From Matthew Clark.
A blend of lightly sparkling wine and fruit flavours which has gone down well in the US
Abv: 5.5%
Price: £2.99
TARGET CONSUMER
Melinda Chandler, 33, promotions manager, publishing, London
This couldn't sound more like a cheap and nasty teen-girl targeted body spray if it tried.
The label does nothing to improve perception: a poorly cut out photo of a dollop of nuclear-injected looking fruit and a Mills and Boon style typeface against frosted glass containing a slightly redder than rose transparent liquid.
So: on to the taste. Expecting the worst, I wasn't disappointed. Sickly sweet but with no distinguishable taste not of raspberry- or lime, and certainly not of white Zinfandel.
There is just a totally artificial sweetness that sticks at the back of the mouth.
In a blind test, I would swear it was a cheap foreign version of a rather flat cherryade. And that is being nice.
I suppose you could use the bottle as a candlestick!
Rating out of 25 1
Sally Easton
Master of Wine and wine buyer for Berry Brothers and Rudd
This is a bright strawberry coloured liquid made using white Zinfandel with added fruit flavours. Being packaged in a 75cl bottle and having 5.5% alcohol, it sits in a small hybrid "wine cooler/large format ready to drink" group. Unfortunately, the nose has a rotten vegetal note with a faint hint of raspberry lurking behind. The palate is lightly sparkling and is bitter, phenolic and lacking much of the fruit flavour which the packaging and the colour of the product would lead you to expect. The sweetness masks the bitterness slightly but this is truly unpleasant to taste. Rating out of 25 0
Graham Shearsby
Board creative director, graphics, at Design Bridge
There seem to be minimal alcoholic cues here on an offering that appears, at first glance, to be a fruit flavoured soft drink. Inspiration for the graphics and brand name seem to be inspired by those rather fanciful air fresheners with such fanciful sounding names such as Forest Glade and Dingly Dell. The fruit illustration is extremely sad looking and certainly a long way from the exotic. Altogether I would say that the overall package has a somewhat untrustworthy air about it, with little memorable brand equities or appetite appeal. Overall, I think Arbor has certainly missed'. Rating out of 25 2
Steve Mayes
Trading controller at Landmark
Folk with an educated palate will shudder over this but shouldn't let personal taste create an Arbor Missed. This will succeed despite a minority opinion to the contrary. It is a well researched and presented product with a spec aimed directly at a substantial market in need of some dynamism. It has a well structured and innovative support package with comprehensive activity above and below the line there aren't many products that can make such claims regarding research, market opportunity, presentation and support. Promotional activity to date has apparently brought tremendous results. Rating out of 25 23
Total score out of 100 26
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