Last updated on June 11th, 2018 at 04:30 pm
7-Eleven’s new Voyager Point wine line is designed for customers to be able to “trade up in quality at an affordable price,” the Texas-based convenience store company says.
Voyager Point varietals include Cabernet Sauvignon and Red Blend from California and Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand. SRP for a 750-ml bottle is $9.99.
The Sauvignon Blanc can be found chilled, while the Cabernet and Red Blend are held ambient on store shelves.
The wines were benchmarked against the top-selling premium wines in each varietal, 7-Eleven says. In testing, customers preferred Voyager Point over the higher-priced national brands.
“More and more wine-drinkers are willing to pay a few extra dollars to move up to higher quality, higher price point wines,” said Tim Cogil, 7-Eleven senior director of private brands. “We need to have options for our wine-drinking customers when they decide to trade up–one that is better quality than the top national brands and at a better price.”
Priced between $9 and $12, the premium wines category is the top trending price segment in the industry, with red wines specifically growing in popularity, 7-Eleven said, noting that IRI data through April shows Cabernet and Red Blend varietals up 6 and 9 percent, respectively, in dollar sales growth over prior years.
According to 7-Eleven, the Voyager Point Cabernet Sauvignon has vibrant notes of ripe, dark fruits such as blackberries, plums and cherries. Red Blend—a combination of Merlot, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah from West Coast locales—has a “smooth, balanced flavor profile with rich, complex tones of dark cherries, chocolate and vanilla.” Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp white wine from Marlborough, New Zealand, in the South Pacific that has “vibrant notes of Key limes and Meyer lemons.”
The bottle label was designed to appeal to Millennial wine-drinkers, the retailer said, and the bottles come with an easy-to-open Stelvin closure, a type of screw-top that preserves freshness.
Voyager Point joins value-priced (and, according to 7-Eleven, longtime customer favorite) Yosemite Road and the more recently introduced Trojan Horse 7-Eleven wines.
The retailer plans to build its wine selection horizontally, offering quality wines across all price segments.
7-Eleven, based in Irving, Texas, operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 66,000 stores in 17 countries, including 11,600 in North America.
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