How a €2.50 Wine Fooled the Experts with Clever Marketing
Marketing isn’t just about selling a product; it’s about shaping perceptions and creating value out of thin air. This was brilliantly demonstrated by Belgian sommelier Eric Boschman in a bold experiment that turned the world of wine competitions on its head. What started as a simple €2.50 supermarket wine transformed into a gold-medal-winning product, all thanks to the power of branding and storytelling.
The Experiment: Turning a Cheap Wine into a Premium Product
Eric Boschman, along with the team from the Belgian TV show “On n’est pas des pigeons,” set out to prove a point about the wine industry — and marketing in general. They picked one of the lowest-quality wines they could find, priced at just €2.50, and gave it a luxurious makeover. The wine was rebranded as “Chateau Colombier,” complete with an elegant label and a fabricated backstory that evoked the image of a prestigious vineyard.
This rebranded wine was then submitted to the Gilbert & Gaillard International Wine Competition, a well-known contest where wines are judged and awarded based on their perceived quality. The result? The €2.50 wine not only passed the test but won a gold medal. The judges praised its complexity and richness, completely unaware that they had been duped by clever marketing.
