The Wisdom of the Crowd: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Wines Won 39 Medals in the L.A. International Wine Competition; Will it Motivate Your Purchase?

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's marketing and public relations people announced via a press release today that the 175-store fresh food and grocery chain has won 39 medals at the 72nd annual Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition for a variety of its proprietary brand wines.

The annual wine and spirits competition is part of the Los Angeles County Fair, which takes place September 3-October 2 this year. An olive oil tasting and judging is also conducted in conjunction with the annual wine competition.

The wine competition judging took place in May. The competition's officials announced the winners June 7.

Among the wines Fresh & Easy won medals for (18 out of the 39 medals) were its new line of proprietary or private brand California wines, which we wrote about in this March 8, 2011 story: Tesco's Fresh & Easy ♥'s California With 27 New Varieties of Proprietary Brand Wines From the Golden State. The new California wines were introduced in the stores in March.

You can see which Fresh & Easy wine brands and varieties won medals here, along with viewing all of the award-winning wine brands and varieties from others. The competition also has a Facebook page here.

El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is one of just a few food and grocery retailers that enter its private or proprietary brand wines in this and other competitions.

The pioneering grocer in doing so is another Southern California-based chain - Trader Joe's - which has been entering its various private brand wines in the Los Angeles and other competitions, often winning first place in on or more varietal categories, for many years.

It's important to note, however, that not many U.S. grocery and mass merchandise chains offer a moderate-to-extensive assortment of private brand wines (many have a value brand though), although that's beginning to change. As such, there's not much in the way of proprietary brand wine for the majority of grocers to enter in these competitions at present, even if they wanted to.

Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy followed Trader Joe's lead in entering various wine competitions, starting in 2007, and has to date won 275 medals overall.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also promotes wine regularly in its 175 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona and attempts to use the category, particularly its private brand wines, as a leader in terms of hoping it is a lure to bring shoppers into its stores.

We've written extensively about the wine category at Tesco's Fresh & Easy (and other grocers), including its participation in various wine competitions, along with merchandising, marketing and promotional aspects.

[You can read our stories by clicking on the following links: Fresh and Easy proprietary wines, Fresh and Easy wine, wine awards, wine merchandising, California wine competitions, wine awards, Fresh Easy wine category review, The Big Kahuna brand wine, wine marketing, wine promotions, liquor wine beer categories, alcoholic beverage sales-merchandising, wine retailing, Charles Shaw Wines, Mike Samii, Trader Joe's, Robert Parker, Beverages and More.]

As we noted earlier, the majority of U.S. food retailers don't offer much in the way of private brand wines.

Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy have the most extensive proprietary wine programs we're aware of among U.S. grocers and mass merchandise chains, although as noted numerous big chains like Costco, Walmart and even regional grocers like Save Mart Supermarkets in California offer a value-based (think Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck) proprietary brand wine. Fresh & Easy's value brand is called the The Big Kahuna.

Fresh  Easy's parent, United Kingdom-based Tesco, has long had a proprietary brand wine program in operation and offers numerous own brand varieties in its stores in the UK particularly, but also at its stores elsewhere in Europe and in Asia.

What interests us about these wine competitions as they pertain to grocers like Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Trader Joe's and others, is if winning medals at the events has any influence on shopper purchases of the winning wines in the stores.

This question is important because the primary reason wine-makers and marketers enter their wines in competitions is to sell more of it. Secondarily is the prestige of winning - or what some folks (not us of course)  might even call the "snob appeal factor."

The Wisdom of the Crowd: Reader Questions

Since Fresh & Easy Buzz has some of the smartest and most-inquisitive readers on the planet, we thought we would put the question to you.

So here's the question: Does a wine brand/variety winning a medal (Gold, Silver, Bronze and the like) at a well-known wine competition influence your decision to purchase it?

Further, will you be motivated to try and buy any of the 39 Fresh & Easy proprietary brand wines - there will be signs on the wines at the shelf in the stores designating them as "medal winners" and you can see the various wines from Fresh & Easy that won here - because a given wine won a medal at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition?

Share your response and opinion with your fellow readers using  the "comments" link below. Just click it and tell us what you think.

In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Announces 63 Wine Awards to Date; Will Face Off Again Against Wine Award Winning 'Big Kahuna' Trader Joe's at State Fair

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced today its specialty-blended wines have won 63 awards in various wine competitions over the last six months.

