Portuguese wine sales soaring in the UK

Portuguese wine sales are soaring in the UK, with Portuguese specialist Oakley Wine Agencies reporting year-on-year volume and value growth of over 60%.

Harvest time at Quinta Nova in the Douro Valley

Commenting on these “spectacular” results, Oakley Wine Agencies founder, Nick Oakley, told the drinks business: “Portugal’s time seems finally to have arrived. The country has been tipped to be ‘the next big thing’ for the last 25 years and it never seemed to happen, but it’s happening now, and in a big way”.

Oakley has enjoyed sales success from across the board, from major multiples like Aldi, which are finally catching on to the delights of Portugal, to specialists like Tanners, Majestic and Laithwaite’s which “have the capacity to tell the story behind the wine”.

Vicente Faria, who is represented in the UK by Oakley Wine Agencies

“Our successes have been largely ex-cellar sales, but we have an important group of independents that we supply from UK stock lying under bond.

“We aim to improve and strengthen that offer over the next year. We’ve had to take on extra staff and everything seems to be going very well. I’m glad we stuck with it,” Oakley said.

Earlier this year we reported that both volume and value sales of Portuguese still wine are significantly up in the UK, with the former up by 37.1% and the latter 45.8%.

Some 38,100 hectolitres of Portuguese still wine were imported into the UK last year compared to 26,124 hl in 2016.

Wines of Portugal put the consistent growth of still wines in the UK down to the perceived quality and value of Portuguese wines around the world.

Oakley Wine Agencies was founded in 1990. Among the Portuguese wineries it represents in the UK are Boas Quintas in Dao; Joao Portugal Ramons in Alentejo; Qunita do Casal Branco in Tejo; Quinta de Gomariz in Vinho Verde and Vicente Faria in the Douro Valley.