Wine Program Toasts New Domestic Wines
Retail Business Services featured Jonas De Maere in an internal news story covering the expansion of the Private Label Wine Project into domestic wine — and the launch of the Grape Wagon and Billings Farm labels at Food Lion and Hannaford.
From Imports to Domestic
When the Private Label Wine Project launched in 2019, the initial focus was on imported wine. A key insight quickly emerged: while imports offer quality and differentiation, the majority of U.S. wine consumption is domestic.
“One of the things we realized very soon after launching this project is that imports are great, but most of the consumption in the U.S. is domestic wine.”
To expand the program, Jonas toured more than 30 California wineries before partnering with Fior di Sole winery in Napa to source and produce the new domestic labels. The resulting wines — Grape Wagon and Billings Farm — cover six varietals including Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Moscato, and Cabernet Sauvignon, priced to grow category margins by more than 10%.
Wine in a Box
The project also launched a new imported line in 2020: Wine in a Box, produced at the Delhaize bottling facility in Belgium and designed specifically for the U.S. market. Available in Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Red Blend, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
“Box wines are really a growing segment, especially during a pandemic — we saw the numbers going up 20% during this time. The advantage to a box is that the wines keep very well. You can keep it for up to three months, and the wine quality will remain as high for the tenth glass as it was for the first.”