Tesco Bins Wines

I see that supermarket giant Tesco are binning 50 of their cheapest wines as apparently we are becoming more sophisticated wine drinkers and turning up our noses at cheap 'plonk'. I don't mind cheap wine, it depends what it tastes like and I'm not an advocate that all expensive wines taste good. When in Italy, even the cheapest lunchtime fizz is very pleasant and satisfactory to drink with a light lunch.

Tesco are trying to move up market by merging its budget, Simply and Vineyard ranges into one mid-priced choice. The move is also an attempt to make wine buying less confusing for its customers - whose confused? They say that shoppers face a 'wall of wine' with huge numbers of bottles of different prices from all parts of the world. But don't us Brits love choice? I do. Where else can you find a £18 Barolo tucked up against a £5 Kadette - but a supermarket?

It seems, according to Tesco, that some of their customers have found their Simply range 'simply undrinkable', and shoppers don't want bargain-basement beverage anymore. However, surely we want good-value wine at low prices? And that's exactly what Tesco is aiming to offer its customers, according to press reports yesterday, by getting rid of one third of its own label wines. By also ditching 300 other wine brands that will leave 118 wines on its shelves. They will just have one range from now on - with wines priced from £3.50 to £8 and will still include a range called 'Finest' at the top end of the market, though some of the wines previously labelled Finest will; now be among the standard range.

Confused? Then join my queue out of Tesco, who are already struggling with a drop in sales!