English wine needs to move beyond generic ‘white’ and ‘red’ labels, Tesco says

English wine needs to move beyond generic ‘white’ and ‘red’ labelling on the bottle and call out the grape varieties, UK grocery giant Tesco has said, as it launches a new, premium English still wine in its *finest range.

Tesco opened a *finest pop-up wine bar in Soho, London in May 2016

The Tesco *finest English White Wine, which will launch in 320 of the supermarket’s stores from mid-May (rrp: £12) is a blend of 33% Bacchus, 33% Pinot Blanc, 29% Chardonnay and 5% Pinot Noir and although it is being called English White, product developer, wine,  Kevin McMeehan said it was important to also call out the varieties that go into the blend on the front of the bottle as a “statement” about English wine.

“You wouldn’t just call it a ‘French white’, you’d call it Bacchus or whatever the grape was or the region was, so we wanted to call out the grapes on the label,” he told db at last week’s press tasting.

“Bacchus is becoming the flagship English grape, so we’re making a statement about that,” he said. “We’re delighted with it.”

It is not the first time the retailer has listed a still white wine made in the UK in its premium own label range – it previously listed a still white field blend made by Denbies, but admitted customers had “not been ready for it” at the time so it was delisted – but the timing was now right for Tesco consumers, who put great trust into the *finest brand, he said.

“Given growth in English wine and the great 2018 vintage, we decided [the time was right to go] more premium, so we worked on the blend with Hush Heath, who supplies our sparkling wine,” he told db.

“We wanted to be very English in style – green hedgerows, nettley nose, complexity and length, it’s not just sharp, we’ve embraced the acidity.”

He admitted that “not a lot” had been produced, and it was is limited distribution in around 320 stores, but Tesco was hoping it would garner enough attention to expand production.

No- and low-alcohol wine growing ‘exponentially’

The retailer has also introduced a series of no and low alcohol wines in recent months, partnering with Felix Solis to develop new lines, as the category grows “exponentially”

“It’s come out of nowhere and is now on the tip of everyone’s tongues,” McMeehan admitted, but said the biggest struggle was that this meant there was still relatively little insight available about the category.

“Who is buying it?” he asked. “Is it wine drinker looking to moderate or soft drinker [who doesn’t usually drink wine?]. The information and insight is coming as more brands come through and the more people who buy into it, the more insight you can gather. But this has been a challenge,” he to db.

Another challenge he notes, was to make a crisper, drier style of wine, without falling back on adding sugar to boost the taste.

“We’re trying to keep them dry as possible, as there’s a lot of sugar out there,” he told db.

“We left it as low-alcohol rather than alcohol-free as once it’s below 0.5% ABV, the only solution to make it taste like a wine is to add sugar – bearing in mind some people are looking to cut sugar too. So it has been challenging to get the quality – you have to start with a very good base wine to start with. But we confident and very happy with it.”

Felix Solis UK’s general manager Richard Cochrane previously described the no- and low-alcohol wine category as ‘heinous’.

Evolving range

The retailer has also reblended its South African wines as part of its ‘ongoing’ evolution of the *finest range, “to get to a higher quality and similar style at a similar price point”, according to wine product development manager, Graham Nash.

It following a similar exercise for Chile last year, Nash said, and drew on a combination of insight from what customers are looking for, the knowledge in the wine team, benchmark tasting against the market including other retailer, other styles and other markets.

“Our focus is to evolve and add wines to the range that we blend, and approve every vintage to get right quality and consistency to retain right value and quality level,” Nash told db.

“When developed the reblended the South African *finest, range, we wanted to see what was working in the [South African] market –  it doesn’t necessarily influence the style you are looking to create, but it reinforces the quality we’re looking for, and might give you some ideas, but more often it reinforces that we’re going in the right direction,” he said.

The *finest range has remained fairly consistent in terms of number of skus, he added. “It’s not about the top line range number, it’s about having the right range in the right stores.”

Currently, around a third of its 650-660 wines are own label, which Nash said felt “about right” for the current range.