Grower fizz sparkles for Fortnums

Grower Champagne listings have increased at Fortnum and Mason as the upmarket department store believes they can offer better interest for the customer.

Despite a “lack of marketing budget and clout”, the store added that perennial discounting on well-known grandes marques has also contributed to the increased number of grower Champagnes on its shelves.

According to industry experts, the heightened presence of grower Champagnes in the off-trade is thought to be the result of a trickle down effect from the on-trade, where Flint Wines’ Gearoid Devaney MS said: “Some of these sommeliers have been championing these growers for the last 10 years.”

Tim French, wine and spirits buyer for Fortnum and Mason, said: “It’s been a whispering campaign but it’s a very effective whispering campaign because it’s coming from key communicators in the industry.

"I need interest and difference [in the Champagne range], and the growers have that in spades so it’s an area I have grown over the last few years. It’s surprising how many customers are willing to take good advice,” added French.

Meanwhile Waitrose, the supermarket which believes its point of difference is the ability to list smaller producers, does not find this so easy with Champagne. The supermarket’s Champagne buyer, Dee Blackstock MW, said: “I have bought them before and they just didn’t sell, plus some growers are not happy to be in a larger supermarket.”

Relentless discounting of Grandes Marques has also bolstered Fortnum & Mason’s stance on listing grower Champagnes. French added: “As the grandes marques are increasingly being promoted heavily across the country in grocers, it affects what I want to put on my shelves. I think value is so key, for £35 you can get something so interesting and that has a sense of where it comes from in a way that don’t necessarily get with grandes marques.”

Blackstock added that one of her biggest challenges as a Champagne buyer is to find “something good in the £20 to £30 range”.

French concluded that even though “the Fortnum’s Champagne department is more interesting for having growers’ Champagnes”, it still only represents about 10% of the store’s full complement of Champagne.

“The grandes marques do a fantastic job of producing a consistently good level of quality. It’s still the mainstay of the business,” he concluded.

All the latest news from Champagne will be available in the December luxury issue of the drinks business.

Jane Parkinson, 08.11.2010