Real champagne comes at a price

By DITA DE BONI

New Zealand's "wine culture" and a move to premium brands makes it a corker for market growth in real champagne, according to visitors from the world's No 3 champagne house.

Michel Lhoste, international marketing manager for the Charles & Piper Heidsieck champagne brands, is in Auckland to share the bubbly with 45 sales and marketing staff recruited by new distributors Maxxium New Zealand. His hope is that Maxxium will help infiltrate the psyches of New Zealanders with a drink that is "non-traditional, young and sexy."

"Moet is the No 1 champagne in New Zealand, but we intend to do something quite different in this country by marketing [Piper] as nothing whatsoever to do with celebrations," he said.

The company received a fillip from millennium celebrations and reported having sold more than 50,000 cases of both Piper Heidsieck and premium brand Charles Heidsieck in New Zealand over the past year, with each bottle retailing at between $55 and $65.

But how will the company get cost-conscious New Zealanders hooked on the "impertinently" pricey Piper fizzy?

"Selective outlets, aligning the brand with something trendy - fashion, luxury, passion and fun," he said.

More traditional Kiwi bloke and Maxxium managing director Iain Abercrombie translated: "The secret is in the distribution. We want to put the brand into the right environment - the Viaduct Basin for example - all places that are different to fine dining restaurants."

Mr Abercrombie believed Maxxium could get between 15 per cent and 20 per cent growth from Piper when it slipped from Glengarry's to Maxxium's portfolio on May 1.

He also is keen to see Piper's new product - called Baby Piper - on New Zealand shelves before long.

The baby bottle contains just over two glasses of champagne and was introduced to Europeans on St Valentine's Day under the marketing banner "not innocent."