They’re all at it now. First it was Tesco, now O’Briens have jumped on the Taittinger “half price” bandwagon, offering the champagne at €29.99, down from a notional €59.99. Let’s get one thing straight: nobody has EVER paid €59.99 for a bottle of Taittinger Brut Réserve champagne in an Irish off licence. It was Tesco who first started telling porky pies about the full price and, while I find it perfectly understandable that O’Briens would want to match them on price in the lead-in to Christmas, I don’t understand why they feel it necessary to try and fool their customers into believing that Taittinger once cost €59.99. Just sell it for €29.99 and leave it at that. Read More...

Tags: Taittinger, Tesco, O'Briens, "Half Price"

I recently attended a ‘Family of Five’ press tasting hosted by Tesco in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dublin, showcasing wines from five producers across the globe. The members of the quintet are all well known: Taittinger, Louis Jadot, CUNE, Errazuriz & Villa Maria. Most of the wines were pleasant enough but this is not intended as a report on the tasting, replete with tasting notes and so forth. Rather, it is intended to highlight a pricing anomaly that defies comprehension. Read More...

Tags: Taittinger