Asda is to boost its English wine offering in 2005 with a new range of own label products.
The supermarket has been working with Three Choirs vineyard in Gloucestershire to produce three new brands which will be released throughout the year.
In April, a dry white wine marketed under an Asda English Wine label will be released with an rsp of £4.78. Made from the Phoenix grape variety, it is described by wine buyer Tara Neil as being a “zingy, fresh” wine similar to a Sauvignon Blanc.
Asda will shortly launch a new brand called Three Choirs Variations, made up of three wines labelled according to taste categories, such as ‘crisp and fresh’ and ‘aromatic.’
In September, a new Extra Special English Wine in a fumée style goes on shelf, and will sell for between £7 and £8.
Many English vineyards reported a record yield for 2004, with sales at an all-time high following positive publicity at international shows.
Neil said the labels of the new brands would be designed to win new buyers to the category. “They are contemporary and made to stand out on shelf. We want to bring in adventurous people who might normally drink New World wine,” she said.
She added that Asda’s English wine offering needed an update.
“There are some really nice English wines out there but you just don’t see them on sale,” Neil said. “We have an increasingly sophisticated wine consumer who buys from abroad yet is not even aware of what is on offer in their own country.”