Majestic Wines hopes to targets new – and younger – customers with its new in-store ‘wine fitting’ service which aims to introduce wine to the ‘streaming generation’ in the same way that television and music services such as Netflix and Spotify offer customers personalised recommendations.
The initiative comes off the back of news that wine is now the UK’s most popular alcoholic drink with 22.1m bottles consumed every week, but only 12% of consumers claim to understand a wine list and 25% says they know nothing about wine.
The service focuses on the stylistic qualities of wine rather than grapes or regions and is based around a blind tasting of eight different wines; customers are then sent their own personalised ‘wine profile’; a breakdown of their likes and dislikes based on the tasting.
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‘This is tasting for the streaming generation,’ said Majestic MD Joshua Lincoln. ‘In the fast moving, experience-based new world of retail, customers are desperate to get their head around wine, and do it quickly. We hope to introduce them to new styles, grapes and regions so they can begin to explore the brilliant bottles that are out there.
‘It’s just like how the likes of Spotify or Netflix can help you pick new music or films that match your interests, but you may not have previously heard of or considered,’ he added.
‘We want to take the obscure, and make it box office – there’s no reason Picpoul couldn’t be the new Stranger Things.’
Free wine
To promote the service and incentivise punters to generate their wine profile Majestic will give every current customer a free bottle of wine upon completion of a wine fitting, which are available at all 200 Majestic stores.
In addition to the service, and to assist customers, Majestic stores are now navigable by ‘wine colours’ – each one indicating the flavour profile of a wine (e.g. pink for light, fruity reds – or blue for aromatic whites) – which match those generated during wine fittings.
