Cono Sur unveils new Tour de France bottles

Chilean wine brand Cono Sur has unveiled a new limited edition of its best-selling Bicicleta Pinot Noir to celebrate its link with the Tour de France.

The new vintage-style labels for Cono Sur’s ‘Bicicleta’ Pinot Noir, which go in store from mid-June, were inspired by five-times Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain and drawn by cycling artist Eliza Southwood.

The theme of the retro-poster style “Inspired by Greatness” was inspired by the first time Indurain took the yellow jersey, after overtaking rivals n the mountainous passes of Pourtalet, Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Val Louron during the 13th Stage of Le Tour de France in 1991.

The theme “unites the wines and riders in 2017”, the company said.

Cono Sur brand manager James Hick said it highlighted the integral part played by bikes for the brand, which are used by workers in Chimbarongo in Chile to travel around the vinyeards to pick grapes.

“It is fantastic for us to collaborate again with Eliza Southwood, and to capture the moment when Miguel Indurain took the initiative in one of the great Tour stages,” he said.

Cono Sur’s ‘Bicicleta’ Pinot Noir has seen growth of around 16% year on year, seeing around 1.27 million litres in the UK in the last 52 weeks, according to IRI (total off trade, 52 weeks to 22 April 2017), making it the UK’s best-selling branded Pinot Noir.

The wine brand extended its initial sponsorship of the Tour de France in 2015 after seeing an 73.6% uplift in UK sales in the weeks after the 2014 tour’s “Grand Départ” in Yorkshire, which helped off-trade sales of its Chilean Pinot Noir overtake those of New Zealand in the UK for the first time.

The full Bicicleta range  includes a Viognier, Chardonnay, Merlot and Carmenère, as well as the Pinot Noir and other varieties.