Wine as Cheap as Beer
With low-end wines gaining popularity among the younger generation, consumers now can purchase a pack of two bottles of wine at an unbelievably low price of 9,980 won (US$8.77).
As a bottle of wine is available for less than 5,000 won (US$4.39) after four cans of imported beer for 5,000 won (US$4.39) in August, all eyes are on whether wine can actually become popularized this time.
Marking the 8th anniversary of the opening of the first store, South Korean retail giant Shinsegae's warehouse-style supermarket Traders has launched “Two Bottles Cabernet Sauvignon,” a pack of two 750-milliliter bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, with a price tag of 9,980 won (US$8.77). It is a single cultivar Cabernet Sauvignon wine made with grapes from Central Valley, the powerhouse of Chilean wine, by Bodegas de Aguirre, one of the finest wineries in Chile. Traders has labeled the product “Two Bottle” to emphasize the low price of 9,980 won (US$8.77) and expressed confidence that it would become its flagship wine product, just like U.S. retailer Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw priced US$2 (2,276 won).
To develop a new wine product to celebrate its anniversary, Traders sent its buyers to the Vinexpo Hong Kong 2018, one of the most influential wine and spirits trade fairs, to select a wine that suits the Korean taste the most through several rounds of blind tasting. In addition, the company was able to lower the price by directly placing a bulk order to the local winery to cut shipping costs and minimizing retail margins.
Traders also released Chliean wine “Espera” to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the opening in October last year and sold 20,000 bottles just in 100 days after the release. The product was priced at 19,800 won (US$17.40), though it was a premium Gran Reserva wine produced by Vina Carta Vieja that makes the G7 Cabernet Sauvignon, the best-selling wine at E-mart. Some stores sell five to 10 kinds of super high-end wines that cost almost 1 million won (US$878.73) and sold 12 bottles of Chateau Latour last year.
Traders expects to sell 1 million bottles of wine this year. In fact, it already sold 800,000 bottles as of October, surpassing the 780,000 mark of last year.
Marking the 39th anniversary of its founding on the 15th of next month, Lotte Department Store also sells 2,000 bottles of Champagne Dangin Fays Brut from the Champagne region of France at 39,000 won (US$34.27), which is half price of general Champagne products, on limited offer.
Dangin Fays Brut has been introduced in “The Drops of God,” the popular wine comic strip in Japan, it boasts of high quality and taste to such an extent as to rank first in terms of Champagne online sales in Japan.