Ambitious plans to breath more life into the Argentinian wine category in the UK are being unveiled by leading producer Catena. It hopes to inject fresh blood into the cash starved sector with a £500,000 campaign for its two-year-old brand Argento, which will get underway at the end of the summer. Scot McRae, brand manager for Catena's UK agent, Bibendum, said: "Argentina's share of the wine market has been static at 1.7% because there has been no money to promote and it has been losing facings to the competition, such as South Africa which is putting money behind its wines." He said the poor state of the Argentinian economy had helped Catena because of its export focus. "It is bringing in hard cash at the same time as the cost of its overheads are going down, which means at the volume end of the market it can put forward more competitive propositions. "Last year we doubled the sales of Argento and we plan to do the same in 2002." McRae said the brand accounted for 35% of Argentinian sales in the UK. "Until now sales have been generated by word of mouth while we have been concentrating in getting the packaging and product right and building the distribution." The promotional initiative includes radio adverting, postcards and a print campaign. It will also introduce four new varietals to the Argento range: Shiraz, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier (rsp:£4.99) and a £6.99 Reserva collection featuring Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Bonarda. {{DRINKS }}

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