New Zealand and Prosecco top UK wine sales

The 2018 Wine Nation report from UK-based Accolade Wines reveals it was a good year for Prosecco, and New Zealand wines, but a bad year for Champagne.

Accolade, which own the Hardys and Banrock Station labels, monitored the drinking habits of 6,000 regular wine drinkers to identify the latest consumer trends.

Overall, it found that purchases of beer, wine and spirits had fallen by almost 2% across the on- and off-trade over the course of 2017, but it’s not all bad news.

Purchases of sparkling wine (largely Prosecco) have risen by 23%, the only category of alcoholic drink to have seen an increase in purchases. This came at the expense of Champagne, which is down by a whopping 18%.

New Zealand was the only country to see an increase in the volume of its wines sold in the on-trade, up by 7%. The volume of New Zealand wine sold in the off-trade also increased by 11%. Meanwhile, the value of French wines sold in the on-trade fell by 4%.

Another trend the report identified was demand for smaller bottles of wine. More than a quarter of UK adults drink only 250ml or less of a bottle of wine in one sitting, making a standard 75cl bottle unappealing. 29% of an additional 5,111 consumers surveyed said they would drink more wine if there was a wider range of smaller size bottles on offer.

Ade McKeon, general manager at Accolade Wines UK & Ireland, said: “The research presented in this report goes deep into the psyche of the adult drinks market. There are clear changes taking place in the UK wine industry.”