Wine consumers put their money on Tall Horse in blind tasting
Tuesday, 29 June, 2010
Tall Horse
Tall Horse, the popular South African wine brand, caused a few ripples
in the local wine industry when it beat a number of more illustrious
blue-chip wines in consumer tasting.
In a survey done by television programme Carte Blanche where a number of restaurant patrons were asked to pick the best tasting Chardonnay in an unsighted line-up of four wines, more wine-lovers chose the Tall Horse Chardonnay than any of the other three wines.
What's more, of the four wines in the line-up, Tall Horse was by far the least expensive. While the Tall Horse Chardonnay retails for R32, the prices of the competitors it left trailing in its wake ranged from between R47 and R196.
The Carte Blanche insert set out to answer the question: Does an expensive bottle of wine taste better than a cheaper one? The answer at the end of the show: "There it is, a landslide victory for the cheapest bottle of wine, Tall Horse, retailing at R31.95."
According to Tall Horse brand manager Pieter Terblanche the result came as a big surprise.
"Tall Horse's mission has always been to over deliver in terms of quality by offering the consumer a well made product at reasonable price," he says. "We were flattered to be a part of an illustrious line-up of wines presented to average wine consumers looking for a good wine. But to have been adjudged to be the 'people's favourite' and beating some icon brands in the process is a feather the cap of the Tall Horse production team who show that good wine does not necessarily have to don a heavy price-tag. And for those who doubt this fact, the Carte Blanche program has put it on record."
Tall Horse is one of South Africa's fastest-growing wine brands. Over the past year local sales grew by 130% to 118,000 cases while internationally the brand grew by 190% to 142,000 cases.
Jaco Potgieter, Tall Horse wine-maker and Pieter Terblanche, brand manager
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