Tesco adds 40 new premium wines in latest review

The UK largest retailer, Tesco, has “plugged a gap” in its wine range with the addition of around 40 new premium wines, including two rosés from Brangelina’s wine brand, Miraval.

Speaking to db at the supermarket’s trade tasting this week, Tesco product developer Graham Nash said the move was part of a wider balancing act to ensure the range was right for its customers.

“The range is always evolving and we try to manage the range to meet the customers needs, so that it is relevant,” he said.  “It’s about making sure the range is right.”

In order to get the balance of the range “right”, the retailer has added a host of more premium brands, across the range of country of origin, including an English sparkling Hattingley Valley Reserve NV (RRP: £29), Sir Ian Botham’s eponymous new range, Château Brown 2013 (RRP: £30), Château des Fougeres La Raison Graves 2011 (RRP: £15), Guigal Côtes du Rhône Red 2018 (RRP: £12) and Il Passo Segreta Appassimento Sangiovese 2017 (RRP: £12) and bolstering its premium own label range, with, among others, a new Tesco Finest Margaux 2016 (RRP: £22), and Tesco Finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2017 ((RRP: £18). It has also listed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new rosé, Studio by Miraval (RRP: £12), which was launched in the Spring with UK convenience retailer The Co-op.

“We take insight from our consumers and heard from them that we were short in that area,” he said. “We looked at the total range and saw that there was a gap at that level. Although we had some, it not enough.”

He added that although it looked like a big change – 30 or 40 wines – it was small within the wider extend of the range so they were able to flex it to address the balance, replacing a range of own label and branded products.

According to data from Nielsen, the price bracket that saw the greatest growth in the UK off-trade over the last year was the £8 – £9 tier, which accounts for 5% of the market, which rose 12.7%, followed by the smaller £9 – £10 segment (representing 3% of the market by value) saw growth of 9.6%. But as Nielsen commercial business partner for BWS Gemma Cooper pointed out to db recently, the growth in the £7-8 bracket, which accounts for around 11% of total off-trade sales, showed that consumers were trading up, rather than the changes being fuelled by price inflation. This segment saw growth of around 10.8% to £556 million, the data show – an addition of around £54million to the category.