Tell us your thoughts on wine offers

We've been chatting for a while in the This is Money newsroom about how we can expose whether supermarket offers on wine a really good value.

In an interview this week, Jean-Manuel Spriet, chief executive of drinks giant Pernod Ricard UK, has claimed that some wines reduced from £7.99 to £3.99 are really worth that - i.e. only £3.99. Read the story.

I've been monitoring some of these wines by keeping emailed wine offers from some supermarkets. Feel free to add your own research by reporting any wines that you have seen repeatedly included in offers.

I have one email from Tesco in January - Rosemount Traditional 2000 was half price in January. Strangely, it's half price again.

Either post your comments on the story or make your observations below (we won't use your email and we don't need a URL website address). You can also email me at editor@thisismoney.co.uk

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, www.thisismoney.co.uk

Other stuff...

www.thisismoney.co.uk/supermarketwatch

Comments

[Jiles Halling]

In the same way that going for wines on offer may not always be the best idea, nor is opting for cheaper wines.

Consumers tend to forget that the duty levied on most still wine is calcluated according to the volume in the bottle and the type of wine. For most still wines the duty is about £1.25 per 75cl bottle.

This means that if you pay only £3.99 you actually get only £2.74's worth of wine ( less if you take out the cost of the glass, and the label, not to mention the profit margin).

On the other hand when you pay £5.99 you get £4.74's worth of wine. We shouldn't be surprised that 9 times out of 10 the slightly more expensive wine tastes better.

[Jim Sinnott]

We usually buy wine from either Asda,Sainsbury,Tesco,Morrison or the Co-op and have often licked my lips - expecting good things from a £7.99 bottle(as a £3.99 - half price offer), only to be quite disapponted at the mediocre quality, so I'm a bit sceptical these days as to what ALL the supermarkets are really up to. It's starting to put us completely off these - so called "half price offers"!!

[Michael Kelley]

I am really pleased to see this topic being discussed.I buy all sorts of wine offers from Tesco on a regular basis and find them disappointing. A £7.99 wine at £3.99 often tastes worse than a £2.99 wine!

Now, I am very sceptical and generally avoid these half-price discounts.

Michael

[Henry Williams]

Waitrose seldom discount more than 25% if at all. Their wines represent very good value at the occasional 10% off.

No connection other than being a frequent customer suckered and burnt by buying six cases of Tesco's quarterly 'half price' own brand Vina Mara Rioja "Reserva" plonk at £3.99.

Pay the extra and buy wine at Waitrose.

[Allan]

Hardy's Crest is always advertised as half price at £3.99 as far as I can tell, in several supermarkets. Surely customers aren't falling for this anymore?

Price establishing is rife in retail and has been for many, many years, so maybe it's unfair that the wine trade is getting special exposure.

When I used to work in computer sales, we'd "establish" phoney prices a month in advance, maybe in one of our 100-plus stores (hidden in the back of the showroom I might add) and then claim brilliant discounts the following month. Reprehensible stuff, but they all do it.

The question to ask is, why is it so easily to mislead the public? At the end of the day, each purchase should be made purely on its own merits and by comparing it to identical or similar products elsewhere. Simple.

[peter jackson]

Somerfields offered a really good Chilean Chardonnay at £1.99.It was all gone in next to no time. I hope they will be able to re-stock, but I doubt it.

[Jonty Stead]

Surely the best thing to do is to buy one bottle of the "cheap" wine and try it. If you don't like it them don't waste any more money; if it's good then buy more - it's your choice.

[Adrian, TiM]

I'll second the coment about Waitrose - hardly had a bad bottle from there and the staff know their onions too.

I can also recommend for the average punter, Matthew Jukes' Wine List as an excellent wine-buying guide.

Finally I'd say no one should expect to get a decent bottle of wine for less than £5 - you wouldn't expect to get a decent car for £500 would you? Or a good chicken for £2. I think it reflects a misapprehension of what wine actually 'should' cost.

I think if you buy wisely there's a dramatic increase in quality to be gained from going up to a tenner a bottle.

[James Hinchliffe]

I cannot understand anyone buying wine from a supermarket! Join the Wine Society , for a modest amount and remain a Member for life. Their wines never fail are delivered to your door and they have GENUINE reductions. I have been a Member for 40 years withiout complaint.
jimbo

[Elsi-mary]

I have bought so-called quality wines in the region of £8, £9, and £10 per bottle and found them disappointing. Some I kept back and used for cooking! A 'decent' bottle of wine is subject to individual taste. I regularly purchase a particular brand of Australian red wine for £4.99 at Morrison's - which I have not found elsewhere, i.e. Sainsburys, Somerfield, etc., (these are supermarkets within reasonable distance to where I live). Guests, friends and family members who have tasted this wine have liked it so much they have gone out and bought it themselves. I buy half-dozen weekly and my only 'gripe' with Morrisons is they do not offer discounted rate for half-dozen bottles like other supermarkets.

[David Hamm]

I have tried both the Hardy's Crest Cabernet Shiraz and Vina Mara Rioja Reserva and have to say that they aren't bad at half price but I wouldn't pay £8 for them.

As the previous correspondent said, Hardy's Crest always seems to be half price.

[jamie stash]

i had been buying a 'half price' wine from tesco from £11 down to £5.50. i thought i would try sainsbury and i saw it for £4.99 with no 'money off' or 'buy 6 and it wil still cost you more' offers.
i only try to get the recognised labels now and wont touch antything that is 'brewed escpecially for tesco' i wont buy.

J

[Wim Wijsman]

In Holland Hardys Crest is now advertised by the largest supermarket chain at half price, 3,99 in Euros. Over here 3,99 is also the magic price for a bottle of wine, so I guess people in England usually pay 50% more for the same bottle.