If you’re like me you love sitting down in front of the TV on a Saturday night with a massive blanket, one of your favourite take home meals and a good bottle of wine… or two… or three. Okay the cats out, I really love wine!
Recently there’s been several good pieces of news if you’re a wine lover like me and living or staying in Melbourne!
Starting with…
Double Gold Awarded Wine only $6
At Only $6 it’s Significantly Less than one-hundredth the Price of a famed 2012 Penfolds Grange.
However, an unassuming, private-label wine marketed through Coles Supermarkets has enraged, and probably embarrassed, Australian and international powerhouse manufacturers to bring home a highly prestigous “double gold” medal.
It is enough to make wine snobs shout in their pricey Riedel Eyeglasses, the wine is good enough to be served at a museum art and design exhibition, and the effect indicates the rising strength and caliber of supermarket private-label wines which were formerly viewed as hardly drinkable.
While I have preferred regions like wine from Yarra Valley, I must admit I am loving the cheapies at the moment. For too long we’ve worried too much about label and price; not taste. It’s good to see the wine world becoming less snobby!
Additionally, the success against the chances echoes last year’s shock win by A 5-dollar bottle of Coles wine which has been selected by a panel of candidates — such as pioneering Australian winemaker Wolf Blass — by a field of 10,000 to be called the best wine below $20 a bottle.
This wine, Coles’s Big & Tasty Shiraz 2015, instantly Sold out when information of this decoration given to it by powerful wine sector magazine Winestate became known.
The grocery store has done it again. A 6-dollar cabernet Sauvignon sold solely by Liquorland, First Choice and Vintage Cellars; the spirits banner collections possessed by Coles, has won high honours in the prestigious Melbourne International Wine Contest, beating a field of global competitions.
The MIWC judging panel was unanimous in evaluation, the St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 was deserving of a gold trophy — a rare consensus on quality that’s marked with the award of “double stone” status.
Wines exclusive to Liquorland won an Additional eight awards in the Series, including one gold, two silver and five bronze awards.
Head of Coles wine sourcing Bob Paulinski, that ran US Giant Wal-Mart’s spirits division, stated Liquorland was thrilled with the hottest accolades for its series’s portfolio of exclusive wines.
Paulinski stated, “We’ve worked really hard with our winemaking suppliers for years to create a portfolio of amazing quality wines that over-deliver for our customers and a win like this shows that our exclusive wine brands can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in the market, and is a testament to the incredible work our suppliers do in making these wines.”
Within the past few years supermarket giants like Coles, Woolworths And German discounter Aldi are pouring more funds and investment to sourcing and producing quality wines to market under their own branding, as private-label offers to shoppers which are typically very economical and will sell for as little as $5.
Aldi specifically has gained a massive following because of its range Of all private-label beers, wines and spirits. A number of these wines have won awards and are gaining the attention of shoppers.
While I’m extremely happy and won’t complain about cheap good wine, I am concerned that the new private label brands from large supermarket chains could provide some threat to the entire wine experience.
I love the entire wine experience that can be offered by vintages, vineyards and cellar doors in famous regions across the world. If the supermarkets continue to dominate this space will I still be able to head to the Yarra Valley for a weekend; have a day of boozey wine-tasting from renowned labels, crash way too late in a cozy little cottage and then cure my throbbing head the next day at a hang-over curing breakfast restaurant?
But onto good news story two!
Deliveroo is now Delivering Alcohol
Recently Deliveroo began delivering alcohol. That’s right, you can get a serving of your favorite drink from that restaurant in South Yarra even if you live an hour away in Brunswick! Deliveroo will send alcohol in 30 minutes or less, Monday through Sunday, between 12pm and 11pm.
The brand-new alcohol-only support in Melbourne is the very first for Deliveroo in Australia, although the business says other towns will come.
Now You Can have wine, spirits and beer delivered to your House from Blackhearts & Sparrows, the Grosvenor Hotel, Melbourne Wine Store, Fitzroy Social, The Shaw Davey Slum and much more. The limitation per order is just one slab (24 x 375ml containers) of beer or premixed spirits or six bottles of wine or one bottle of spirits (750ml).
The future is now people! And it promises cheap wine without the hassle of going to the store to collect it. Embrace it and love it, but keep in mind there could be some unexpected downsides to all these changes… time will tell
