Brown Bros targets new wine drinkers with low-alcohol range

Brown Brothers winery in Victoria, Australia, is targeting newcomers to wine-drinking with the UK launch of its low-alcohol Fruity range.

Brown Brothers’ Fruity range of wines, which includes a 5% ABV Moscato, is available through John E Fells (Photo: Brown Brothers)

The long-established family-owned winery’s Fruity range has become the biggest-selling Australian wine in Australia since its launch in the mid-1990s.

Its relatively high level of residual sugar and low alcohol content has proved immensely popular not just as a easy-drinking, everyday wine but also with younger people who were new to alcoholic beverages.

“When we launched our Fruity range back in the mid-1990s we realised it wasn’t just being consumed by people sitting out in the sunshine having fun,” Brown Brothers brand ambassador Katherine Brown explained.

“It was being consumed by the newish wine drinkers, the 20 to 25-year-olds, who wanted a drink with their friends, but who weren’t ready to consume dry wines.

“This new generation, they drink soft drinks, they drink sports drinks – everything is sweet. So, when you turn 18, why would you go straight from something like a lemonade into something like a chardonnay? It just doesn’t make sense. So it’s really creating that stepping stone for people.”

The full Brown Brothers Fruity range consists of 14 wines. The flagship wine in the range is a lightly sparkling Moscato which, at 5% ABV, is made using the same method as Moscato D’Asti. Other wines include a Moscato Rosa – made with and a Moscato/Sauvignon Blanc at 7.5% ABV.

Brown Brothers’ main focus for fruity wines in the UK market are Moscato and Cienna (a fruity red), both of which are less than 8% ABV.

Katherine Brown said the wines were aimed at consumers who were “looking at a fresh and fruity option with their wine drinking”. 

The drinks business reported last month that Brown Brothers had signed up with Fells, which would become its exclusive UK distributor from September 1.

A family affair

The announcement came at the John E Fells second wine forum at the Corinthia Hotel in London, where Fells was introducing some of the family-owned New World producers in its portfolio.

As well as Katherine Brown, in attendance were Bruce Tyrrell of Tyrrell’s Wines in Australia, Herman Seifried of Seifried Estate, New Zealand, Eric Wente of Wente Vineyards in California, Mireia Torres from Miguel Torres in Chile and Nick Buck of Te Mata Estate, New Zealand.

The CEO at family-owned Te Mata, in Hawke’s Bay, Buck was present to unveil Te Mata’s 2013 Coleraine. He emphasised the outstanding quality of the 2013 vintage, which is widely reported to have been one of the best ever in Hawke’s Bay.

“Occasionally you get things where right form the moment you pick the grapes you know its set up to be a great vintage – ’13 is like that,” Buck said.

“It wasn’t a particularly hot season. It was exceptionally dry – the driest vintage for 70 years in Hawke’s Bay – but it was just such a long, even growing season, the vines were in such great health, and the wines reflect it. They have amazing power, but they have also have that freshness about them.

The truly great vintages are attractive to drink from the moment they’re released, and that’s what the 2013s have.”