Just as significantly, wine inflation is running at 4.6%, ahead of overall inflation at 2.7%. Our average price point is still low (£5.11), especially when you take duty and VAT into account (£2.83 or 57% of a £5 bottle), but more encouraging than it was. The UK market is still the sixth biggest in the world, behind the USA, Italy, France, Germany and China, consuming around 125m cases of wine, divided 80/20 between the off and on trades. Some countries are also faring better than others: Spain, South Africa and (from a lower base) Argentina have all shown double digit growth over the last year. In short, the UK wine market appears to be in gentle decline, at least for now, although sparkling wine seems to be confounding the trend. Their findings don’t always tally exactly (that’s statistics for you) but they tell a similar tale. After all, consumers can only buy what’s offered to them on shelves and websites.īut let’s look at those reports first. Now is a good time to examine what’s happening to their ranges. I’ve also attended most of the major supermarket and high street retailer tastings over the last month or so. As our biggest wine retailer by far, Tesco both shapes and reflects the market. Just as significantly, I went straight to the airport from Tesco’s autumn press tasting. It’s encouraging that the UK is still considered a major export market for Spain, at least.Īrmed with the Wine & Spirit Trade Association’s Quarter 3 Market Report and Wine Intelligence’s recently published Wine Market Landscapes Report, I arrived in Castilla-La Mancha to contribute my two euros’ worth to the debate. I was asked to talk to a group of Spanish producers at the inaugural Cumbre Internacional del Vino in Toledo last week, alongside analysts from Germany, China and the United States. There’s nothing like delivering a speech about the UK wine market to make you focus on its strengths and weaknesses.

Apothic red wine commercial band