Simon Uwins, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA marketing director, said over half of the retailer's 65 varieties of proprietary blended wines have won awards in the competitions the grocer has entered its wines in.

"Most award winning wines are priced under $10, including two which retail for only $1.99 in California and $2.99 in Arizona and Nevada." Uwins said.

You can read a selected list of the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market proprietary blended wines that have won wine competition awards in this press release issued by the grocery chain today.

Using wines to help build the Fresh & Easy retail brand

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is entering its special-blend wines in as many wine competitions as it can as a way to create an image of offering quality wines at reasonable prices for its small-format, combination basic grocery and fresh foods grocery markets. The idea is to create fame and a consumer following around the proprietary-blended, value-priced wines as one element of the many, as a way to draw customers into the stores and keep them there.

This is very much the model Trader Joe's has used to build its reputation as a grocer which offers quality wines at reasonable prices.

For example, as we reported in this March 4 piece, "In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold," both Trader Joe's and Tesco's Fresh & Easy entered a number of their respective proprietary-blended wines in the last California State Fair Wine Competition, considered by most to be the most prestigious wine judging competition in the U.S., and one of the top such events in the international world of wine.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market won two Silver Medals and numerous Bronze Medals for a number of its specially-blended wines at the judging, which was a strong showing, particularly since it was the retailer's first time participating in the competition with its wines.

However, Trader Joe's took first place, winning a Double-Gold Medal, in the Chardonnay varietal category, with its $1.99 per-bottle Charles Shaw Chardonnay, more commonly called "Two Buck Chuck."

Winning doesn't get any bigger in a California State Fair Wine Competition category than getting a Double-Gold Medal, which means in this case Trader Joe's "Two Buck Chuck" Chardonnay beat out other Chardonnay brands costing as much as 20-times more than the grocery chain's discount priced Charles Shaw proprietary wine.

F&E, TJ's will face off in California State Fair wine competition

This year's version of the prestigious California State Fair Wine Competition begins later this month. The tastings and judging last until early September. The winners are then announced sometime after that.

Both Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy are entering wines in the State Fair competition this year. It should be interesting to see how both retailers do in the competition. Both did well last year, despite going up against some very premium wineries, along with some very expensive bottles of wine in various categories.

"Fresh & Easy works directly with a Master of Wine to develop most of the company's 65 specially selected wines. Masters of Wine are highly regarded throughout the industry as extensively trained wine experts, and there are only 251 in the world," according to Mr. Uwins.

You can learn more about the Master of Wine designation here.

Tesco knows wine

United Kingdom-based Tesco PLC, parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA, is one of the top global wine retailers, known for its innovation and its creation of proprietary store brand wines using various brand names.

Tesco was one of the first retailers to popularize Australian wines, for example, including the now popular Shiraz varietal from that country. In fact, Tesco Fresh & Easy's "The Big Kuhuna" value wine (it's $1.99 a bottle in California and $2.99 in Nevada and Arizona) is Australian wine. By contrast, Trader Joe's same-priced Charles Shaw value wines are California wines.

A wine even Robert Parker likes

Perhaps Fresh & Easy's most critically acclaimed proprietary-blended wine to date is its Reflexion Reserva Rioja (often just called Rioja), from Spain. It's a 2003 vintage from the Bodegas Palacio region. Fresh & Easy grocery stores sell the wine for $9.99 a bottle.

The wine received 10 "Parker Points" from wine guru Robert Parker on his Parker scale. A perfect "Parker Point" score is 100. Parker, who's arguably the most influential wine judge and writer in the world, doesn't give out 90's easily. That the $10 bottle of Fresh & Easy's Spanish Rioja received a 90 from the parsimonious Parker is an achievement.

End Game: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Wine: Recent Stories From Fresh & Easy Buzz:

March 4, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold

March 22, 2008: In Vino Veritas: No Whining About This 'Parker-Point' Rating for a Fresh & Easy Proprietary Spanish Wine

April 25, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch A Marketing-Oriented, Brand-Building Consumer Public Relations Campaign For its Store Brand Products and its Wines

April 30, 2008: Raising Arizona and Getting Local in the Neighborhood: State's First 100% Locally-Produced Wine Offers Win-Win for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Arizona Stores

In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold

Seven of Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Fresh & Easy store brand wines recently have been awarded medals at the San Francisco Chronicle and California State Fair Wine Competitions.

