CONCHA Y TORO TO OPEN SOUTH AFRICAN OFFICE

As the OPTIMIST - I Personally think this is great news, as Neil Armstrong quoted "that's one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind" just for the fact that theirs now a possibility that any wine loving, drinking person can walk into a restaurant, TOPS or wine merchant and buy a bottle of Chilean or Argentinean wine. The normal Jan-Alleman in South Africa are not so fortunate as to travel the world, visit France, Italy, Spain or Germany to name a few and drink, taste, party with the locals and consume their wine(s). So basically Chile and Argentina comes to Africa (sounds like a nice title for a Leon Schuster movie).........

As the PESSIMIST - I belief that this will defiantly have a huge effect on the sales of our local wineries. For example you and I can buy a bottle of good quality Cabernet Sauvignon from Cono Sur at R45/bottle vs a Cabernet Sauvignon from any local supplier at the same price or lower of the same quality, but buying a foreign wine sounds more exciting - 'lekker windgat'.

A good quality Spanish Tempranillo can be brought at R25/bottle and this is a much more exiting as one of the local brands (sorry Obikwa) that you can buy @ R20 - R23/bottle. The long and the short, I belief is that everybody wants to buy that 'perfect wine', that tastes good, tells a story, and looks expensive and exotic. So why would you buy a bottle of Obikwa Merlot at R25/bottle instead of buying a R29.95 bottle of a Spanish Granache/Tempranillo blend. 

http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2012/02/concha-y-toro-to-open-south-african-office/