How two men and a donkey created a Rioja powerhouse

Like Don Quixote rewritten as a manual for marketing success, how one of the UK's biggest (and least known) Rioja brands conquered the on-trade. On a tiny budget.

Thank you for everyone for your kind comments about Chariots, Elephants, and Prosecco. More of that sort of thing to come. But on Wednesdays we have The Wine Marketing Masterclass. All previous sessions are in the (paywalled) archive and most new sessions are for paid subscribers. But here’s a free-to-read post for all.

Remember, this is a COMPLETE MBA course in wine marketing. For just $10 a month. (A full wine MBA costs up to €30,000) you’ll discover sell more wine, more profitably, to more people. And to catch you up we’ve already covered a LOT.

In Market Orientation we looked at…

What Google image searches get wrong about wine lovers, Do you need a trust fund to enjoy wine?, The wine drinker is not a “consumer”… she’s your mum, The “very rare trait” that makes you successful

In Market Research we looked at…

Why wine drinkers lie to you, Even more on the dangers of relying on statistics, In wine it pays to ask weird questions

And in Segmentation we’ve looked at…

If Gen Z is the new “millennials, Why for two days a month we’re all millionaires, And why wine customers are like oranges., The Curious Tale of the Chablis Shagger

And now we’re in Targeting, and we’ve already looked at…

Why I like celebrity wines

So today… How two men and a donkey created a Rioja powerhouse. With some smart targeting in the UK.

Just below we have the wines of Bo­degas Cor­ral, a pro­du­cer of Ri­oja in Spain. The wines are great, and sold in various mar­kets around the world. But if you don’t know them, you’re not alone. They’re not one of the big names of the region.

But… if you live in the UK, and you have ever had Ri­oja at a din­ner or an event at a hotel – es­pe­cially out­side Lon­don – you've almost certainly had Don Jac­obo, Bodegas Corral’s prin­cip­al brand.

And the reas­on for that is not price, or qual­ity to be hon­est – al­though the wines are very good.

It's tar­get­ing.

This is Javi­er Mar­tinez, from Don Jac­obo. He’s also the own­er of one of the most im­press­ive mous­taches in wine. Not to mention a natty line in corduroy suits.

I've spent many, many happy hours on the road, trav­el­ling around the West of Scot­land with Javi­er. As a wine­maker Javi­er is a re­strained guy. He’s a traditional Rioja producer, on a modest scale, making wines in a traditional style. He's not in­ter­ested in try­ing to judge mod­ern con­sumer tastes. His philo­sophy is summed up when he says ‘you must nev­er be a slave to fash­ion’. Al­though, Javi­er, if you're reading, that shirt is quite some­thing. You don’t need to be a slave to fashion, but sometimes it helps to be a follower.

So how is this guy, mak­ing pretty tra­di­tion­al Ri­oja, in a tra­di­tion­al way, in a tra­dition­al winery, in a slightly re­mark­able shirt... the star turn in a mar­ket­ing mas­ter class? And how did he turn this modest two-person-and-a-donkey operation into one of the most significant suppliers to the UK on-trade?

It’s down to targeting, and “Javier’s Rules”