Shoppers are taken in by wine myths, reveals Spar survey
More than half of British shoppers believe wines contain fruits used to describe their flavour such as gooseberry or cherry.
A survey conducted for Spar revealed a shocking lack of wine knowledge among shoppers. An incredible 54% expected a sauvignon blanc to be made with gooseberries, for example, and cabernet sauvignon with blackcurrants.
The research also highlighted a number of wine myths for instance, that 35% of consumers think wine sealed with a cork is better quality than that sealed with a screw cap, and that 48% believe an older vintage is automatically higher quality.
The retailer said it conducted the research to show consumers they weren't alone in not understanding wine.
"We want our customers to continue to enjoy wine and not to get hung up on industry terminology," said Spar wine trading controller Xenia Irwin MW. She added that Spar wanted to make wine as accessible as possible and had abandoned the use of complex tasting notes on PoS material in favour of simple descriptions and comments from wine journalists. It had also been entering its own-label wines in awards and flagging up wins including this year's Grocer Gold Award for an own-label wine range.
"The third-party recognition of an award can be very reassuring for consumers," said Irwin, who added that Spar would continue to focus its wine activity on own label and exclusive labels.
"This allows us to compete with the multiples as we are not competing on a like-for-like basis."
