The Auswine Forum

I let my guard down on Friday night which resulted in the purchase of some private label wine (I try to avoid this as I don't want to encourage the practice). I was in my local and bumped into the father of some childhood friends of mine and he pointed out a members 2 for 1 special on the wine he was picking up (he loves a bargain). My initial thought was 'let's see what it's like' and not 'who owns it?' given it was on a half price special and it's close proximity to the register. I went to pay and I started thinking that the name rung a bell as I thought I'd see it on a listing of who owns what which I confirmed when I arrived home. Funnily (or sadly?) enough, my sister brought another private label over for last nights dinner .

Oh well, we needed some more cooking wine

Sure, they're free to sell what they want and at the price they want but what I will rant about is that they advertise it with ratings from their own wine panel and 'awards' it's allegedly won. I think this is deceitful. Case in point was the father tell me that it had been scored 94 points. Personally I don't care for points but clearly (as everyone here knows) it's used for the selection criteria or internal validation of their purchase.

If the winery address is suburban Melbourne or Sydney then is from Coles or Woolies. Easy to check and avoid. Same goes for beer.

conformistpete wrote:If the winery address is suburban Melbourne or Sydney then is from Coles or Woolies. Easy to check and avoid. Same goes for beer.

I'm going to suggest that isn't always a good indicator. The Story wines by Rory Lane are made in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs. Crittenden wines were based in the same area for a long time (but are now back at Dromana) and I'm aware of a couple of other examples of "urban wineries" too. It's even harder with beer... Both Coles and Woolies have their own brands that they don't actively disclose. There were also several buyouts last year of well known independent labels that I'm sure not everybody is aware of, so you now have AB-Inbev, Coca Cola Amatil, Kirin and Asahi controlling major beer labels and/or larger craft labels. There are also dozens of small breweries dotted around the burbs of both Melbourne, Sydney and just about every other capital city for that matter, so sometimes it is hard to know the small independents from the recently spun up supermarket labels.

The marketeers have long since worked out that people want a bargain, so there is a healthy trade in spurious reductions and dubious references hinting at the wine coming from a prestigious source. At best the latter is stuff they weren't prepared to put their name to, at worst it's very intentionally misleading. Then there is industrial plonk dressed up to hint at something better, though surprisingly such attempts often seem quite obvious / clumsy.

One advantage of having a cellar that is ostensibly full, is there is no longer a pressure to grab bargains, but it gives an added focus of buying what I really want, as there are few spaces to fill, so I need to make them count. It's all too easy without such constraints, to give more thought to snagging a good price on wines that I may already have more than enough of that style.

The list below isn't complete, but it gives an idea of the sheer scope of the supermarket private labels.

Coles
12km Stretch
Akita
Armada
Blue Kube
Brookridge
Cabaret
Chalkboard
Chateau Louise
Coconut Beach
Coorong Plains
Counting Sheep
Cradle Bay
Cradle Bay Sauvignon Blanc
Curious Kivi
Cuvee Clare
David Farmer Signature
Daybreak Estate
Debonaire
Donnari
Dry Valley Estate
F'Able
Fahrenheit
Fernleigh
Fiorella
Great Divide
Greyrock
Gum Nut Creek
Heather Mist
Henri Laurent
Hidden Gems
Iron Horse
Isola
J.P. Flint
James Busby
John Sampson
La Bonne
La Promesse
La Touriste
La Vuelta
Lachlan Ridge
Lana's Bike
Mayfair
Milla's Run
Mountain Brook
Ninety Mile
Oak Lane
Pensilva Estate
Pick of the Crop
Pilgrim
Pioneer Run Vineyard
Pizzazz
Pleasant Valley
Postmark
Punters Corner
Rau
Rising Blue
Robinsons
Rock Paper Scissors
Sainte Louise
Separation Hill
Silver Ridge
St Andrews
St. Andrews
Story Bay
Talking Heads
Tangled Vine
Tasman
Tenet Estate
The Cellar Dwellers
The Emerald
Tread Lightly
Twin Bird
Two Churches
Two Thousand Acres
Vino Gusto
Wahu
Westhaven Vineyard
Whispers
Willow Leaf


