Consumers still confused and unconfident about wine

Recent research by Australian brand Hardys has shown that consumers are still confused about wine - and a large percentage don’t feel confident about choosing it.

Hardys surveyed people in 11 cities around the UK and found that London is the place where wine is the drink of choice for the most. Seventy per cent of those polled there opt for it first. In fact, in all of the cities more than half of the population prefer wine to any other alcoholic drink. Overall, more women than men choose wine, with 74% of females questioned saying they would opt for it compared to 61% of men.

However, when it came to being asked if they felt confident about choosing wine in a shop, bar or restaurant, 48% of women and 39% of men weren’t. City-wise, it was the Glaswegians, at 55%, who were most unsure about what to choose. York registered the lowest figure, but even there nearly 30% of the population weren’t confident about what to buy.

It is not surprising, therefore, that quite a lot of consumers couldn’t correctly answer some wine-related questions. For example, when asked what a sommelier is, 29% in York and Leeds thought it was a French perfumer while 10% of Liverpudlians thought it was a farmer than rears female pigs!

How rosé wines are made caused even more confusion, with 36% per cent of people in Leeds and Glasgow saying it was made by mixing red and white wine together. Five per cent of those polled in Cardiff even believed pink food colouring is added to white wine.

More people knew what makes sparkling wines sparkle, but between 6% and 20% didn’t know and thought that carbon monoxide is used, that sodium crystals or sparkling water are added or even that it contains small canisters of gas.

The other cities included in the survey were Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Newcastle.