Wine is too strong. Not all wine, but the New World trend of the last ten years has found the alcohol volume going up from an average of 11% to somewhere closer to 13%. Now I like a bang for my buck, but being in mind exactly how drunk I want to get it annoys when a light white turns out to be 14%. Give me a crisp Riesling at 8% please for those summer days.
Anyway supermarkets, in the drive for corporate social responsibilities, are responding. In completely the wrong way. In particular the Marks & Spencer “range” called 10%. Much like our old friend C2, if you make the strength an obvious selling point, you mitigate against people buying it. It is there for show. A loss leader, like slimming products, that say they care about how much you drink before someone starts legislating on it. I’d be surprised if the 10% range does well (and 10% is THAT weak), but it will be there to stay for a bit. It makes people feel better that the supermarket cares. Even if they don’t buy them.
On the C2 issue, I have still yet to see it on tap in London. So despite the ads, it is conspicuously invisible. Almost as if Carling don’t want to actually sell any, but want to tell us that it is an important part of their brand ethos…