Woolworths
88 Keys
Abbey View
Abervale
Across the Bay
Adlo
Amberton
Amiri
Antarctic
Augustine Wines
Avon Brae
Awanui
Back Gate
Baily & Baily
Ballini
Bastard Jack
Bay Estates
Black Lace
Black Rock
Black Wattle
Bowler's Run
Brique
Brookhill
Bubbly by Yarra View
Buckey
Buckle My Shoe
C'est La Vie
Capo's Block
Carpark
Castaway
Cat amongst the pigeons
CC Cuvee Coonawarra Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut
Central Otago Freeland Pinot Noir 2009
Chevalier
Chook Shed
Cockatoo
Cockatoo Black
Cockatoo Cooler
Cockatoo Ridge
Cocky
Coquille
Cottonwood Grove
Cow Bombie
Craftsman
Diamond Nights
Dimension
Discovery Bay
Dorrien Estate
Dress Drinks
Dumont
Dune Ridge
Duperrey
Electrum
Elite
Ensign
Famous Maker
Fierte
Fizzyskins
Flanagans Ridge
Folio
Forefathers
Golden Oak
Golden Valley
Grants Gully
Hawkesbridge
Heaven's Gate
Hidden Gate
Hide and Seek
Hide Away Ridge
Honour Roll
Hopskins
Houndstooth
Hutt River Estate Kingfisher
Ice Wine the Original
Ingleburne Estate
Iron Hill
John Jobbins
Jump 'n' Jive
Just Joey
King William
Langhorne Creek Area Red Blend 100%
Langhorne Creek Estate
Legs Eleven
Light Family
Lindisfarme
Lollapalooza
Lysander
Marlborough Sounds
Maycomb
McAllister
Meritage
Mishka
Mockingbird Hill
Monkey's Cousin
Moore Farm
Mount Pride
Mountain Lagoon
MSB Mum's Block Barossa Valley Shiraz 1999
Murray Bend
Musica
Naked Owl
Nature's Harvest
New Eden
Old Lodge
One Over
Palladium
Pandora's Box
Paradox
Paragon Shiraz
Parishioners Plea
Parkers Field
Pedare
Pelican Point
Periwinkle
Pinnacle
Pioneer's Rest
Ponder Estate
Queen Bee
Rare Print Series
Redemption
Reflections
Riddoch
Right side of the tracks
Roo's Leap
Rorke's Drift
Rosalina
Santaro
Seven
Shark Block
Silhouettes Range
Slim Lines
Solander
Sonata Estate
South Island
Stonyfell
Strawberry Fizz
Symmetry
Tamaota
Tangaroa
The Advocate
The Bommy
The Bozz
The Gallows
The Hidden Vine
The Old Contemptibles
The Remarkables
The Rocks
The Trustee
Thornleigh
Tickety-Boo
Tolley
Tom's Tricks
Town House
Trident
Two Fat Ladies
Two Fathoms
Two Little Ducks
Vine Vale
Vivant
Warrior Cove
Watercolour
Wattle Villa Vineyards
Whisper Rock
Willowbrook
Wrights Bay Vineyards
XII Apostles
Yarra View
Yeah Yeah
Zeehaen
Zenith
Zimi

Plenty of dire names in there that give a big clue it's plonk in the bottle, but the sheer scale of these private labels is genuinely shocking, especially with the odd recognisable name thrown in (Punter's corner was a genuine winery back in the day wasn't it?). Meritage is cheeky, almost certainly trademarked in the US by the producers using it for Bdx blends.

I'm surprised Wombat's piss hasn't been used yet (for the label that is, who knows for the wine itself)

Fine, will make it easier for you.
Coles is 800 Toorak Rd Hawthorn East Vic. Alternatively look for James Busby wines which is the Coles brand for private label wines.
Can't recall Woolies but likely to be somewhere in Bella Vista. Private label goes under Pinnacle Drinks.

Address will be the same for beer labels but with a different name for Coles.

http://www.whomakesmywine.com.au is another good resource.


These are both easier than trying to check a long list.

Looking at the two long lists Woolies has blocks of similar names with gates, cockatoos, golden things and twos repeated a number of times.

Good to see Coles has some French labels.

conformistpete wrote:http://www.whomakesmywine.com.au is another good resource.

That link broke a while ago and Huon Hook picked it up;

[url]https://www.therealreview.com/who-makes-my-wine/[/url]

paulf wrote: I'm going to suggest that isn't always a good indicator. The Story wines by Rory Lane are made in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs.

Sean visited another winery that, strangely, is located at the same address as Rory's.

http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f ... 70#p150024

conformistpete wrote: Can't recall Woolies but likely to be somewhere in Bella Vista. Private label goes under Pinnacle Drinks.

Pinnacle is headed by Andrew Caillard MW.

Also bear in mind with Vintage Cellars who are owned by Coles - I've noticed some of their back label Importer Stickers have 'Imported by James Busby Wines' on them, even though it will be a Red Burgundy. So no, Frederic Magnien Vosne Romanee is not a Coles private label

dave vino wrote:Also bear in mind with Vintage Cellars who are owned by Coles - I've noticed some of their back label Importer Stickers have 'Imported by James Busby Wines' on them, even though it will be a Red Burgundy. So no, Frederic Magnien Vosne Romanee is not a Coles private label

I hope we can tell the difference between imported by and made by.

