Supermarket Sweep

Ignorant consumers, impatient producers, gagged journalists and bad buyers ….

I wanted to find some decent supermarket wines to write about in my next Taste Italia article. I drove around to a few local supermarkets and bought about six bottles of Italian wine from each. I never buy my wine in supermarkets, except for Waitrose, because I prefer to buy it in Europe and drive it home, or buy through my husband’s wine agents and pay restaurant trade prices … which I still think are too expensive. Having always assumed that all supermarket wine is bad wine, I wanted to determine how biased my opinion really was. I also invited a few friends to see what they thought.

I learned several things …

1. Since when have supermarkets been putting sell-by dates on the bottles? Where have I been? I was discussing this topic with some colleagues a few months ago in France and assumed it was a joke.

2. There are actually some really enjoyable vino de tavola - quality wines out there that provide good value.

3. Supermarket buyers are a changed breed.

Ignorant consumers and impatient producers …

Never in my life did I think I would read on the back of a Chianti label, the words:  “to be consumed within 6 months of purchase”.  I have seen the whole picture now – the joke has come full-circle.  I think I know how and why this has happened: when the Old-World age-worthy reds were sold in supermarkets, the consumer did not understand that you cannot compare a young Bordeaux blend to a “Heritage” blend from California or Australia. The New World wines, due largely to climatic conditions and the use of lots of new oak, were fruity, approachable and immediately drinkable – no cellaring required. The consumer did not understand why they had to buy a French or Italian wine then, that they could not enjoy that instant, but have to cellar. Who cellars anymore? Today, everyone buys for their wine in the night. So, now the Old World producers who have the supermarkets as their target audience, have regressed and made New World versions of their grapes. They want to get in on the action and follow this consumer trend and be easy and approachable too. And what is ironic, is that Mother Nature has been propelling the Old World towards this hot, alcoholic, in-your-face style anyway.

Still, I don’t understand why you’d want to make an early-drinking Chianti. Also, nearly all of the wines had screw-caps. Which, if the wine really is meant to be drunk in under a year, makes sense. But ….it annoys me that the wine industry has had to bend over backwards to accommodate consumer trends based on utter ignorance and impatience. The consumers are ignorant and the producers are impatient. When a wine producer says “hey, I give the people what they want”, this is wrong (they don’t ALL say this, by the way). The consumer will buy what they are given – what is put on the shelves. If you put crap on the shelves … they will drink crap. Period.

Gagged journalists …

Consumers should not be followed, they should be led. …and educated…which is another entire issue and rant of its own. Editors of wine columns in newspapers and magazines now only ask that their wine writers merely provide a glorified “shopping list” as opposed to content that is educative. That’s assuming that they even fork out the money for a wine expert to write their wine column. Most of them now promote a self-proclaimed expert from within their publication. And if all this said expert is doing  is listing the wine on sale at Tesco, copying the back of the label for content and sticking in a food match ….you don’t need an expert, just a self-important moron.

Bad buyers …

So, who is putting the crap on the shelves? The producers or the buyers? The trade has completely changed. I remember, when editing Vintage Magazine in Paris, back in the early 90s,  I would meet UK buyers when tasting in Burgundy or Bordeaux – the Press and the Trade mixed at the larger tastings. We journalists looked upon the UK buyers with envy and awe. In most cases, they had been well-trained and had well-formed Old-World palates. If I fell in love with a rustic, animal, seductively perfumed Pommard, I could write about it, yes. But if a Buyer did, he or she could decide on the spot to buy it and have an order drawn up for large quantities. The power ….

Then, this power was taken away from them. Any Buyer with experience was fired and replaced by a young thing who never lived in a wine-producing country and was trained to buy-by-numbers. …if they are even allowed to buy. In Chianti recently, I listened to a many buyers as they went about their business. I am determined to find the missing link in this chain. They all inevitably zeroed in on the easiest, most approachable, ubiquitous wines that were present at the tasting - the worst ones, really. They were choosing the wines they thought the international consumer would pay for. They were  not buying, hence rewarding, the wines that were the best made, the superior wines, the wines that the consumer should be drinking. And usually for the sake of a euro, in most cases, may I add (ah, but this 1 euro, multiplied up the margin chain would fatten unrecognisably). And then they talked price cuts and volume discounts and then they told the producer that they would have to check back with headquarters and get back to them – a process I have been told can take six months. It was a most repulsive procedure to witness.