Bloom Thinks: The unassuming power of the Chicken

At the beginning of 2023, Forbes posed a grave warning for the wine industry—younger consumers in their prime spending years are not engaging with the category. What they didn’t know, is that La Vieille Ferme was about to come clucking around the corner.

For those who aren’t familiar with the brand, it may be because you are one of the many who knows it better by its UK moniker, Chicken Wine. It’s not clear who came up with this slangification, now proudly brandished across the brand’s Instagram page and more recently, on a limited edition rebrand of its Rosé. Was it an everyman’s shortcut for a French name they couldn’t pronounce or an incredibly clever publicity strategy from the brand itself? After all, it was originally named ‘Three French Hens’ by owners and fifth-generation wine makers The Famille Perrin, the same vintners behind Miraval – a wine that sold out within hours of going on sale in 2013 - making them no stranger to success.

A similar conspiracy was directed at Glossier in 2021, when fans were sent into a frenzy by a “leaked” 50% site-wide discount. WhatsApp groups were blown-up world over as a virtual stampede rushed to fill their baskets before someone noticed the error. Except no one did, at least not for two hours, feeding speculation about whether the leak was truly accidental.

Yet, whether La Vieille Ferme orchestrated its rise to fame or simply jumped on the chicken wagon, the results speak for themselves, with Sainsbury's reporting a 96% boost in sales of La Vieille Ferme Rosé, attributed to the wine’s viral sensation. So, the question becomes: what lessons can other brands take from its success?

Pouring the fun back into wine

The average wine drinker is not someone who cares about where their wine was grown. They know the basics, whether they prefer a red or a white, but they probably can’t tell a Muscat from a Moscato and that’s where the appeal of Chicken Wine begins. It’s for the person who wants to walk into Sainsbury’s and grab a decent bottle, without needing to decode the complex jargon the category has pigeonholed itself into (varietal anyone?).

A similar democratisation happened in craft beer, which went from almost non-existent in the UK to bringing in over £1.4bn revenue in 2022. Many beer drinkers bemoaned the industry’s lack of variety and the “blandification” of beer, creating the opportunity for a countermovement that was as much about building diverse culture as it was brewing beer.

With Chicken wine similarly stripping away barriers, they’ve shown that the category doesn’t have to take itself so seriously. It acts as an equaliser, offering humble enjoyment without a compromise on quality, bypassing the jargon that has become enmeshed with notions of status and class overtime, often overshadowing its original purpose. And Chicken Wine isn’t the only brand pushing for this shift. New entrant Table Wine's very name suggests an approachable, no fuss wine meant to be consumed, while Whiny Baby, offers only three, Gen-Z targeted blends, such as ‘Unwind White Blend’, which lean more into occasion than variety or terroir.

At its core then, Chicken Wine may be a wakeup-call for brands: don’t assume you intuitively know, or worse, that the category knows best. Start listening to what people want, or in this case, what they're telling you they want. It’s a rare opportunity to have a hand in shaping a brand you love. Perhaps simply, part of Chicken Wine’s success is that people appreciate that they’ve been heard. On a deeper level, there’s also a case being made for linguistic complexity no longer being a prerequisite for quality in people’s minds. In fact, being unpretentious has become its own kind of prestige for Chicken Wine. In categories like gadgets or skincare, where it feels like you must ‘get’ the nuances of the category lingo to enjoy the product fully, maybe it’s time to cut through the bullsh*t and focus on what’s actually going to matter to the people buying it.

So, in the end, the appeal of Chicken Wine doesn’t seem to lie in a meticulously crafted campaign or a complex heritage story. Instead, it’s rooted in an honest, unpretentious connection with the people it’s aimed to serve, tapping into a fundamental truth: perhaps modern consumers are less concerned with status and more interested in simply feeling included and understood.