SPAR celebrates raft of own label wine and spirit award successes

The International Wine Challenge (IWC) award, held in July, celebrate the achievements of both on-trade and off-trade with the Best IWC Fairtrade Award 2022 going to one of SPAR’s best wine performers, the SPAR Regional Selection South African Fairtrade Chenin Blanc, from Breede River Valley producer Uniwines. The wine also won a Silver medal at the event.

An incredibly smooth Chenin Blanc filled with peach and ripe pear flavours, the wine is a perfect partner with creamy pasta sauces, fried fish or chicken dishes and is only £6.79, which is great news for shoppers looking for an ethical quality purchase that is also excellent value for money.

“Supporting a local community is particularly important to us at SPAR, it is part of who we are and ensuring producers and growers are paid a fair wage for their crop is very crucial,” said Adam Georgiou, Brand Manager at SPAR UK Ltd. “We made the decision as a business as it is the right thing to support our grape growing communities.

“When our shoppers buy the SPAR Regional Selection Fairtrade Chenin Blanc wine, it helps ensure that farmers and workers in Breedekloof SA are receiving a fair price for their product, as well as an additional premium to help their community invest in important services such as education, hygiene and healthcare,” he added.

Fairtrade Standards are designed to improve employment conditions and protect the rights of workers on wine grape plantations and to support small wine grape farmers’ organisations in gaining more control within supply chains and increase their incomes.

South Africa has witnessed unique economic, social, and political challenges and today is the largest producer of Fairtrade wine globally, with twenty-four producer organisations, and accounts for around two-thirds of Fairtrade wine sales.

Award winning products display quality to consumers and as such it is no surprise that this year, SPAR has already won over seventy awards across its own label BWS portfolio.

The SPAR Regional Selection Languedoc white wine won two Silver medals from IWC and Decanter and a Sud de France Top 100 award, meaning this SPAR Regional Selection Languedoc white wine, RRP £7.99, is in the Top 100 wines produced in the south of France.

The SPAR Smooth and SPAR Bold red wines both won a Bronze medal at the IWC awards which is an exceptional achievement for an own label wine that retails at £5.39 a bottle.

The SPAR BWS team celebrate more medal wins with its range of wines and spirits. The SPAR Marquis de Belrive Champagne won three Silver medals (IWC, Decanter and IWSC), one Silver medal for the Rios de los Andes rosé (Decanter), one Silver medal for the Wildflower Pinot Noir and one Silver medal for the Premium Vodka and Harmonist Original Gin (ISC).

SPAR will be supporting the each of the award wins with instore POS and logo stickers on applicable bottles to reinforce the quality message to consumers.

In January SPAR was the first grocer in the UK to announce that it has made its full range of own label wines suitable for vegans in a move to ensure its own label range of seventy products is more inclusive and accessible for the growing number of shoppers exploring vegan food and drink.