Dedicated Wines looks to kick back against range cuts with new Les Incroyables wine range

By Richard Siddle

Published: 23 March, 2015

Dedicated Wines is kicking back against wine range cutbacks in the major multiples by launching a new wine range, Les Incroyables, that it hopes will bring genuine interest to consumers and offer something different at a time of new product stagnation.

The new range will be unveiled at tomorrow's France Under One Roof trade tasting in London and offers a range of six very different wines, each with their own design and name, made from individual parcels sourced across the Languedoc Roussillon.

Pitched in the key £8 to £10 price bracket Richard Evans, co-founder of Dedicated Wines, said the wines are a "small but determined step towards re-dressing the balance" in a market that has become focused on wines being cut back offering less choice and excitement to consumers.

The range, for example, includes a Gewurstraminer and Riesling from the south and south west of France.

Richard Evans Richard EvansTo source wines from France you have to have some very famous regions. It is a key for France and what we are good at selling. We need to know what turns people on, what from France is unlocking doors for consumers. That is the way forward. Richard Evans, Dedicated Wines

Dedicated Wines has a strong track record of introducing quality brand innovation in to major multiples with brands such as La Difference and then more recently Les Dauphins which has become an international phenomenon exported now to 25 countries since it was first launched in the UK in 2011.

"Everywhere you look wine buyers are not buying they are rationalising ranges. But what is going to happen? Ranges are going to get so compressed there is less choice for consumers. There is then the very real danger that consumers will become disillusioned with what is on offer," explained Evans.

"But for many people wine is now a lifestyle choice and the really profitable ones are the people who are just enough interested in wine not to want to always buy it on promotion," he added.

That is the core market for Les Incroyables, said Evans.

"We have to get the balance right between rationalisation which is essential, but also maintaining interest."

He likened it to a set of scales where there is the "absolute practical need to rationalise ranges and discount" on one side and on the other is where you can add "interest and value and gold dust".

"We are in our small way trying to put a few grams on the right. That's why we do what we do. We like to create."

The new Les Incroyables range is being pitched at the multiple specialist channel, and online where the real stories behind the wines can be told.

The range is being launched with six lines, but can be easily extended, said Evans, depending on how they do as new parcels are sourced and come on board.

The range includes:

Old Vine Carignan from the Agly Valley, Estagel

Cru La Tour de Frances, Cotes du Rousillon

Marselan from Pollestres

Gewurtraminer from Fleury d'Aude

Riesling from Nissan Les Enserune

Sauvignon/Pinot Grigio from Gascogny/Capendu

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