Supermarket wines taking over Australia?

Have you been to the cellar door of: Cow Bombie, Mountian Brook, Craftsmen, Baily Baily, Penola Estate, Wahu, Bowlers Run, Brookridge, St Andrews, Two Churches? No, maybe not. That’s because they do not exist. They are not wineries, they are spice girl wines. They are products developed in a marketing department,not in a winery.

First thing to know is that Coles and Woolies sell you most of your wine:

Coles is also: Coles Hotels, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars, 1st Choice Liquor Superstore

Woolworths is also: Woolworths/Safeway Liquor, BWS, Dan Murphy’s

Not only do they make a buck by selling established wines but they are now also filling their shops with homebrand products with labels and names that could easily lead the customer into thinking they are actual wineries.These private label wines are produced by anonymous contract partners, then marketed under catchy labels.

However, you will not read anywhere on the label that they are home brand, they feature regularly in special offers and promotions, and take up prominent shelf positions in store. There is no real way for the customer to know that this is a home brand.

Is this wrong?

For the general wine consumer it probably doesn’t make a difference if they are buying there grog from big company A or big company B, as long as the price and taste are right.

It does raise several big questions as to the direction the industry is taking and labelling transparency. Nobody likes being deceived when buying something. A lack of information is also misinformation. Knowing the provenance of a wine, who made it and what is in it have always been a little difficult for the consumer to find out to say the least. But not even knowing if it is from a real winery could piss a few people off.

Buyer beware.