Two champagne flutes full of champagne

For immediate release: 2nd September 2019

BEGINS: 

English sparkling wine has experienced significant increases in awareness and consumption incidence in the last year, driven by positive PR and growing tourism offers, according to the Wine Intelligence Sparkling Wine in the UK 2019 report

On the back of a strong 2018 harvest and consistently positive publicity, English sparkling wine is gaining more prominence among UK sparkling consumers, with both awareness and consumption rising for the third year in a row, according to a new report published last week.

Nearly 8 in 10 British sparkling wine drinkers now claim to have heard of English sparkling, according to the Wine Intelligence UK Sparkling Wine Report 2019, up 5 percentage points from 2017, and recalled usage has jumped from 17% to 24%, though this remains a long way behind usage levels for Champagne (60%) and Prosecco (82%), as lack of mainstream distribution and availability holds the category back.

Successful wine tourism campaigns operating in the country over the past year appear to be playing a role in driving up interest in English sparkling wine. The number of people saying they have visited a winery in the UK has doubled since 2017, with leading brands Chapel Down, Denbies and Camel Valley accounting for more than a quarter of all winery visits in the UK in the past year. They appear to be having a good time on the visit as well – 68% of those visiting UK vineyard cellar doors in the past year say they are likely to visit again.

However the report also cites consumer survey evidence that over 70% of those who have heard of English Sparkling wine have never visited a UK vineyard, suggesting that there is plenty of growth left in UK wine tourism.

Commenting on the report, Wine Intelligence COO Richard Halstead said: “If the past ten years can be called the Prosecco decade, the next ten years may come to be known as the English Sparkling decade. The category appears to be tapping a market need in alcohol for more culturally connected, local and artisanal, which gin has latched onto very successfully. The fact that English Sparkling is positioned as an expensive and aspirational product, similar to Champagne, also appears to be aligning with the consumer trend of drinking less, and less often, but wanting to feel special when they do drink.”

ENDS

Report details:
Further details about the report can be found here.
Review copies of the report are available to accredited media, subject to standard terms of use. For this, or any questions regarding the press release, please contact Courtney Abernathy.
Requests for purchase should be directed to Emily Carroll.