The Moodie Davitt Report is delighted to launch a regular new column, Vintage Valuation, in which we assess airport wine stores around the world. In each edition we will rate the wine offer, merchandising and service by a number of key criteria, including:
- Size, depth, excitement of assortment: Is there a diversity of countries, regions, styles and varietals? Are (where applicable) the wines of the region or country well represented (where a store is located in a non wine-producing country, we will reallocate these points) – 20 points
- Price range and value: Is there a balance of price-points, from entry and mid-price level to the high-end? Is pricing competitive with the local market? – 15 points
- Is there innovation in the offer? Points of difference? Exclusives?– 15 points
- Is there an effort to engage the consumer via tastings and other promotions? – 15 points
- Do the staff display enthusiasm and knowledge in selling? – 15 points
- Overall impression: Does the merchandising, design and ranging create a true “wine experience”? – 20 points
Airport: London Heathrow Airport Terminal 3
Retailer: World Duty Free Group
Introduction: World Duty Free’s offer is split into two sections, the table wine selection in the main liquor department, the Champagne department across the walkway by the tasting bar and a further spirits offer.
Here we take a look at how the retailer has segmented and presented the category.
FINE WINE
The store features a gondola of ‘fine wine’, with some of those selections also featured in a small high-end ‘Wine Collection’ assortment behind glass in a temperature-controlled humidor.
The former includes an eclectic mix, ranging from Penfolds Great Grandfather 30yo Port (£280) to the same Australian winery’s RWT Barossa Valley (£135). There’s also Château Giscours 2013, a fine 3ème Cru Classé (third-growth) Bordeaux from the commune of Labarde in Margaux. Note that I said Marguax, not Marquax as the shelf label describes it, not a good way to engender confidence in the offer, especially at £89.49 a bottle.
It gets worse. “An intense ruby red wine with complex aroams of candied fruit, leather and violets. Silky tannins and an intense boquet that developes a pleasing fullness on the palate.” Sloppy.
Château de Beaucastel 2008 is a very good Châteauneuf-du-Pape from a very difficult vintage but at £96.99 a bottle it needs to be, and a little more about the wine on the (again poorly produced) shelf talker would help.
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Other good, albeit very young, wines include Château Léoville Poyferré 2013 £98.99; Château Lynch-Bages 2012 £160; Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 2012 (£175) and Château L’Évangile 2011 (£190).
All expensive wines with a little but not a lot of description and in the case of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, the words simply run out at the bottom and it finishes mid-sentence. “The finish has very good persistence and is long. Overall.” Overall what? Not the ideal way to sell £175 wine.
On the lower shelves of the same gondola there’s an nicely varied line-up, including Château Musar from Lebanon, 2003, (£22.99), BriO de Cantenac (from Marqaux again); and Château Talbot, 2013 (£87).
That multi-national array is complemented by further French, Chilean and Canadian labels. The latter comprises three packs of Inniskillin Icewine (£110) and the same winery’s half-bottle of Riesling Icewine (£62.99), Cabernet Franc (£73.49) and Gold Vidal (£52.49). Château de Lamarque 2012 (which looks very pricey at £43.99) sits in less than Haut-Médoc splendour on the bottom shelf.
La Demoiselle de Sociando Mallet, the fine second wine of Château Sociando Mallet, is indeed owned by the renowned Jean Gautreau but if you’re going to describe him as charismatic you should spell the world right. You may say I’m being picky but if you went into an Oddbins store, or even a big Majestic shop on the London High Street, you would note the love, knowledge and care that go into such notes.
The fine wine gondola is rounded out by a single Sauternes, Carmes de Rieussec Sauternes 2013 (the magnificent Château Rieussec’s second wine) for £42.99 and the likes of Flagstone Time-Manner Pinotage Reserve (£65.49) from South Africa; Montecillo Grand Reserva Selección (£54.00) and a boxed Hardy’s Winemaker’s Rare Release Shiraz 2008 (£135). Pricey, classy wines, but all displayed standing up, none on their side.
The other side of the gondola is mainly whites, though it’s an odd, hotchpotch selection in some ways. The top shelf features the very good Côtes du Rhône Village Reserve from Famille Perrin (£16.49), La Joue du Roy Pouilly-Fuissé (£29.99); Terres Domaine de la Baume Viognier Chardonnay 2012 (£21.49); Domaine de Tholomies 2015 Chardonnay (alongside the same winery’s Cabernet Merlot); another red, Château de Fauzan Minervois (£10.49); and a Louis Jadot Chablis (£18.49). But there seems little coherence to either the selection, the adjacencies or the shelf positioning.
The shelves are completed with an array of mid-level French whites such as Domaine de Cheval Rouge, (£9.49) and a smattering of rosé wine (Henri Gaillard Côtes de Provence Rosé, £8.49) right alongside a Mâcon-Villages at £19.49 all on a gondola signposted ‘fine wine’. More of that in a moment.
