Tesco charts rise of new British wine connoisseurs
Retail analysts Nielsen see growth for wines priced at £10 or more up 23% in the 12 months to December 2017; while Tesco’s own ‘finest*’ range grew 20%.
Tesco says it has been putting in a significant amount of work to develop new quality wines and make labeling more helpful for consumers (own brand wines now include ‘easier to understand descriptions’ and have removed words like ‘toasty, nose and luscious’).
Its top selling high-end wines are Tesco finest* Marlborough Savignon Blanc 2017; Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva; Tesco finest* Premier Cru Champagne; and Tim Adams Clare Valley Shiraz. It has added 30 lines in the £8-£25 category over the last six months.
Tesco wine product developer Charlotte Lemoine expects to see the growth in premium wines continue.
“Britain’s shoppers are becoming more confident about what they want and in the last year we have seen strong demand for what would be considered connoisseur wines,” she said.
“Spending £20 ($27) on a bottle of wine in a restaurant is not unusual and we know that when preparing for a special dinner or occasion at home, people are three times more likely to spend over £10 ($14) on a bottle."
