Esselunga focuses on e-commerce and creates its online wine store, with more than 1,400 labels

An assortment of more than 1,400 labels, including wines and spirits, ranging from small productions to large luxury brands, Italian and French, with prices ranging from 10 to 1,000 euros, to be ordered conveniently with a click and received, by courier, in every region: Esselunga, the giant of the large-scale retail trade, chaired by Marina Caprotti, bets on wine e-commerce and launches just today its online wine shop, a real gauntlet to the big names in the sector in view of Christmas shopping.
On “Enoteca Esselunga” customers will be able to find an exclusive selection, with bottles that are not present on supermarket shelves: to date, the physical wine shop is present in 88 of the group’s stores (to which are added 8 laEsse, with the caveau format, with smaller dimensions), each with an Ais sommelier who assists customers in choosing the label best suited to various needs and occasions. So, with the online wine shop, the range widens: not only from a geographic point of view - Esselunga supermarkets are traditionally present in the regions of Northern and Central Italy, and with e-commerce it will be possible to serve the South and Islands as well - but also from a point of view of references, with a selection that is the result of meticulous work carried out in collaboration with more than 350 companies. They range from small regional productions to the great brands of Italian wine, from Antinori to Terra Moretti (with Bellavista and Contadi Castaldi), from Frescobaldi to Ca’ del Bosco, from Donnafugata to Sassicaia, from Tignanello to Cervaro della Sala, from Ferrari to Oddero, from Castello del Terriccio to Feudi di San Gregorio.
But also prestigious French labels, such as Moët & Chandon, Bollinger, Dom Pérignon, Krug, Château Mouton Rothschild, Pol Roger and Billecart Salmon. There will be no shortage of spirits, a segment on the rise, from Macallan English whiskey to Nikka Japanese whiskey to Zacapa rum. Space will also be given to small Italian artisanal gin and spirits producers, such as Pure Sardinia, Distilleria Belfiore from Sicily, Ginepraio from Tuscany and Vecchio Magazzino Doganale from Calabria.
On “Enoteca Esselunga” one can find not only, with an effective search engine, bottles accompanied by all the information on grape variety, producer and appellation, but also a series of in-depth reports on territories and pairings, services and interviews with the protagonists of wine: it starts with a face-to-face with Riccardo Cotarella, the most famous Italian oenologist, as well as producer. With this move, the Esselunga group becomes a direct competitor of e-commerce sites specializing in online wine sales, primarily Tannico (owned by Campari and Moët Hennessy of the Lvmh group, with a 50% share each), but also Signorvino, vino.com and Callmewine, precisely at the most important time of the year for bottle sales, in the run-up to the Christmas holidays.
As early as the 1980s Esselunga, in an effort to enhance its selection of labels, used green-colored shelves in its stores to distinguish wines from other product categories. Bernardo Caprotti, the group’s founder, had even turned to Luigi Veronelli (journalist, gastronome and Italy’s greatest expert on food and wine) for advice on label selection. In the late 1990s, a new display mode was inaugurated in the Casalecchio di Reno store: a dedicated area where bottles were placed not only vertically but also at an angle. Today, bottles ordered online will be able to reach customers’ homes through a journey that starts from a temperature-controlled warehouse, where each bottle is stored coming directly from the producers, along a short supply chain that allows fast and guaranteed delivery everywhere.