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Cheapskate Brits ditch France for Oz
French wine sales are falling, Australian wines are up: proof that the British know nothing about wine
The latest figures from Nielsen show that, in the last 3 months, sales of French wine in the UK (2.8 million cases) have fallen to fifth place behind Australia, Italy, the US and South Africa. Is this a crisis for the French wine industry? Oddly enough, probably not.
Australia, which occupies the number one spot, sells 68 per cent of its wine 'on promotion' - that is to say, only 32 per cent is sold at full price. That tells you something in itself. Sales of Australian wine would almost certainly collapse if it were not for promotions. And are the wines actually any good? Well, they are generally big brand wines, which are perfectly acceptable - provided you don't mind what you're drinking.
Alan Cheeseman, the much-respected ex-head of Sainsbury's wine department, puts it rather well: "There are 32 million people who drink wine in Britain, but 23 million drink less than three bottles a month. Most British know that the cork goes in the thin end and that's it."
Supermarkets account for the lion's share of UK wine sales (well over 60 per cent) and the nature of their business steers them towards cheap, big brands that can be sold in bulk, on promotion and with large advertising budgets.
Twenty years ago the biggest selling brand was Leibfraumilch, a horribly semi-sweet manufactured wine from Germany. Today, it is probably Yellow Tail, a step up but still a fairly tasteless wine from the marshes of South Australia, where enormous quantities of very ordinary grapes are grown.
France, on the other hand, has literally tens of thousands of small and medium-sized producers - the market garden rather than the factory of the vinous world, if you like. It dominates the mid and upper ranges of the market. The Loire Valley has thousands of smallish vineyards that produce probably the best value quality wine in the world. The south abounds with reasonably-priced wines of character and style, and Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne at the top end all speak for themselves.
The French wine industry, therefore, is very much alive and kicking - at above £5 a bottle (although they do need to learn a few lessons in clearer labeling and develop a more user-friendly attitude to their export markets). So the choice is yours: 'free range' French wines, or 'battery wines' from the New World. ·
