More interesting was the call I received from a lady as she stood, slightly baffled, in the wine department of Tesco in the Merrion Shopping Centre, Dublin 4 wondering if the McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2005 was the wine that I had recommended so effusively here a few days before, there being no mention of ‘McWilliam’s’ on that label. To the best of my knowledge it is.

Introducing a new label to coincide with a new vintage is one thing but labelling the exact same wine with two different labels is extremely confusing for consumers. (As an aside I should point out that this is a tactic favoured by some producers and importers so that one label can be sold in the off-trade and the other in the on-trade, thus preventing consumers from making price comparisons between the two and hence establishing what a restaurant’s mark-up might be.)

All sorts of explanations are possible for this labelling confusion but rather than speculating I have contacted Tesco and the winemaker, Phil Ryan, in Australia and will report again as soon as I hear back from them.

Tags: Hunter Valley, Semillon, Mount Pleasant