How David Farmer became a Coles house brand label requires a little bit of explaining but better to stick with his selections for Glug.
David writes:
Periodically the local wine business creates surplus bottled stock and I recall a time when stores appeared in Melbourne that mostly sold dozens of different cleanskins. Their appeal to buyers seemed irresistible so through the 1980s and 1990s many retailers would have a corner of the shop devoted to cleanskins. Labelling regulations changed this to minimally labelled bottles and perhaps this was part of the thinking that now has most liquor retailers selling house brands, the trademarks of which they own.
I last wrote about house brands in October 2019 and again point out that the overriding role of all retailers of basic consumer goods, indeed their sacred duty, the reason for their existence, is to improve the quality of goods while lowering the prices.
Naturally balancing this while having an agreeable relationship with the suppliers of goods is often a source of friction. Indeed, Coles has just purchased milk factories to keep the price down and similar reasoning applies to wine.
Endeavour Drinks, owners of BWS and Dan Murphy, has a large investment in making wines and has bought stand-alone wineries like Cape Mentelle which quickly confuses what is a house brand.
The Real Review wine site believes that consumers should know who owns which brand and attempts a listing. Why they believe this is useful for consumers is not supplied.
Anyway, while looking at the list of Coles ‘house’ brands I noted, “David Farmer Signature” on the list – a remant I expect of a long-ago purchase of a busiess I was once associated with that explains how David Farmer became a Coles house brand label
I had hopes of ending up better than a Coles house brand though you must take what life brings. I think I’ll be OK to drink but probably safer to try wines with my own Glug label.
The Glug Blends Value Mix at $75 is simply colossal value.
Contains 3 bottles of each of the following 4 wines:-
