Bodegas Torres: Reinventing Wine

After several years of research, in August 2008 Bodegas Torres announced the launch of Natureo, its first alcohol-free wine. Made from an aromatic white wine, which was fermented for two weeks, it underwent a dealcoholization process through purely physical methods using the system known as "spinning cone column" (SCC). The Muscat variety of grape was selected for the new wine, grown in the Torres family's Can Gomà estate on the northern boundary of the Penedès designation of origin (DO) (see Exhibit 1). Five years after it was initially created, the results were not as expected, and its performance in the different markets was mixed. The wine had been coldly received in Spain, where it could barely be found on supermarket shelves. By contrast, it performed surprising well in Ireland and Scandinavia, where it experienced an annual growth of more than 100%. Miguel Torres Maczassek, the new general manager at Bodegas Torres, analyzed the marketing management's latest proposal for action. Evidence suggested that the category of non-alcoholic wines would eventually take off. However, he could not help but have some doubts about the product. Had they chosen the right positioning? What other alternatives did they have? And most importantly, did it make sense for a century-old winery, led by the fifth generation of the same family, to begin selling alcohol-free products? Would they be shooting themselves in the foot by sending mixed messages to their traditional clientele?