The industry average for marketing still wine in Europe is 3-8% of net sales, a figure that leaves little to spend for many wineries once they have covered the costs of attending events like Wine Paris and ProWein. entering a few competitions and sending out samples to journalists. (The figures are higher in the US - see chart below)

Worse still, some of that marketing budget will fund promotional discounting by retailers which, of course further reduces the perceived value of the wine among shoppers who only buy it when it is on offer.

For most, while the poor margins are seen as a problem, the lack of marketing funds are far less of a concern ("my wine is good and good wine sells itself.").

In Europe, wineries benefit from subsidies and often rely on local generic bodies to do some of their marketing for them. Which leads to them presenting their wines alongside their neighbours at trade events where buyers can move from producer to producer until they find the combination of acceptable quality and price.

Apart from attending events at which they can pour their wine, marketing, for these producers - the vast majority, globally - often historically largely consists of offering it to critics in the hope of a good review.

Naturally, some critics then exacerbate the problem by telling their audiences that "this is a really good wine, but an alternative from a nearby producer is nearly as good and much cheaper."

Which brings us to the image at the top of this post.

Low margins -> low budget -> weak marketing -> weak brand -> low margins

Some producers escape this trap.

They either make small volumes of such high quality wine that supermarkets are irrelevant and prices are driven up by demand. (Welcome to the Côte d'Or and Brunello).

Or they treat their wine as though it were a spirit or a premium sparkling wine. Which, in Champagne at least, is often produced by companies that also make spirits, and apply the same rules when it comes to margins, marketing and brand-building.

It is no accident that LVMH chose to invest in Cloudy Bay and Whispering Angel. Both are relatively expensive, brilliantly-packaged, marketed, branded wines that attract loyal, price-insensitive customers in the same way as that giant's Champagne brands like Veuve Clicquot.

The brilliance of brands like these is that they transcend the price squabbles that affect the vast majority of other wines on the market. Like Tito's Vodka, Audi and Apple, the marketing behind them has created an emotional appeal that makes their premium prices almost irrelevant.

And no amount of critical comment that Tito's is not handmade, or that some Audi models are just Volkswagens with smart badges, or that a cheap Chinese phone or tablet does the same job as an iPhone or iPad, or that not all Whispering Angel's grapes are grown on the estate, is going to deter the target customer from buying the brand they know and, yes, love.