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition is the largest judging of U.S-produced wines in the nation. Entered wines are judged by a panel of wine experts from all sectors of the industry--wine writers, buyers, vintners and others--over a period of days according to international wine judging rules.

The California State Fair Wine Competition is arguably the most prestigious wine competition in the United States, and is recognized internationally among members of the global wine industry. It's held as part of the California State Fair in Sacramento each year. It's judges are among the most experienced and prestigious wine experts in the world.

The recently-concluded 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition judged 4,235 wines entered by 1,500 wineries from throughout the U.S.

Five Fresh & Easy brand wines won a bronze medal in the competition in their respective categories. Those wines are: Fresh & Easy Hilltown Cabernet Sauvignon ($6.99 bottle), Fresh & Easy Napa Family Vineyards Merlot ($10.99 bottle), Fresh & Easy Hilltown Merlot ($6.99 bottle), Fresh & Easy Hilltown Chardonnay ($6.99 bottle), and Fresh & Easy Hilltown Sauvignon Blanc ($6.99 bottle).

Additionally, a sixth store brand--Fresh & Easy Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon ($10.99 bottle) won a Silver medal in the San Francisco Chronicle competition.

Over at the California State Fair judging, where over 3,000 wines from 600 different wineries competed, Fresh & Easy store brands scored well with one of its wines. That wine, Fresh & Easy Northwood Cabernet Sauvignon earned a Silver Medal in the prestigious wine competition. Further, the wine received 92 points out of a possible 100. The Northwood Cab was one of six wines in the Silver award category to receive the highest score a Silver medal-winning wine can obtain in the judging.

The Fresh & Easy brand Northwood Cabernet Sauvignon sells for only $3.99 bottle in the grocer's Southern California stores, and $4.49 bottle in its Arizona and Nevada grocery markets.

The Fresh & Easy brand wine won in the 2007 California State Fair Wine Competition, which was held last summer. The event is held every year beginning in late July and ending on September 3. The 2008 competition runs from late July to September third this year.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hired Philip Reeman, who is one of only 265 wine experts in the world to have earned the title Master of Wine, to create its Fresh & Easy store brand wines.

Fresh & Easy also has taken a page from Trader Joe's wine merchandising innovation (it's incredibly-selling Charles Shaw brand $1.99 bottle of wine called "Two-Buck Chuck") and is selling its own version called "The Big Kahuna (TBK)." TBK is from Australia and comes in two varieties: Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz. TBK sells for $1.99 in the Southern California Fresh & Easy stores and for $2.99 in the Arizona and Nevada grocery markets.

Trader Joe's "Two-Buck Chuck (TBC)" comes in seven varieties: Charles Shaw brand Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Valdiue (like a Beaujolais Nouveau) and in a limited addition Pinot Grigio.

Charles Shaw brand is a California wine though, produced exclusively for Trader Joe's by Ceres, California-based Bronco Winery, using wine grapes from California's Central Valley and Napa-Sonoma regions. The Charles Shaw "Two-Buck Chuck" brand is sold only at Trader Joe's grocery stores.

The Tesco Fresh & Easy wine folks will need to kick "The Big Kahuna" up a few notches though if they expect to compete with Trader Joe's "Two-Buck Chuck."

TJ's $1.99 bottle of wine surprised the wine world at this very same 2007 California State Fair Wine Competition by winning a prestigious "Double-Gold" medal for its "Two-Buck Chuck" Chardonnay, beating out wines which cost as much as twenty-times it's $1.99 retail price. The Double Gold Medal means the wine was judged to be the best Chardonnay out of all Chardonnay variety wines entered in the competition, regardless of price. [Read more about the "Two-Buck Chuck" win here at the very bottom of the linked page.]

Trader Joe's has set the bar high for Fresh & Easy's same-priced "The Big Kuhuna" wine. We suggest both Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market enter its respective $1.99 premium-value wines, "TBC" and "TBK," in this year's 2008 California State Fair Wine Competition, which is only about five months away.

The two small-format grocers--one owned by the United Kingdom's Tesco (F&E), the other by Germany's Aldi supermarkets (TJ's) can then have an old fashion 'smackdown' in the premium-quality/value priced wine segment. May the best wine...or grocery chain...win.