Is anyone fed up with the as I call "The usual suspects" 1/2 price offers that do the rounds e.g Kumala,Evolution, Hardys Crest, etc ? One week Tesco have them then Asda, Sainsbury and so on, and are they really HALF PRICE !
Worse still how about the wines that are shipped here in the VAT LOAD and bottled at a bottling plant in MILTON KEYNES(see the back of the label if you are unaware of this practice) or some god forsaken place ! Even the restaurants are at it!! I have just read a review from Nick Juby in tescos july wine club about a Mclaren vale Shiraz(ABBOTTS VALE) and a Chardonnay HALF PRICE I ordered it thinking it was a good promo and its turned up bottled at NR10 5BG,UK !! no where near bleedin Australia !! I have'nt tried it yet but surely this is a bit of sharp practice? We have Feta style cheese and Parma style ham, Why not Aussy style wine ? I would be interested in anyones thoughts positive or negative. Cheers Kevin

There are some good reasons for bottling wine here. The first, of course, is cost. Wine from Aus comes here in container loads. Sending it in bulk tanks, rather than cases of bottles massively reduces the volume of container space needed. Also, some regions only have one bottle manufacturer and so prices are pretty steep.

Secondly, although is is unlikely to be the case with Australian wine, bottling is a very important factor in the future health and longevity of wine. Some wine regions are just not geared up to do it well. Bottling plants in the UK, but also in France, have impressive equipment and quality assurance procedures. So, wines bottled closer to home are sometimes better off for it.

Thirdly, it give jobs to the boys at home.

Fourthly, lugging X thousand tonnes of glass across the world is hardly good for the environment.

We've all grown up thinking that mis en bouteille is a sign of quality. A century or so ago, it was a security against any old rubbish being put in the bottle and being falsely labelled. Now, it hardly matters.

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mel

Everyone knows that just about all of these suspicious "half-price" wines are really worth the half price, not the full one, don't they? They almost never fail to disappoint if you actually believe you're getting the stuff at half price (though there's always the odd exception, as with everything). It's always mass-produced plonk. Best single thing I ever did in wine buying was to give teh BOGOFs a wide berth.

To be fair, though, there are a lot of people who like "mass produced plonk". They don't want anything that tastes complex or different. Although we can be superior about it the people who drink all these much reduced branded wines keep the industry moving.

Also, these mass-produced brands are a way into drinking wine for beginners. They're not scary, the names are pronounceable and they're reduced in price. Anything that gives people the confidence to drink wine must be good.

But, yes, the wine is never worth the full price. The level of promotion and the number of weeks that the wine will be on promotion are factored into the development of the wine frighteningly early on. I wouldn't say before the flavour of the wine is designed, but not far behind.

It's business, rather than art.

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mel

Yes, very true. It would be interesting to know though, don't you think, how many of all the people drinking the plonk actually do move on to the good stuff!

Surely, they all do eventually. Although I understand the Queen drinks Liebfraumilch and little else. You see, royalty excepted, the brand owners make it very easy for beginners to move up. If their starter wine is £4.99 and regularly £3.99, they then offer the next step up at £5.49. Everyone has a special occasion at some time and feels the need to better themselves. If the 2nd tier is then reduced to £4.99, the consumer can allow himself to try it because it's the same price as his normal wine. As salaries increase, we all want to improve our lot.

Except the Queen who, to be fair, may not be swayed by aggressive wine promotions!!

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mel

I'm not sure I agree. I think a proportion does move up, but very much a minority - from the admittedly unscientific perpective of my supermarket visits

I fear that when most people are used to seeing wine as a BOGOF commodity, an industrial product, if you like, they simply don't contemplate spending more money on it as a quality product. Which is kind of held up by the fact that supermarkets ranges - with the exception of the window dressing - Grange and Krug at the top of the little that is left of the "fine wine" range - is definitely duller and more homogeneous than a few years back.

I think it comes down to education, many drinkers have no interest in learning about wine, it’s just not what’s important in their lives.

As long as buyers remain ignorant, they will always be guided by the marketer’s wand.