Rioja records third year of growth

The Consejo Regulador in Rioja has reported a third consecutive year of growth confirming Rioja reserva to be its fastest-growing category, highlighting an increasing willingness by consumers to trade up.

Rioja Reserva experienced the highest sales growth, indicating consumers’ increasing willingness to trade up.

Volume sales of Rioja totalled 284 million litres in 2015, up 1.13% on the previous year, while value sales increased by 5.33%.

In Rioja’s domestic market of Spain, growth matched export growth for the first time since the economic downturn, increasing by 1.1% to 177.4 million litres. Sales of Rioja in Spain now account for 62.4% of the region’s total sales.

“Achieving this milestone in the current circumstances”, said director general of the Control Board, José Luis Lapuente, “is due to the great strength of the Rioja brand and to the Rioja wine industry’s ability to adapt to market demands with a dynamic and innovative model which offers both confidence and security to consumers”.

Export growth

In comparison Rioja exports grew by 1.2% to 106.6m litres in 2015, and now account for 37.6% of total Rioja sales. Its biggest export market, the UK, was said to have performed “superbly”, with exports up 2% to 36.8 million litres in 2015, accounting for 34.5% of total Rioja exports.

Other countries to achieve significant growth include Ireland (up 42%), China (up 34.5%), now Rioja’s sixth biggest market, and Canada (up 23%). In light of this the Consejo said it would be including both Ireland and Canada in future marketing campaigns.

Germany, the United States and Switzerland continue to hold top positions among importers after the United Kingdom, but recorded a “slight drop” in sales in 2015, which was also the case in some traditional Rioja markets such as Sweden and Mexico.

Trading up?

An increase in volume and value sales of Rioja’s “higher added value wines”, including its Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva categories, was also highlighted by Lapuente. Sales of barrel-aged red wines (Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva categories) increased by 4.2 million litres, accounting for 64% of total red wine sales, with Crianza the best-selling category.

Rioja Reserva meanwhile experienced the highest growth, up 3.53%, indicating consumers’ increasing willingness to trade up. Of total Rioja Reserva sales, 61% was sold in foreign markets.

“Rioja has managed to increase sales in both volume and value,” said Lapuente, “which is quite different from the Spanish wine industry as a whole, according to Spanish Wine Market Observatory reports.”

Observatory figures show that Rioja exports amount to 41.3% of the total value of Spanish DO wine exports, while in volume they stand at 31.4%. In terms of price, the average for Rioja is 30% higher than the average for DO wines and four times as much as the average price of exported Spanish wines.

Although red wines still account for 89% of Rioja sales, whites and rosés achieved double-digit growth for a second consecutive year in 2015, with white wine sales growing to 16.89m litres, an increase of 14%, while rosé sales grew to 14.52m litres, up 17%.