Château Margaux: Launching the Third Wine (Abridged)

Château Margaux, one of only five prestigious estates in the Bordeaux Medoc wine region to have been classified as a "first-growth", is facing a host of strategic decisions in early 2013. Up until this point the estate had been selling two red wines, a first wine whose retail price often exceeded $1000 a bottle, and a second wine whose retail price often exceeded $200 a bottle. Owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos and her management team were now preparing to launch a new third wine made from the estate's production not used to make the first two. They have to decide whether the best go-to-market strategy is to sell the third wine to the local Bordeaux merchants and relinquish commercialization to them or to devise a complete marketing plan for the new wine that includes: target market selection, positioning, quantity to release, pricing, channel structure and brand name. Mentzelopoulos was considering the optimal marketing for the third wine in light of moves by other first-growths, such as purchase of vineyards in the Bordeaux region, selling mass-market wines, and global expansion.