UK poised to be top EU wine spenders

UK wine drinkers will spend more on still and sparkling wine than any other European country by 2010, according to new research. The forecast is for retail sales to reach nearly £5.5 billion in three years’ time, at which point the British will be spending more on wine than the French, Germans or Italians, according to the study commissioned by Vinexpo, the French wine and spirits fair, and carried out by drink researchers IWSR. The growth in UK retail value is a long-term trend, which is explained both by rises in the amount of wine drunk and by the higher average price of a bottle of wine in the UK. At £3.11, this is more than in most European countries, says the research.

In the ten years from 2001 to 2010, UK annual average wine consumption is forecast to grow at 3.7 per cent. This is three and a half times faster than the growth in world consumption. However, come 2010, it is predicted that we will still be drinking less wine in total than the world’s top four - France, Italy, the USA and Germany.