UK spend on higher priced wines overtakes France

The UK is drinking more wine and spending more on it according to figures published this week by Vinexpo and IWSR (International Wine and Spirit Research). While the average price of a bottle of wine is stable at £5.21 a bottle, the UK is trading up to wines over £6 a bottle. For higher priced wines (over £6.15 per bottle), the UK is the second largest consumer market worldwide, ahead of France but behind the US.

Wine consumption in the UK grew by 1.1% in 2010, with the total amount consumed rising to 1.7 billion bottles. But the longer-term trend shows consumption increased by 5.5% between 2005 and 2009. The winners were rosé which doubled in growth between 2005 and 2009 and sparkling wines which rose by 16.1%.