English have won wine’s lottery

The UK is the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan wine market on the planet, mainly because we have a very long tradition of importing wine, as we do not grow it ourselves to any great extent.

The market for Bordeaux in the 19th Century, for instance, was here, not in France. And new wine producers, regions and even countries (Australia and New Zealand for example) always come to us to establish their international reputation. Nowhere else in the world can you buy wines from just about every wine-producing country, as you can here.

Our market is going through a period of change and turmoil, though, accelerated, of course, by the recession. The high street and on-trade (restaurants and hotels) merchants are faring badly - the high street largely because many shops are behind the times (just as Woolworths and MFI were) and should have either closed down or radically reinvented themselves many years ago.

The internet has also taken a material chunk of business away from them - online wine merchants operate 24/7 and you can shop at home with delivery (normally free) a couple of days later.

The recession has hit the restaurant trade badly because more and more of us are choosing to eat and drink at home for a fraction of the price. Restaurants always pay their wine suppliers last, so when they are broke it is normally their suppliers who are left holding the baby - and this, of course, has a snowball effect and puts them in peril too.

The home market, as a result of all this, is very much alive and well and growing. The traditional wine trade is adapting to the modern age, providing better wines at lower prices and, more often than not, online as well, meaning that we can afford to drink higher quality wines even in the midst of the crunch. 

The only real negatives here are the weakness of Sterling (which is pushing prices up) and our muddle-headed Chancellor who increases the duty on wine (normally by stealth) at every given opportunity.

Even so, having lived in France for many years, I can safely say that one of the great advantages of living in the UK is the wonderful variety of wines that are available to us. ·