More Wine Sold In Britain

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30763, 29 May 1965, Page 15

More Wine Sold In Britain

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, May 28. The British market for wine is on the increase. Figures show that consumption has grown steadily in the post-war years from 7{m gallons in 1949 to nearly 28m gallons last year, when consumption jumped over 14 per cent on 1963.

Present consumption of imported wines in Britain amounts to only about three bottles a head, which compares poorly with the average annual consumption of up to 170 bottles a head in Europe. Although Britain cannot hope to match this, not even in the distant future, during the next five years consumption of wine is expected to rise between 10 and 15 per

cent a year to double its present amount by 1970. Furthermore the pattern of wine-drinking in Britain appears to be changing fast. Whereas before the war three-quarters of all imported wines drunk were fortified wines, like ports and sherries, now some 44 per cent of the imported wines drunk are table wines. Their sales have more than trebled during the last decade and the rate of growth is running steady at 10 per cent a year.

Although Spain is still the principal source for wines imported into Britain, France is not far behind and is catching up.

Commonwealth and South African wines are also sharing in the growth of the British market.