Gruet Expectations Get a New Label

One time my husband got a haircut, and I didn’t notice until he mentioned it … a week after the fact. I blamed my oversight on “habituation” — what happens when you see the same person or thing over and over again and stop seeing it/them fully. It was a psychological condition, I explained. My husband was unmoved. I’ve experienced “habituation” many times — except when it comes to wine labels. For example, when Gruet changed its labels recently, I noticed right away.I was shopping for sparkling wine in my local shop some weeks ago and spotted an unfamiliar pink and white striped sort of label. Was it a rosé version of Mumm Cordon Rouge? I moved closer and saw it was a bottle of Gruet Brut Rosé, the New Mexico sparkling wine. The old label had been a subdued pale pink — the new label had a much flashier look.Although I generally favor the tried and true I thought the new label was a real improvement over the old. It made the $18 bottle seem like a fancier wine, as did the redesigned labels of the neighboring Gruets including the Gruet Brut whose once-beige label was now a nifty shade of burgundy. Was there a story behind the changed labels? I asked Alex Evans, Chief Marketing Officer of Precept Wine & Spirits, the company that handles sales and marketing in a partnership with Gruet.Old Gruet Labels. Precept Wine & Spirits“We wanted something that signified the next chapter of the winery- we wanted the packaging to change to coincide with the new cuvées,” Ms. Evans explained in a phone call. She noted that the Gruet winemaking team Carrie Gurule and Sarah Cabot had made changes to the wines as well.Although most Gruet wines cost less than $20 a bottle — and have long been heralded as good values by many wine professionals (including me) — the new look that the company sought was a more “luxurious” one that further emphasized the brand’s French and New Mexican heritage, Ms. Evans said. (Gruet was founded by Frenchmen Gaston and Gilbert Gruet in 1984. Gruet’s family was from Champagne, and all the Gruet wines are Champagne method sparkling wines.)Ms. Evans said that the label’s designer, Amanda Rockwell had collaborated with the Gruet winemaking team and spent time in the field (aka wine shops) looking at wine labels. “She was determined to find a color that was not in the Brut category,” Ms. Evans said, adding she thought the burgundy color “really stood out.”Was it true that no sparkling wines had burgundy-colored labels? I went back to the wine shop for a look but didn’t see any. Was that because other sparkling wine producers considered then dismissed the color or had it never been an option at all? Whatever the reason, the burgundy label certainly did stand out.Although I had purchased both the Gruet Brut and Gruet Brut Rosé wines, the company sent me samples of other Gruet wines, including the Gruet Sauvage Zero Sugar Blanc de Blancs and Gruet Sauvage Low Dosage Rosé, two wines I’d never seen before and which didn’t look like any of the other Gruets. What was the story behind those wines?I put the question in an email to Ms. Evans and while awaiting an answer I asked Bay area marketing consultant Roger Brooks what he thought of the labels. Mr. Brooks is a Gruet fan (he bought the wine for his daughter’s wedding) but he’d never seen the Sauvage labels before either. He thought the packaging — labels with the word “Sauvage” scrawled like a signature — was “intriguing but radical,” adding “If I were looking for Gruet I’d pass it by.” He speculated that the company might be seeking a look that would “jump off the shelf.”The Two Sauvages in the Wild. Lettie TeagueAs it turned out Sauvage wasn’t a wine designed to jump off shelves at all as it was created to be sold primarily to restaurants. “It found its first home in oyster bars and built a real following among sommeliers,” Ms. Evans said.Of course, a new label or a new look doesn’t mean much if the wine inside isn’t good. I particularly liked four of the Gruet wines: the creamy Brut Rosé with its pleasing notes of red fruit (it’s a wine I’ve enjoyed over the years under the old label too); the snappy Blanc de Blancs with its bright acidity and the two lively, light-bodied Sauvage bottlings — wines whose packaging may not have shouted “Gruet” but that were also stand-outs. And at prices ranging from $18 to $25 the wines were well-priced as well.I may be habituated to certain things, but I never take for granted a good wine at a good price. Or for that matter, a good husband with a good haircut.From Lettie Teague’s Substack ‘Wine in Words.’

Gruet Expectations Get a New Label

Gruet Expectations Get a New Label

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