There are some outstanding wines in the humidor, including Château Lafite Rothschild 2011; Château Margaux 2011 (£250); and Château Lynch-Bages 2011 (£160) but there’s absolutely no feeling of them being curated in any way and the shelf labels are consistently worn or messy.
It’s hit and miss stuff. Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon (a top-class Chilean single vineyard label) from Chile (£61.49), Château Talbot 2013 (no price showing) and the final three racks all empty. Again there’s Château Giscours (and again Margaux is misspelled); Baron de Chirel 2008 Rioja (£54); boxed Flagstone Pinotage (£65.49); the Hardy’s Rare Release again; Wolf Blass Estate Barossa Dorrien Shiraz; Penfolds Grange Bin 95 gift pack (£595) and a 2007 Grange (£410). Some lovely wines there but when you are spending that much and are unsure of the value offer, the presentation, environment and staff combined have a big selling job to do.
MAINSTREAM OFFER
The main World Duty Free T3 offer features several gondolas with a decent variety of wine-producing countries and dominated by price offers and good incentives for multi-purchases.
Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc Private Bin 2014 from New Zealand is featured on the top shelf at a snip price of £6.49 (down from £7.39; curiously the retailer also sells the same winemaker’s Cellar Selection at £12.49). One level down are Tintara Horseshoe Row Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz from Hardy’s at two for £25 (normally £14.99 per bottle); the same offer applying to River Ranches Sauvignon Blanc from Geyser Peak, Sonoma County.
The curious positioning of the cheapest wines being placed highest on the shelves, continues with a range of very good Penfolds wines positioned on the second to bottom level at £17.49.
At the end of the same gondola, there’s a nicely boxed Wolf Blass Barossa Moculta (£45) and a Penfolds 150 Marananga Shiraz (£54.49).
Penfolds is very much to the fore here: Bin 138 Shiraz Grenache Mataro (£25.49); Bin 28 and Bin 9 each at £17.49. Wolf Blass – Private Release Chardonnay (£9.99) and Private Release Cabernet (£9.99) – continues the Aussie flavor. And on the bottom shelf there’s more, Jacob’s Creek Reserve Cabernet, Reserve Sauvignon Blanc and Winemaker’s Reserve Chardonnay and Winemaker’s Reserve Shiraz, (all £10.49).
The other side of the gondola features an extensive “two for £15” offer, including wines from Chile’s Errazuriz Estates, Geyser Peak, Hardys, Villa Maria, Firestone and Bolla. There are also some sparklings, such as Da Luca Reserve Prosecco Black (£10.99, down from £12.99).
The final couple of gondolas feature a mixture of sparkling wines, including a heavy emphasis on Prosecco, reflecting the Italian’s fizz’s booming popularity in England. Bottega’s Vino Del Poeti is £10.49; while Spain’s Freixenet Cava Cordon Negro 2014 (though described on shelf as 2011) is excellent value for £8.49. There’s a diverse range of reds and whites here from New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Italy, all around the £12.49-12.99 price-point.
This gondola also features more upscale wines such as Bolla Amarone 2012 (£21.49) and Bottega, Il Vino dei Poeti Brunello di Montalcino (£38.49). Why aren’t they in the fine wine section? How is fine wine defined here?
A strong Spanish contingent includes Beronia Reserva Traveler’s Collection (£17.99) alongside Faustino V Reserva Rioja (£10.49). Torres Mas La Plana 2011 (£41.99) sits adjacent to Moët Hennessy’s Numanthia 2011 (£33.79) and Protos Gran Reserva Ribera del Duego (£30.49). These are very good wines and certainly better than some of those on the fine wine gondola.
CHAMPAGNE
It’s physically separated from the table wine offer and frankly the Champagne department looks as though it were conceived and designed by a different team. The display is colourful, vibrant, alluring, everything the main wine zone isn’t. Bravo. This is much better.
I loved the Veuve Clicquot Destination Range (£21.99 a bottle) featuring different cities on the gloriously bright signpost-shaped yellow tins, from Milan to Buenos Aires, Milan, Stockholm, Mexico, Kyoto, Las Vegas and New York.
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There’s stand-out packaging too from Lanson, Charles Heidsieck, Piper-Heidsieck (very pretty in pink) and Moët & Chandon.
There’s a really good mix of standard, vintage and ultra-premium references including Dom Perignon 1998 at £350. Plenty of multi-packs too. Taittinger offers a twin-pack of Brut Premier non-vintage for £50, and there are similar offers from a good range of houses, including Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon, Laurent Perrier, Louis Roederer, Baron de Rothschild, Mumm, and Lanson.
Oddly, Krug languishes down on the bottom shelf, available in three references – Krug Grande Cuvée (£120), Vintage 2002 (£185) and a non-vintage Rosé (£186).
