Wine Revolution in Morrisons

How Flintoff Drinks Wine

For years I have heard the advantages, and disadvantages of how to merchandise Wine in store, or how to portray them on a Wine list. Do you do it by grape, by country, by year, by price, by taste profile, or perhaps use another method? The challenge is, most of us are guided by price, and a preferred grape, and most us find it difficult to remember the name of the great wine we drank last time we were out.

Many Wine brand owners, and retailers have known for years what has now been proved by research. Morrisons have determined that taste is the key driver, obvious I know, but it is the action that they have taken with this knowledge that is truly revolutionary. Via a straightforward serious of questions they will be able to deduce a drinkers Wine preference.

Based upon their responses to the questions drinkers are matched with a Wine flavour scale numbered from of 1-12, which equates to four main taste groups: sweet, fresh, smooth or intense. Armed with this information a drinker who is say a10 will know they will like Wines that are merchandised in the 10 area.

What is truly revolutionary is that Morrisons are proposing to put red, white and rose Wines together based upon their number scale rather than colour. I personally feel this is an inspired move, that will help people try more Wines knowing that there is a greater chance they will like them. If this is successful other retailers will follow, which may mean one day we have a
standarised scale across all brands and retailers. Now wouldn’t that be a novel idea.