A quarter of wine drinkers will pay more than £10 a bottle

More than a quarter of still wine buyers are prepared to spend more than £10 on a bottle of wine at home, according to a new report by Mintel.

The report surveyed consumer attitudes to wine, including their willingness to spend, purchasing location and key drivers.

Although the vast majority of wines were predictably sold around the £5-10 “sweet spot”, 28% of wine drinkers are prepared to spend more than £10 on a bottle of still wine, with a further 7% prepared to go over £20 for a bottle, the report said.

However the report found a wider variation on sparkling wines, with the rise of Processo hampering people’s willingness to spend on other sparkling, such as Cremant, English Sparkling Wine, Moscato or Franciacorta.

When it comes to Champagne, 64% of Champagne buyers were prepared to spend more than £20 per bottle, compared to only 16% among sparkling wine buyers, Chris Wisson, Senior Drinks Analyst at Mintel told The Drinks Business.

Wisson said this came despite an apparently adventurous attitude towards ‘lesser-known types of sparkling wine’, which scored highly on a list of things consumers wanted to try – with nearly a quarter (24%) of wine buyers being interested in trying newer types of sparkling wines.

“Many sparkling wine buyers are only prepared to go up to £20, which provides an interesting story on people’s willingness to trade up,” he said. “There is consumer interest in finding out what the ‘next Prosecco’ might be, but Cremant and Moscato are still not really building momentum in the UK. They simply haven’t cut-through and most people still wouldn’t know what they really stand for. Prosecco has managed that cut-through and continues to thrive.”

Despite the press attention on English wine, Mintel’s report highlighted that its penetration was still low, and likely to be in single figures. ‘Other sparkling wines’ –  which included Cremant, Moscato and English Sparkling Wine – is still only bought by 11% of adults, well behind Cava (15%), Champagne (17%) and Prosecco (22%).

Colour and grape are still the most important deciding factors when it comes to choosing wine, higher even than country of origin, Wisson pointed out. France scores most highly on a number of attributes including ‘sophistication’ and ‘worth paying more for’ but although Australian wine was considered ‘modern’ it did not score as favourably on consumers’ perceptions for ‘sophistication’ or ‘worth paying money for’. Germany also continues to suffer from unfavourable associations in wine buyers’ eyes, showing how perceptions are hard to shift.

“It is unfair as there are some great German wines on the market, but it shows the association and habits of consumers are very entrenched,” Wisson said.