Richard Halstead, COO Wine Intelligence

It’s become fashionable in the global wine industry to talk down the UK market in recent years. There are plenty of excuses: a severe recession; increasing taxes; hard-bargaining supermarkets; the precipitous decline of sterling against most major currencies over the past 3 years.

And yet we can’t help feeling that the gloom has been overdone. The latest information from Wine Intelligence’s Vinitrac℗ and the IWSR makes for encouraging reading. The UK remains the world’s largest market for imported wine at just over 150 million cases in 2009.

Consumption is still growing, albeit at a much slower rate than in the “golden decade” of the 1990s. Wine Intelligence data suggests that British wine consumers as a whole are trading up: today 15% say they regularly spend over £6 on a bottle of wine for an informal meal at home, up from 10% in 2007. However it will come as no surprise to anyone what has become the dominant choice cue: whether or not a product is on promotion.

Some fascinating sub-plots are emerging in the UK: the well-documented rise of rosé continues (up over 50% in volume terms since 2007, according to Vinitrac℗, which aligns with UK sales data covering the same period); and the growth of Prosecco, which has expanded its consumer base by 60% since 2007. And while the traditional French varietals still command the lion’s share of the market, Tempranillo, Malbec, and above all Pinot Grigio, have made strong advances.

Among source countries, there have been some losers as well as winners: France and Germany continue their long-term slide; Australia has gritted its teeth and hung on to market share; while Italy, South Africa and New Zealand have made strong advances in terms of the number of drinkers consuming wine from these source countries.

Finally, it looks as if we are at the beginning of an emerging trend of polarization into high and low spending consumer segments – what we are calling the “Connoisseurs and Quaffers” syndrome, where the market for wine divides into those drinking a decent drop 2-3 times a week vs those buying as cheaply as possible and drinking as regularly as every day.

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Richard Halstead

Tags: Richard Halstead, UK

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