I was very surprised to read a blog post over on http://wineeconomist.com/ about a cheap store called Grocery Outlet. Their mission, it seems, is to source and provide known brands at well below normal retail price. Which is fine of course. And they sell wine too, great. But the later half of the post is devoted to three New Zealand wines, all of them outrageously cheap.
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Understandable is the Babich wine, a 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, which is no doubt a large volume lower tiered label that looks to deal with the large 2008 vintage surplus. Whats shocking are the other two wines, an Isabel Sauvignon Blanc 2008 for USD$5.99 and a Te Awa Merlot 2004 for USD$3.99. As a small producer we know what is costs to produce a bottle of wine and and that's no where near it. Question is, who is taking the hit - the winery or the someone along the US distribution chain?
2 comments:
My guess is that a distributor is dumping the wines and so taking the direct hit, but these things have a way of moving back through the supply chair, which is unwelcome news for NZ supplies if it is a general trend.
Mike Veseth
WineEconomist.com
Absolutely - Isabel have quite a good reputation as a quality producer so this perhaps creates an expectation amongst consumers of cheaper pricing which, as you say, can only be harmful in the long run.
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