Like every year, L’Express analyzed and tasted the plethora of offerings from mass retailers, wine merchants and specialized sites to decipher the trends at autumn wine fairs.
The share of websites in annual wine sales continues to increase. It now represents 10% of the national market, or a whopping 600 million euros in 2020 (750 planned for this year) – ahead of local wine merchants and purchases from the property, but far behind the supermarkets. The episode of wine fairs obviously does not escape the trend, whatever the nature of the 500 e-merchants identified in France, specialized or general pure players attracted by this juicy market, such as Amazon and Veepee. Better still, major retail brands are also strongly present on the Web, like E.Leclerc (e.leclerc/Ma Cellar), Carrefour (macave.carrefour.fr), Casino (Cdiscount), or even Lidl (lidl-vins.fr). Online orders also come with possible collection from hypermarket drives. Even the big wine merchants have gotten into it, such as Lavinia. Faced with this competition, pure e-retailers are responding by launching themselves into opening physical points of sale to get closer to customers, sometimes tired of buying blindly. Like Chateaunet (Duclot group, owned by the Moueix family), which added to its two historic Bordeaux boutiques (Badie, L’Intendant) a 1,000 square meter cellar in Malakoff, in Hauts-de-Seine. Better still, the references from the site’s wine fair will only be available this year in its stores and at La Cave des Galeries Lafayette, which it manages.
On the terroir side, many of the heavyweights in the sector, faithful to their origin, give pride of place to Gironde wines. With historical allocations and efficient logistics, the sites affiliated with the Place de Bordeaux – Chateaunet, Wineandco, La Vinothèque – have enough bottles stored in the best conditions to delight the enthusiast in the best vintages. But if the first two have largely opened up to other vineyards in France, the Vinothèque displays a purely Gironde selection: “We decided to stick to our DNA as a Bordeaux seller,” claims Noémie Lavigne, the director of the site.
For the rest, not constrained by the requirement of high volumes supported by large-scale distribution, e-commerce has the advantage of a certain qualitative offer, mixing icons, sure values, sharp and (or) rare signatures, stars rising, old vintages… The embarrassment of (good) choice!
© / The Express
The 2023 edition marks the 50th anniversary of the bacchanalian gatherings of mass distribution. An unmissable event since in one month, 140 million bottles will pass from gondolas to consumers’ shopping carts. Since its creation by E. Leclerc, all the big brands, wine merchants but also e-commerce sites have taken up the event, the success of which remains extraordinary and without equivalent elsewhere in the world. But to build up your cellar at low prices, purchasing en primeur and auctions can be just as wise. To find your way around, L’Express reveals its instructions and gives its advice. Find our entire file here. (Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health. Consume in moderation).