ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires entrepreneur launches wine marketed specifically for the gay community

Record ID: 276892

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires entrepreneur launches wine marketed specifically for the gay community
  • Date: 17th February 2007
  • Summary: MENDOZA, ARGENTINA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HARVESTERS HARVESTING GRAPES (6 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 4th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVADEWV7GBOU0GDKDJCUTL6W6I0T
  • Story Text: First gay marriage, now gay wine - a Buenos Aires entrepreneur has launched a brand of wines to cash in on what is a growing and lucrative market. Pilot Gay Wines specifically target members of the gay community and is already being sold in Buenos Aires and set to export to the U.S. cities of Miami and Chicago and to Spain.
    An Argentine entrepreneur has found what he thinks is a niche market with a big future, a range of wine specifically targeting the gay community.
    Pilot Gay Wines has a sparkling white, a classic Malbec and a fruity Chardonnay and the entire range tries to specifically target members of the gay community.
    The brand's owner German Arballo says he thinks he has found a niche market with a big future.
    "We put on the labels 'gay wine' - they are branded 'Pilot Gay Wines' - and it is the first time that someone has broken tradition of something that has never been written down before. There has always been some discrimination (against gays) but we are proud to be the first to see this done in this way, and we really have been received very well by the gay community. They say that we have given the wines an identity," Arballo told Reuters.
    Middle-age gay couples are more likely to be childless and thus have more disposable income than heterosexuals of the same age group, and likely to spend on luxury items.
    In Buenos Aires - the region's first city to legalize gay unions in 2003 - many businesspeople have already caught onto the possibilities of such a profitable target market.
    Especially in the arena of tourism, the city puts on offer everything from tango classes to wine-tasting and hotels catering to gay visitors.
    Pilot Gay Wines are already being sold in the bars and restaurants of Buenos Aires, and now the company is preparing cases for its first exports to the U.S. cities of Miami and Chicago and to Spain.
    Arballo says attitudes toward homosexuality in Catholic Argentina have changed fast:
    "For Argentines being gay is not an issue. It is very normal to see same-sex couples holding hands in the street. I really like the way our country and especially Buenos Aires has progressed in this way," he said.
    Pilot Gay Wines are not the first in the world to make wines aimed at the profitable gay market. A New Zealand winery also launched a rose called 'Pansy!' last year.
    But Arballo says that as well as being more upfront about the customers they seek to capture, the fact is you can't beat an Argentine wine.
    "We have seen many international and multinational firms come and invest in vineyards and wineries and they are producing what are really very, very good wines. But we can never forget that the land is Argentine, the wines are Argentine, there are the best engineers and wine specialists. The foreign capital is welcome and we hope they keep coming but here is where you will find the best workers, the best land and the best grapes," Arballo said.
    Argentina is the world's fifth-biggest wine producer and a leading exporter. The country is especially famed for its Andes-grown Malbecs.
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