Treasury Wine Estates taps millennials with Samuel Wynn

Treasury Wine will launch a new label, Samuel Wynn & Co, targeting the millennial market.

Treasury Wine’s Samuel Wynn brand.

Millennials are elbowing out their grandparents as the nation’s second-biggest drinkers of wine, encouraging Treasury Wine Estates to launch another brand aimed at the increasingly powerful demographic.

Treasury Wine, which owns established brands typically favoured by more mature drinkers such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Saltram, is launching a new label called Samuel Wynn & Co. It will take inspiration from Australian wine industry pioneer Samuel Wynn, who arrived in Australia as a penniless immigrant just before World War 1.

The move comes as millennials are on track to soon emerge as the biggest spenders in the wine category.

The new label will complement two recent additions to the Treasury Wine stable, 19 Crimes and Lindemans Gentleman’s Collection, which both are unashamedly chasing millennials and seeking to wean them off other popular beverages such as ciders and ready-to-drinks in favour of wine.

Angus McPherson, managing director for Treasury Wine’s Australia and New Zealand operations, said the new wines, “The Man from Nowhere” Shiraz and “Last Rites” Cabernet Sauvignon, celebrate Samuel Wynn’s entrepreneurial and adventurous spirit in an authentic style that should entice younger drinkers.

“How do we celebrate that story? How do we tell the story of a man who took a slightly different path that wasn’t the status quo?’’ Mr McPherson told The Australian.

“And when we look at millennials, they are the second-largest wine category and growing, and their role and importance to the wine category growth and future is crucial.

“So we need to make sure we have a portfolio that resonates with them and a portfolio with brands like Samuel Wynn & Co, which is really about telling the story, and storytelling is so ­important with millennial consumers.’’

Winemakers around the world are beating a path to millennials as the group accounts for about 34 per cent of wine drinkers in Australia, second only to those aged 35 to 54 years (36 per cent).

Baby-boomers are in third place, accounting for about one-third of wine consumed.

“When we launched Gentleman’s Collection a few years ago, this was the first range of wines we specifically targeted to millennials, a group that under-indexed in wine at the time,” Mr McPherson said. “Since then, we’ve ­focused on developing brand-led innovations and have seen the millennial segment take over baby-boomers in wine consumption. They now represent one of our most important consumer segments.’’

Samuel Wynn & Co will be launched later this year, with a marketing campaign heavily ­focused towards social media and the use of “influencers” key to hooking in millennials.

There are also plans for the new label to be eventually rolled out in Asia and the US.