Jefferson Meriwether
Veteran
- Location
- Worthing
I bought a bottle of Hock (German wine.) once; that's a foul wine indeed. Germany didn't invade Poland to steal its land, it invaded Poland to raid its wine cellars for decent bottles of wine.
Supermarket plonk recommendations thread
- Thread starter Andrew_Culture
- Start date
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ceepeebee
Veteran
- Location
- Some imaginary Flanders
but some of the expensive wines in there are really good deals - I've picked up some Margaret River wines in there for far cheaper (around a tenner) than I can buy anywhere else.
We've just got back from France so we have a wine cellar (actually an understairs cupboard full of sawn-off drainpipes) full of 4 euro corkers (and unfortunately one utter clunker that we got a few of) but lately we picked up a bottle of Minarete from Ribera del Dueroin Aldi that was so good we went back and bought ten more.
Not everything is cheaper for wholesalers to buy in bulk. And the big supermarkets contract with the wine producers direct - who will bottle the same wine with different labels for them. Costco aren't a big buyer in those terms and will have reasoned that if they can't get a big enough margin at the lower end they might as well sell at the higher end where it is built in.
Misplaced perception is also part of the marketing toolkit. Costco have a reputation of being a bulk discounter, so they can sell some items at normal price because customers think it must be discounted. Wine is a classic for that tactic because re-labelling makes it impossible to compare like with like.
Another perception trick is the orange or yellow shouty packaging for supermarkets' Value Range. That isn't there to help poor people identify it, because if that is their budget they will search it out anyway. No, the reason Value Ranges are garishly coloured is to stop them being bought by customers who can afford to buy higher-margin products and don't want to be looked down on in the checkout queue.
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
Ah marketeers- don't you just love their little cotton [trader] socks.
I would be rather surprised by that - to the point of not believing it.Waitrose are a supermarket like the others, just at a different price point and with a different brand image.
You have absolutely hit the thingie on the whatsit there. Supermarket wine discounts aren't discounts at all, because no-one is expected to buy them at any other price. They are displayed at 'full' price for the minimum legal period and often not even for that. But it works - I look at the big shouty labels first, even though I know I'm being conned.
Personally I don't rate Tesco for wine. An apparently huge range, but a lot of it very similar and never any 'hey, this is unusual' bottles. Just dull stuff made and sold industrially. Sainsburys locally has equally unimaginative stuff, slightly more expensive. Of the big four, I would go for Morrisons. A smaller selection but I always feel some thought has gone into it, and they have had MWs as wine buyers since forever.
I forgot Morrisons -oops! - they too have a good range. and Ooop North Booths are very very good giving Waitrose a good run for their money, but their supermarket estates don't overlap
on the price point point, Waitrose are more likely to find a wine that hits their price point Tesco are more likely to tell the producer that they must reduce their price to the price point - the only way the can do that and stay in business is to lower the quality in the bottle
The trick in France is to avoid the hypermarkets near the channel ports half the wines there are tourist dross the french avoid, we always drop off the motorway at some nondescript town 100 miles from the channel and go to the local hypermarket and buy the stuff the locals drink.
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
Handy hock....
ceepeebee
Veteran
- Location
- Some imaginary Flanders
exactly what we do - mind you, this time we were in Caen, which is light years better than any in Calais or Boulogne. I did pop in to the Auchan in Calais for sweets for work etc and it was about as appealing as the Tesco in Park Royal.
Typhon
Senior Member
- Location
- Worcestershire
I was searching for a wine thread as I am enjoying a nice tempranillo from Tesco and as it turns out a lot of the posts in here are praising them (the wine, not tesco specifically). Perhaps it's a grape suited to the lower end of the market price wise.
I don't normally buy from Tesco but I am quite pleasantly surprised. Normally I buy from a specialist independent store and then sometimes stock up with 3 bottles for a tenner from Asda. They're not the best but when they have a full stock you can pick out 3 passable bottles and for the money you can't complain. Often bottles of "premium" wine in supermarkets for £9-10 are no better.
Aldi certainly is recommended a lot on here, from cycling clothing to wine now it seems. I will have to pop in some time to check them out.
I don't normally buy from Tesco but I am quite pleasantly surprised. Normally I buy from a specialist independent store and then sometimes stock up with 3 bottles for a tenner from Asda. They're not the best but when they have a full stock you can pick out 3 passable bottles and for the money you can't complain. Often bottles of "premium" wine in supermarkets for £9-10 are no better.
Aldi certainly is recommended a lot on here, from cycling clothing to wine now it seems. I will have to pop in some time to check them out.
OP
OP
Andrew_Culture
Internet Marketing bod
- Location
- The People's Republic Of Suffolk.
I went into lidl after the Tempranillo that was recommended here, although halfway round the store I remembered that it's Aldi Tempranillo I was after...
Typhon
Senior Member
- Location
- Worcestershire
Funny that you should say that - straight after I posted I thought to myself "is it Aldi cycling gear that's recommended on here or is it Lidl?" I always get those two mixed up.
OP
OP
Andrew_Culture
Internet Marketing bod
- Location
- The People's Republic Of Suffolk.
In my mind they're pretty much the same thing, although one is close to my house and the other is not.
Typhon
Senior Member
- Location
- Worcestershire
Yes I've always thought of them as being the same. Except for me they're in the centre of a town which is 7 miles away and doesn't have adequate parking, whereas Asda is 2 miles away and has a large free car park (if you spend over a tenner).
I'm easily pleased with supermarkets - just want one that's not a hassle to get to.
OP
OP
Andrew_Culture
Internet Marketing bod
- Location
- The People's Republic Of Suffolk.
Has anyone spotted anything really special recently? I might pop into Aldi on the way home to see if there's any cycling gear left.
