UK drinkers favour English sparkling over Champagne, says report

Regular consumers of sparkling wine in the UK would rather drink English sparkling wine than Champagne, says a new report.

The nation’s domestic bubbly is enjoying ‘phenomenal’ growth and rapidly entering the mainstream, according to the new figures, which suggest that most sparkling wine consumers in the UK have tried it at least once.

Meanwhile, the total market for sparkling wine in the UK has grown by two-thirds in only four years, bucking the trend of economic gloom and slowing growth in the still wine category.

According to the UK Sparkling Wine Report, published this week by research organisation Wine Intelligence, some 15m out of the 25m British people who drink sparkling wine at least once a year say they have tried English fizz at least once.

Regular or ‘committed’ sparkling wine consumers – those who drink it at least once a month – are particularly likely to have tried English sparkling, listing it as their preferred choice after New World sparkling and cava – but ahead of Champagne.

Total sparkling wine sales have climbed from an estimated 6m nine-litre cases in 2006 to 10m cases in 2010, the report adds.

‘The UK sparkling wine market has been one of the few bright spots in a relatively gloomy year for the wine trade,’ said Richard Halstead, Wine Intelligence COO.

‘Within this market, English sparkling wine growth has been phenomenal, and the product appears to be familiar to a much wider group than we had previously thought.’

Written by Richard Woodard