How a £6 bottle of Malbec became one of the world's best-rated wines

The Chilean Malbec costs just £5.98 and is now being sold in the US

Olivia Blair
Monday 30 January 2017 15:49 GMT
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(Getty istock)

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The behind-the-scene secrets of the wine awarded best in the world, yet costing less than £6 a bottle, have been revealed.

Last year, the La Moneda Reserva Malbec - sold at Asda and priced at £4.37 on a rollback deal - was awarded ‘best in show’ at the Decanter World Wine awards last year.

After the result, sales soared so much that Asda’s parent company Walmart Imported the Chilean red into the US to sell at $6.96 a bottle.

Now, The Washington Post have revealed the secrets into what makes the Chilean red such a good wine - and good deal.

The "dark and brooding" and “deliciously smooth and juicy" wine is produced by Chile’s largest wine exporter Ranco Wines, which has over 2,500 acres of Vineyard in the South American country. When sent to the UK, it was shipped in bulk and then bottled on UK shores which helped reduce costs.

For sales in the US, the wine is bottled in Chile but once it is exported, the buyers at shops like Walmart (who told The Post they have bought pretty much all of the La Moneda) use clever marketing to send sales high while cost stays low.

They come up with a fancy name (La Moneda means coin in Spanish) and then because it is going exclusively to one store there is no need to spend money on marketing. When at the store, it is put in prime placement at eye level on shelves while well-known brands are reportedly pushed further back.

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