THE STAFF TEST
Q: “Have you got any Amarone or Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc? Those are the two wines I’m looking for.”
Neither of two staff approached knew the answer on either score. “I don’t know. I’ll try to find somebody who does,” said one helpfully. Duly he asked a third salesman, “Do you know anything about wine?”
“No, I work for Godiva.”
No attempt was made to sell me into an alternative upscale Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, such as Matua Lands & Legends, which was in stock.
A second visit to the store a few weeks later prompted a similar initial answer on Cloudy Bay but a helpful salesman eventually told me it was “out of stock”. On this occasion the Amarone offer was correctly identified.
ASSESSING THE VALUE PROPOSITION
In the table above we’ve chosen at random several wines from the World Duty Free offer and compared them where possible with upscale UK supermarket Waitrose’s online price (remember Waitrose is generally more expensive than its competitors such as Tesco and Sainsbury) or with fine wine merchants such as Berry Bros & Rudd or Justerini & Brooks, or popular chain store Majestic Wine. No discount store prices have been included.
The results (with one exception like-for-likes in vintage) make for curious reading. Generally, the cheaper wines and the Champagnes offer fair value against the High Street (and its online counterpart), but some of the premium wines are grossly overpriced. The value proposition is certainly there in the multi-buy offers but is much less convincing, and sometimes absent, elsewhere.
CONCLUSIONS
World Duty Free’s wine department at Heathrow Airport T3 feels like it’s there because it has to be, as opposed to it being someone’s passion. It lacks love.
While there are some good wines on offer, little thought seems into gone into how they should be ranged, displayed or sold. The Champagne zone is an honourable exception.
There are odd adjacencies and shelf positioning and a lack of clarity over what constitutes fine wine.
It’s ok, not bad but not that good either. And in this column we’re determined to search out and champion the very good. Wine for years, decades in fact, was considered the poor relation of the liquor category, largely because retailers believed it offered insufficient profit margins to warrant focus or shelf space.
That has changed significantly in recent years as interest in wine has soared worldwide. As a result, certain retailers have identified the incremental opportunities offered by fine wines in particular, and begun to treat the category with respect and flair. As it proves in its excellent beauty department only metres away, World Duty Free is a far better retailer than this.
The Good:
An acceptable cross-section of wines and wine-producing countries with some really nice French and Spanish wines in particular among the mix. Plenty of decent price offers (two for £15), a balanced mix of Old and New World and enough fine wines to spark the purist’s interest as well as the more casual buyer. The Champagne zone is splendid.
The Bad:
No English wine (or none that I could find). The country is now producing a host of interesting and often excellent wines, notably in the sparkling category. They should be represented here at the UK’s major gateway.
The merchandising is boring and, the humidor aside, would not be out of place in a corner grocery store. Even the Wine Collection humidor was untidy, the shelf-talkers sloppy. Some of the adjacencies on the gondolas are curious and why some of the best (and priciest) wines are positioned on the bottom shelves and their budget-price counterparts on the top is curious.
Scant promotional activity (other than multi-purchase price incentives) or tastings.
The Ugly:
Top-class, expensive wines sold standing up. Margaux with a ‘g’ not a ‘q’ every time. Krug dumped on the bottom shelf with a peeling shelf talker.
OVERALL VINTAGE VALUATION RATING (OUT OF 100): 51
A VENETIAN AMBASSADOR Masi has always been an ambassador for the values of the Venetian Regions. Its story began in 1772, when the Boscaini family, now in its seventh generation, bought prestigious vineyards in the “Vaio dei Masi”, in the heart of the Valpolicella Classica zone. With Masi Historic Venetian Estates, the Boscaini family sanctions its work in promoting the cultural traditions of “territories of excellence” through single vineyard wines (crus) and historic noble estates. In Valpolicella, Masi collaborates with the Conti Serego Alighieri family, descendants of the poet Dante, owners of the estate since 1353, and in Rovereto it collaborates with the Conti Bossi Fedrigotti family, a prestigious aristocratic estate since 1697. Cantina Privata Boscaini is made up of precious cru selections and great vintages of Amarone, produced in limited quantities and only when nature is at her most munificent. A family inheritance, to be conserved with the maximum care and shared with the best friends and closest wine passionates. World leaders in the production of Amarone Classico, Masi has developed recognised expertise in the Appassimento technique through its Technical Group. The technique dates back to the ancient Romans and involves leaving grapes to dry on bamboo racks for the winter months to concentrate aromas and flavours in the resulting wine. And an aptitude for innovation has resulted in the production of the widest and most expertly made range of Amaroni, Recioti and Double Fermentation wines – which together form Masi’s calling card in the world. |
COMING UP IN FUTURE EDITIONS OF VINTAGE VALUATION: Dubai Duty Free, Dubai International; Aelia Duty Free, Nice Côte d’Azur International Airport (click on the YouTube icon below to view our preview) and others.
