The worldwide success of the regular [yellow tail] wines has now spawned into several new product extensions, and the reception to these new wines in their home front Australia and its biggest export market, the US, has been extremely propitious. Now, several of these new wines are heading our way here in Asia, and the Philippines.

Strong brand validation
According to The Power 100 report for 2010, by British consultancy firm Intangible Business, [yellow tail] is the most powerful Australian wine brand in the world, and ranked as the number four global wine brand, and number 34 in the top 100 wine and spirits global brands. This is really an amazing feat especially for a wine brand that was launched less than 10 years ago. The Power 100 report is well recognized in the industry, and its ranking system is used as benchmark for determining global brand equity. Intangible Business is a highly specialized firm dealing with brand valuation, and has done this annual Power 100 since 2006, from an extensive review of almost 10,000 of the most important drinks brands in the world. Strict criteria include statistical as well as empirical numbers on market share, brand growth, price positioning, global reach (number of markets entered and its presence), brand awareness and so on.

Timely product extension
In Australia, [yellow tail] has several wine products of over two dozen types, from the basic varietals, to blends, to reserve range, sparkling wines, all the way to limited release series. Golden Wines, Inc., the local exclusive distributor, has rolled out gradually its [yellow tail] extension. The Reserve range, for both Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, were initially added to the line late 2009 as trial for the 2009 Christmas season. But the feedback has been so favorable that the range was included permanently into the company’s portfolio middle of 2010. The Reserve range offered excellent quality upgrade at only P650/bottle retail. Last year, only after its 3rd full year of taking over the brand distributorship in the country, Golden Wines introduced the Sauvignon Blanc varietal to add to its regular stable of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay. The Sauvignon Blanc is also [yellow tail]’s first wine blended from both Australian and New Zealand juices, since New Zealand is renowned for its aromatic Sauvignon Blancs. This early 2011, Golden Wines, Inc. is augmenting its lineup with four new [yellow tail] items in two different categories: the high-premium and sparkling wine segments.

Limited release wines
In 2004, industry pundits were surprised when the first [yellow tail] Limited Release Wrattonbully 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon won the much coveted Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy in the celebrated Melbourne Wine Show. Wrattonbully is an Australian Geographic Indication (G.I.)—a classified wine region adjacent to Coonawarra in South Australia. This was a resounding statement for a wine brand that has been getting their share of criticism mostly due to their incredible commercial success. Casella Wines, proud brand owner and creator of [yellow tail], disproved the notion that [yellow tail] is just your everyday drinking wine, with its highest echelon wines able to compete and even outperform the best wines from other wineries when it comes to quality. And true to [yellow tail]’s mantra of reasonable pricing, and over-delivering on quality, these Limited Release Wrattonbully wines are probably the lowest priced wines of its kind in the critically important prestige segment. The Limited Release wines’ suggested retail price is only P1,800.00/bottle, 30 percent or more below others in this class. Golden Wines, Inc. recently brought in both the Limited Release Wrattonbully 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and Limited Release Wrattonbully 2005 Shiraz—both highly be-medaled. The latter wine, the Limited Release Shiraz recently won the top award in the Syrah du Monde competition in France, a competition solely dedicated to the recognition of the best Syrah/Shiraz in the world.
Bubbles sparkling wines

Bubbles is a rather unsophisticated name for a sparkling wine or so you might think. But this is in fact the impression [yellow tail] wants to convey, that Bubbles is the fun, easy and non-pretentious way of enjoying a nice ‘bubbly’ drink. The packaging and label are modern and chic. Bubbles is not a champagne wannabe, it is `bubbly’ goodness ready to be enjoyed on any day, with or without an occasion. The nose is young, vibrant and bursting with tropical fruits, taste is semi-sweet, alcohol almost unnoticed, and finish so delightful that it begs for more! Bubbles comes in both White and Rose sparkling wine variants. Bubbles is a non-vintage sparkling wine done Charmat method.

There you have it, expect to see more of the wallaby critter label sightings this year. Not just some imitation animal genus type brands, but from the first and original [yellow tail] brand. And if you still think the label is about a kangaroo... well, no one will be complaining as long as the wine is good!