A force to be reckoned with.

(From Off Licence News)

The appointment of Arabella Woodrow MW as head of Morrisons' wine buying team was the finale of a three-year drive by the supermarket to premiumise its wine offering. With her experience of retail , including stints at the Co-op, Forth Wines and Harveys of Bristol, Woodrow's appointment was a triumph for the retailer. Rather than being dismissed as "the one that used to be Safeway", Morrisons cement ed its position as a worthy competitor to Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose.

Morrisons' development of its drinks strategy was sparked by the acquisition of Safeway in 2004. The AGBP3Abillion take over saw the buying team faced with the daunting task of incorporating two supermarket ranges into one and what followed was a six-week frenzy of blind tastings and the culling of most of the 900 wines stocked by Safeway.

When Woodrow came in as licensed trading manager last October , from importer Myliko Wines, the range had been cut to just 550 . The portfolio she took charge of comprised 300 from the Morrisons portfolio, 150 from the Safeway list and 100 wines stocked by both supermarkets prior to the takeover.

Woodrow's first task was to taste and asses every wine . "I've now gone through the whole range and evaluated it. The number of wines in the range has stayed the same - what's changed is the balance," she says.

"We need to balance the right number for the right things. More of a single thing, like a country or grape variety, doesn' add choice - it makes it confusing. For example, Australia is the market leader, but you don' need a proportionate number of wines." Off the beaten track Woodrow wants to "offer choice" and ensure more unusual wines are represented with Morrisons' new in-store offering - a wine of the month. The rolling promotion aims to shout about a wine "that's off the beaten track", Woodrow explains, emphasising that the wine should be popular with shoppers because of its exclusivity or uniqueness, rather than being sold on price promotion. Featured wines will retail for AGBP5 - AGBP6.50 - a price Woodrow sees as Aaffordable for shoppers, believing anything around AGBP10 would be too expensive for a wine they are not familiar with. Coteaux du Giennois Blanc 2007, a 100% Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire, will be in the spotlight in July, selling for AGBP4.99.

Woodrow's responsibilities include buying wines from Italy and Southern France. She sees big opportunities for Morrisons to grow its French wine sales . "There's a lot of untapped potential in France," she says. Woodrow also believes Italy "has a lot of offer ", but says the country's numerous DOCs are confusing to the consumer and act as a barrier to sales. "People see it as difficult to understand - Italy has more DOCs than France has cheeses." One of Woodrow's most recent tasks was selecting the 139 wines for Morrisons' annual press tasting, which took place on April 23 at London's Imagination Gallery. Condensing a 550-strong range into a "fair snapshot" was no easy job, Woodrow says. "We wanted a fair representation of the new wines while trying to show the depth of a range." Newcomers included six rosAs , one a Spanish dessert wine - Moscatel De Valencia rosA from Bodegas Murviedro - and two Chinese wines. Morrisons' range of lower alcohol wines has also been given a boost with the addition of an Aussie pair - Salena Estate Quill Series Chardonnay and Shiraz, which retail for AGBP5.99 and have a 9.5% abv.