie Harding, corporate affairs manager at Casella, told SCMP.
Apart from its sharp label colour and fruity flavours, Yellow Tail has expanded its portfolio from including only Chardonnay and Shiraz to a portfolio of 23 different single varietals and blends now.
Despite its 50% share in the US, the brand also adopted a market diversification strategy to spread the risk globally.
Commenting on the rankings, Lulie Halstead, COO Wine at the IWSR Group, said: “In a year characterised by relatively less upheaval for consumers, it’s a relief to see equity for wine brands has stabilised in terms of consumer connection as wine drinkers have returned to more frequent touchpoints with wine in both retail and the on-premise.”
“Successful wine brand owners will be those with a focus on restoring the fundamental positive connections that have propelled their brands to such widespread success on the world stage in the first place, while doing their best to maintain availability and the value proposition amid input cost increases and supply chain disruptions.” she added.
Barefoot ranked as the third most powerful wine brand after Yellow Tail and Casillero del Diablo, continually rising from its 13th position in 2019.
Notable climbers within top 25 brands also include Santa Carolina ranking 7th from 9th last year. Apothic rose by five places to 14th position and Dark Horse jumped eight places to 25th position.
