jamie goode's wine blog

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Back in the normal routine again. I feel like I lost a day or two somewhere, and I was horrified to find out that the UK is still in the grip of winter, without even the slightest sign of spring.

One spot of good news on my return is that I will no longer have to kill myself to reach a June deadline for the next book (a general wine title, for MQP), which I was about to sign the contract for. I keep deadlines and so this would have taken a major chunk of my waking hours, especially seeing as my closures book needs to be a priority. Fortunately, the deadline has shifted to December.

One of the issues of Harpers waiting for me on my doorstep had an article by Jack Hibberd about the Bajoz Cano, publicized first here. I quote:

"For a wine produced by a co-op in a region little known in the UK outside of the trade and wine enthusiasts, it is quite a result: Viña Bajoz’s Caño brand, from the DO of Toro in Castilla y León, sold 13,000 six-bottle cases in Tesco during a single week last month.

"The main reason for this sales spike was, as always, a hard-and-fast discount that saw the retail price fall from £4.49 to £2.99 for the blend of Garnacha and Tinta de Toro (the local version of Tempranillo). A general Tesco promotion that gave a further 20% discount on any six-bottle cases coincided with the Caño promotion, meaning bulk buyers could have a bottle for as little as £2.38.

"Price, however, doesn’t tell the whole story. Caño’s success is also about PR. As Ben Smith, who runs Bibendum’s PR department, explains: ‘I sent out a couple of bottles to
the major newspaper journalists, and the response was fantastic. It all went a bit silly really. I didn’t expect the response we got.’

"These responses include Jane MacQuitty of the The Times urging her readers to ‘buy, buy, buy’, Jamie Goode at the Express declaring the wine was probably ‘the best sub-£3 I’ve ever tasted’, and Victoria Moore over at The Guardian advising her readers to fill their boots."

1 Comments:

At 11:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tesco, Tesco, Tesco!

 

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