Supermarket attacked for €1 Bordeaux

Winemakers say pricing is intolerable and devalues both the area’s name and the work of the vigneron

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Store giant Carrefour’s plan to sell Bordeaux wine at less than €1 has drawn fire from the winemaker’s federation, who called it “intolerable”.

The pricing is a first for supermarkets although shoppers need to be Carrefour loyalty cardholders to benefit from it. The Comte de Talem Bordeaux is normally sold for €4.80 and cardholders get it for €0.96 – an 80% reduction as €3.84 goes on their card cagnotte kitty for spending later.

Bordeaux winemarkers are not happy, seeing it as abusing their hard-won efforts to make and promote quality wine world-wide. Fédération des Grands Vins Bordeaux president Hervé Grandeau told France Bleu radio:

“Less than a euro for a bottle of Bordeaux, it’s completely intolerable and certainly not justified.”

He said that such a price made a nonsense of the hard work of vignerons throughout the year to create their wines.

In all, 150,000 bottle of AOP Comte de Talem were up for sale this week at Carrefour with the store giant using it as a loss-leader, just like two-for-one baguettes, towels or chef’s knives.