I was told about a clever new application for the iPhone that has just been released by Tesco in the Apple iTunes Store: Tesco Wine Finder

I recorded a brief video of my first trials – see what you think.

Seems pretty clever use of technology to me – combining label recognition (to save retyping details), social aspects such as sharing your review of the wine, and online shopping.

I will have a more in-depth trial of it, but at first glance this seems like a good way of encouraging consumers to look at what they are drinking a little more closely and recording the wines they liked for future purchase.

Disclosure: the application only works for wines listed by Tesco and I only had a couple readily to hand, so I have used one that I am involved in supplying to them, the Castillo San Lorenzo Fincas, for demonstration.

I have been visiting Nova Scotia in Canada for a number of years (it is absolutely beautiful by the way) and usually I am critical of the concept of the Canadian state (well, the Provincial governments) having a monopoly on the sale of alcohol. You can check out the range here.

For those of us living in the UK or most of Europe, the idea that the state should control what wines or spirits should be available, where, and for how much is extraordinary (if you live or visit Sweden this is probably not such a shock for you).

[Some might argue of course that this is exactly where we are heading in the UK because of the retail strength of the supermarkets like Tesco - but even here we at least have a number of alternative ranges to choose from]

My reaction is usually – “How could one organisation tell us what wines we can drink?”, especially when the result, at least in Canada, is a pretty limited range of branded wines?

The reason for this structure is most likely still a hang-over (!) from Prohibition (yes, they had it here too), and there is a sort of puritanical streak to the management of this ‘vice’ which I personally disagree with. It also means that there is a form of “lowest common denominator” effect at work which determines that all wine have to be available in minimum quantities to supply all stores, have to be consistent and also be able to comply with the kinds of red-tape only government departments are able to create. This often results in a pretty bland range.

However, there is one small silver lining to this was pointed out to me which I had not considered. In the UK we have such a high density of population that we can pretty well guarantee access to supermarkets or shops wherever we are, with a few exceptions of course. This means that the market can operate quite freely and there will be someone who can sell you what you are looking for within a reasonable distance.

When you take a country like Canada, this is definitely not the case outside of most large cities. So much of the infrastructure here depends on government support to reach tiny communities in distant areas, that if the government did not step in, certain items (especially luxury items such as wine) would either be impossible to get, or prohibitively expensive.

OK, so wine is probably not the main justification for this type of system, and I’m sure they make a pretty penny or two in tax from selling and taxing all that alcohol, but at least they can get it. Hopefully in time, and with a little popular pressure, the range will improve further.

I’m sure the local “liquor commission” would tell you that a monopoly also means that there are clear & limited channels for reaching consumers, giving the opportunity for ‘managing’ consumer alcohol consumption. I still think that in the longer term education works better than restricting access. However, thinking positively, it does mean there are obvious places to start reaching consumers with information on wine to educate and inform them and improve their experience.

Still, I’ll take Tesco’s range over the NSLC one any day!

As a further follow up post on the subject of better wines in supermarkets, I see that The Telegraph (online at least) has recycled their previous news story with a funny, and unintended, contrast:

Quote from today’s article – exactly as per the page:

“Sales of bottles costing £10 or more are up 74 per cent in the past two years, said Tesco. The chain is stocking bottles of wine priced at up to £100 each for the first time.

[...] The supermarket’s beer, wine and spirits category manager, Jason Godley, said more shoppers are treating themselves to expensive wines.

“This would never have happened in a British supermarket even a few years ago and it suggests that Brits are fast shaking off their reputation, especially with our European neighbours, as a nation of plonk drinkers,” he said.

• South African brand Arniston Bay is launching wine in resealable pouches.

The pouches will launch in Britain this month, according to The Grocer magazine.”

Presumably those pouches are full of ‘quality’ non-plonk at over £10 then?

Headline from The Telegraph, “Wine lovers kick the Blue Nun habit“.

The gist of the story is that sales at £10+ are increasing at a fabulous rate in Tesco while Waitrose’s average wine spend per bottle is £8 and Jeroboam’s is £10.

Great!

So why is the average price of wine still below £4? This is because the main outlets for wine sales are continuing to sell cheap wine at a discount. It is great to hear that Tesco’s sales of wine above £10 increased 75%, but they hardly sold any in the past and now they have created a Fine Wine area. It would be much more interesting to see what their average price per bottle had done over the last few years. I doubt it has increased.

However, it is heartening to hear that a greater number of people are buying a decent quality wine, and, according to the article, finding good wine fashionable rather than elitist. If this is true, and I don’t see hard evidence of the fact, this is a pretty major breakthrough.

Unfortunately there is a long time to go before I quite believe the hyperbole of certain supermarket chains, as quoted in the article:

“Jason Godley, the wine manager for Tesco, said: “Britons used to be perceived by the rest of the world as a nation of beer drinkers, but this is changing fast. Many Brits think nothing about spending £10 for a bottle of wine at a supermarket and if the occasion is really special then perhaps even £100.”

£100 for a bottle of wine in my local Tesco? I think not.

And as for kicking the Blue Nun habit, I think Blue Nun sales figures might dispute that conclusion.

I was alerted to a new US based wine branding business earlier today.

Wine That Loves™ is a concept that has been seen before, at least in this country, in Tesco under the name “Great With” (something like Great With Chicken and Great with Fish). They did not last, but some wines did OK for a time.

This new drive supposedly comes from a top sommelier with credentials, Ralph Hersom, so I would assume the wines themselves are of a reasonable quality.

On the positive side, many people starting their personal exploration of wine want to have it at home, and most likely with food. The sheer range of wines available in most countries is off-putting if you have no knowledge, so any pointer as to what is “good” will help. I know that the limited food matching suggestions on the back labels of supermarket wines can have a big impact on their success, so it makes sense to offer this information up-front.

The problem for most regular wine labels is that they want to appeal to the broadest possible group of people, so they try to be helpful whilst also not trying to turn anyone away.

“This wine is great on its own, but is a perfect match for fish, chicken, beef, vegetables, pasta, and any other food I don’t have space to mention.”
Not very useful.

These wines, on the other hand go to the other extreme.

“Wine That Loves Pizza“.
Erm, nothing else? Might it not be OK with some pastas then?
“No!” Screams the bottle. “Buy Wine That Loves Pasta for that instead. Oh, and it must be Pasta with Tomato Sauce“

What I find particularly unusual is that they don’t even seem to want to tell you what the wine is. If you do use this as an introduction to wine, then you might discover that wines can be a great match for pizza and pasta, but how do you then take it to the next level, ‘Fly Solo’ as it were? Maybe it is on a back label, but the site certainly doesn’t give anything away. In fact their descriptions are somewhat vague and unhelpful, but simplicity is a key I suppose.

From the perspective of building a Wine Culture, I applaud the effort to reach new audiences with a very specific message. However, taken to the extreme this could result in the further commodification of wine as merely a food match, so maybe this should be accompanied by some ongoing wine education?

Oh, and if I were starting a company like this, I might include some mention of how to get hold of the wines that have been so carefully selected and packaged. Just a thought.