Marchand and Burch/ Howard Park imports Franck Bonville and I know they don't own it despite making wine here and in France.

conformistpete wrote:Fine, will make it easier for you.
Coles is 800 Toorak Rd Hawthorn East Vic. Alternatively look for James Busby wines which is the Coles brand for private label wines.
Can't recall Woolies but likely to be somewhere in Bella Vista. Private label goes under Pinnacle Drinks.

Address will be the same for beer labels but with a different name for Coles.

http://www.whomakesmywine.com.au is another good resource.


These are both easier than trying to check a long list.

The Woolies head office is on Woolworths Way in Norwest, Bella Vista.

However, remember that Woolies also bought Cellarmasters and Dan Murphy has always had a separate head office in Melbourne, so that address alone doesn't identify all their private labels I would say.

Cellarmasters has its own bottling facilities in the Barossa, or at least it did at one time. Confusingly, they don't only sell their own private label wines.

conformistpete wrote:

dave vino wrote:Also bear in mind with Vintage Cellars who are owned by Coles - I've noticed some of their back label Importer Stickers have 'Imported by James Busby Wines' on them, even though it will be a Red Burgundy. So no, Frederic Magnien Vosne Romanee is not a Coles private label

I hope we can tell the difference between imported by and made by.

Marchand and Burch/ Howard Park imports Franck Bonville and I know they don't own it despite making wine here and in France.

Some of those private labels are imports. Coles has some verycheap European plonk.

swirler wrote:

conformistpete wrote:

dave vino wrote:Also bear in mind with Vintage Cellars who are owned by Coles - I've noticed some of their back label Importer Stickers have 'Imported by James Busby Wines' on them, even though it will be a Red Burgundy. So no, Frederic Magnien Vosne Romanee is not a Coles private label

I hope we can tell the difference between imported by and made by.

Marchand and Burch/ Howard Park imports Franck Bonville and I know they don't own it despite making wine here and in France.

Some of those private labels are imports. Coles has some verycheap European plonk.

I agree both major retailers bring in wine. It is most likely cheap as that is their target market, however as estated by Dave they also bring in more famous and expensive wines. I'm not sure anyone is getting hoodwinked into buying 1er burgundy from Dan's thinking it's an own brand wine.


The thread is about avoiding accidentally buying cheap mass production Coles/Woolies wines. There are easy ways to identify these and while you may not identify 100% of the brand's you will avoid them most of the time.

sjw_11: if you have noticed Dan's office in Melbourne as the licensed producer then please list the address for people to avoid.

Forget about the brand on label or address on the back. There's a really simple solution to avoid getting hoodwinked buying a private label. Don't shop at Coles/Woolies/etc. Shop at an independent retailer.

Ozzie W wrote:Shop at an independent retailer.

Completely agree, just like our dear host.

Redav wrote: Sure, they're free to sell what they want and at the price they want but what I will rant about is that they advertise it with ratings from their own wine panel and 'awards' it's allegedly won. I think this is deceitful. Case in point was the father tell me that it had been scored 94 points. Personally I don't care for points but clearly (as everyone here knows) it's used for the selection criteria or internal validation of their purchase.

What is the difference when Dan's does the same thing for other wines that aren't their own label? You see plenty of retailers (online as well) that do this...or have their own reviews, etc, etc...It is all the same thing.

It would be deceitful if they

Made up awards that the wines were awarded but weren't...
Gave them scores that they didn't believe in...so lets say 95 when really they thought it was 88...

But otherwise I see no problem in this...People that don't know about wine will buy wine based on those scores and awards and then make a decision on whether they want to buy it again regardless of the score (and regardless of vintage).

I actually see no problem in private label stuff at all...most of it sucks but some of it is decent enough...

Ozzie W wrote:Punters Corner

So... now the other mob is trying to hoodwink me. I ordered some 2013 Wynns Black Label Cab Sauv which was listed as available but apparently it isn't and they're offering me some Punters Corner instead.

Muppets
(apologies to The Muppet's)

You can get back vintages 2008 from their competition. Current vintage is showing at $12 at the Coles warehouse shop, $22 at the premium shop and $30 at the cheap and cheerful attached to supermarket shop.
Go figure.

$12 for current vintage Black label???

[quote="conformistpete"]You can get back vintages 2008 from their competition. Current vintage is showing at $12 at the Coles warehouse shop, $22 at the premium shop and $30 at the cheap and cheerful attached to supermarket shop.
Go figure.[/quote
CP
Like to share the details here...as previously mentioned l am going to start scaling back...but BL at $12.. where's the truck!!
Cheers
Craig

I think this is talking about Punter's Corner.

Haha apologies to all those that thought there was a deal on BL. I was talking about the similar but not really the same product Redav was offered.

I was surprised that as a Coles label punters corner was available (albeit back vintages) from Dan's.