The Wine Society launches initiative to support ‘key’ growers

By Lisa Riley

Published: 03 September, 2020

The Wine Society has launched a campaign to support some of its key growers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The business said the main objective was to support its many “loyal small to medium-sized growers”, through increased sales, who are struggling due to the impact of the global crisis.

The Backing Our Best Buyers campaign will run from 7 September to 7 October 2020. Using the tag line “Help us to help the people behind the bottles”, members will be offered an extensive range of keenly priced wines from all over the world, with a total of 26 growers included in the offer.

While The Wine Society said it had “hundreds of suppliers who are all highly valued", there were a core of producers, who it said had shown a” "continued support and unwavering loyalty", and who had gone "above and beyond to help their wines come alive for Society members”.

It is this group that The Wine Society is committed to helping in the best way it can, said director of wine Pierre Mansour.

“Selling larger quantities helps free up winery space and can help to compensate for lost customers such as restaurants and hotels. In some cases we have been able to pay early and pass on a special discount in return. Several of these producers also create cuvées for specific markets and The Society has been able to step in and ship some of them. These new wines may not have a discount, but will be priced lower than they would usually have been," he said.

European winemakers are facing an estimated 35% fall in sales volumes and a 50% decline in value during the lockdown and its aftermath, according to the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins.

The latest initiative from The Wine Society follows the business launching a competition back in May to highlight those who had lent much needed support to the vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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