Sugar-laden drinks on the up in UK

Consumers are increasingly looking for sweet alcoholic drinks according to Blossom Hill marketing manager Liz Ashdown.

Citing Alcovision statistics, Ashdown told the drinks business that the market share for sweet drinks had grown to account for over a quarter of all alcohol serves in the UK.

“People are demanding sweeter, fruitier styles,” she said, referring to the growth in blush rosés, Moscatos, as well as sugar laden fruit ciders.

“The macro-trend is a growth in accessible, sweeter styles,” she added.

As a result, Ashdown admitted that Blossom Hill was planning to launch a further white wine to the range with a higher level of residual sugar.

“We are looking at the best way to introduce a sweeter white to our portfolio,” she said.

“We don’t know yet whether that will be Moscato or not,” she added.

However, she said that the Diageo-owned brand was tempted to introduce a sparkling Moscato to “sit alongside” the Blossom Hill sparkling Zinfandel rosé.

Meanwhile, the latest addition to the Blossom Hill range is Vie white and rosé – which are both wine-based drinks with 5.5% abv.

The products, as previously reported by db, were launched in July last year, and were introduced to benefit from the lower duty rate in the UK for drinks at or below 5.5% abv.

Blossom Hill Vie 5.5% was launched in July 2012

Ashdown said that the low-alcohol white contains 28g/l residual sugar, and the rosé as much as 48g/l.

Explaining the high levels in the wines, she commented, “Our priority is to achieve the right flavour and balance. It’s important to add residual sugar in order to balance out the acidity that has been concentrated by the de-alcoholisation process.”

Blossom Hill Vie also contains natural flavours to “subtly redress some of the loss of wine character that results form the de-alcoholisation process.”

In terms of demand since the two wines were unveiled, Ashdown said that Vie had brought new consumers into wine, as well as the alcoholic drinks category.

“25% of Blossom Hill Vie consumers are new to the wine category,” she said, citing Dunnhumby data.

“We cannot say exactly where these consumers have come from, but research suggests that 20% of these have come to wine from other BWS categories, while 5% are new to the total alcohol category.”

Meanwhile, in the US, sweet alcohol drinks are proving even more popular, driven by sweet reds and Moscato, which are the two fastest growing sectors within the wine category.