I have known for quite a few years that the big names in supermarket wines will produce a consistent “product” year in year out no matter what the “Vintage”, and this Winefantastic post serves to illustrate that – they make the point that it is not all bad news though; take Champagne where the “Famous houses ” have been making their distinctive “house styles” for many years. It suggests the need to look further than the supermarkets for your wine to find a grape grower/winemaker who is trying his or her best rather than working to a brief.
To be clear, I am referring to reliability of wine style only.
Ever wondered how the big boys of the wine world achieve their consistency of offering?
How the big branded wines never seem to run out in the supermarket?
Regardless of the weather or natural event in the “vineyard”.
Well I’ve been wondering for years.
And a possible answer lies in the desire of members of big supply chains to satisfy a largely unsophisticated market; a market that less and less regards wine (and other agricultural products for that matter) as born from an agricultural product. The turning of wine (apples, beef, milk) into a homogenous, industrial product. One you can “rely” upon to be the same year in year out. Like Coca cola.
These big players only do what “we” ask them to do. They produce that which we will buy. So we get the products we want…
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The Uncorked Bottle 