UK supermarket chain Tesco is set to carry its screwcap initiative to the Old World.
The store’s Unwind range has been so well-received that Tesco now wants to extend it French, Italian, Spanish and other wines from the Old World – traditionally much more resistant to synthetic closures.
‘We’re working on numbers now,’ wine category manager Anne-Marie Bostock told decanter.com. She added that the Unwind range, with a strong New World bias, had generated a lot of interest in the Old World, but there was still some resistance.
‘Some producers approached us, and others we went to. There has been nervousness about it, but it’s something we believe in wholeheartedly.’
Tesco remains tight-lipped about which producers have agreed to put which wines into screwcap, saying only that it is ‘the classic Old World countries’ and that an announcement will be made in the Autumn. There will be a mix of red and white wines, mostly Tesco own-label.
The supermarket – the UK’s biggest retailer – is bullish about the success of the Unwind range. A press release says in ten weeks it sold 1.5m bottles of new screwcap wines, and that an in-store survey showed 60% of respondents thought screwcaps were a good idea for wine, and 65% would buy a wine sealed with screwcap.
‘These initial results are far more positive that those of previous surveys seen in the the trade. We believe this is because our customers how have a strong, varied range to choose from,’ the release concludes.
Written by Adam Lechmere8 July 2002
