- Asda appoints the world’s first ‘Sommeasier’ and created the ‘Sommeasier’s Guide to Wine’
- Over a third of UK drinkers always stick to the same bottle of wine
- 15% of us spend less than 10 seconds picking a bottle as ‘wine fright’ takes over
- 42% find wine jargon confusing and misunderstand commonly used terms
- Asda appoint world’s first wine ‘Sommeasier’ to make the world of wine easier to understand
LEEDS, England, 2017-Jul-21 — /EPR Retail News/ — No matter whether a Merlot, Malbec or Muscat, Brits are bungling-up their wine choices due to a lack of confidence and knowledge, resulting in over a third (37%) of UK drinkers admitting to buying the same bottle of wine every time they fancy a tipple and never trying anything new.
With just over 15% of Brits spending less than 10 seconds on picking a bottle, it comes as no surprise that the list of top-selling wines has remained relatively unchanged in the last ten years, with the usual suspects consistently making the list of most-purchased wines:
Red
– Merlot
– Cabernet Sauvignon
– Shiraz
White
– Sauvignon Blanc
– Pinot Grigio
– Chardonnay
The new research commissioned by Asda shows that although Brits have become much more adventurous when it comes to new food trends in recent years, they stick to what they know in the wine aisle, with over one fifth of those surveyed (22%) saying they can find the vast amount of wine to choose from intimidating and don’t know where to start when it comes to picking a new bottle.
Of those questioned, almost two fifths (39%) of Brits cannot name any wine varieties and a further 17% think there are only three grape varieties to choose from – red, white and rosé – attributing to this habitual shopping pattern.
To help give the UK some grape guidance, Asda has appointed the world’s first ‘Sommeasier’ and created the ‘Sommeasier’s Guide to Wine’, turning the traditional role of expert Sommelier on its head to help the nation navigate the vast and sometimes confusing world of wine for themselves.
Asda wine expert, Ed Betts, who has spent the last 17 years perfecting his wine knowledge, has taken up the role of Sommeasier in a bid to help bamboozled Brits expand their wine knowledge – compiling an easy to understand guide to help customers successfully navigate the wine aisles.
Ed comments: “With so many colours, grapes and countries to choose from, selecting a bottle of wine can be daunting. Whilst some restaurants have wine specialists called Sommeliers, we wanted to come up with a simple solution to enable customers to have the confidence and understanding to make the right choices for themselves – so the idea of a ‘Sommeasier’ was born. Our Sommeasier Guide will help remove the mystery around wine and the jargon associated with it encouraging shoppers to try something new.”
In a legacy harking back to the days of ‘80s wine experts such as Jilly Goolden, over half (53%) of Brits think the world of wine can be rather snobby, with one fifth (20%) finding it especially awkward when people sniff and swill the glass when trying wine, and a further 42% saying they find the terminology used to describe wine confusing.
Most understand more well-known terms like dry (76%), crisp (52%) and full-bodied (56%), but are baffled when it comes to building material-esque descriptions such as complex (15%) or dense (12%), or terms such as elegant (13%) and flamboyant (6%) which are more akin to a catwalk than a wine aisle.
To help with the difficult terms, Asda’s Sommeasier Guide to Wine includes a jargon busting section, helping uncertain Brits understand, for example, that a ‘crisp wine’ isn’t in fact a wine that goes well with your favourite bowl of crisps, but rather a tipple usually high in acidity.
Making wine even more accessible, Asda has expanded its award-winning Wine Atlas range of entry-level, affordable bottles from around the world, helping make the choice easier for customers looking for something a little different.
Download the Asda Sommeasier Guide here: www.asdagoodliving.co.uk/food/features/a-beginners-guide-to-wine.
Notes to editors
*Research conducted by OnePoll amongst 1,500 UK respondents between 13th-14th July 2017.
About Asda Stores Ltd.
Founded in the 1960s in Yorkshire, Asda is one of Britain’s leading retailers and helps customers save money and live better in stores, online and through their mobile devices.
Each week more than 18 million customers visit its 645 stores – including 30 Supercentres, 392 Superstores, 155 Supermarkets, 33 Asda Living stores, and 35 standalone petrol stations – and websites, and are served by 153,000 colleagues. www.asda.com and www.george.com deliver to 99% of the UK’s homes and to its 538 click and collect sites across the UK.
Its main office is in Leeds, Yorkshire and its George clothing division is in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. Asda joined Walmart, the world’s number one retailer, in 1999.
For more information, please contact the Asda press office at Mischief PR on 020 3128 6600 or email asdafoodanddrink@mischiefpr.com
Source: ASDA
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