© by Nigel Lelew The UK wine consumer has come a long way in the last twenty five years or so. Weened from branded wines like Blue Nun and Mateus Rose, the average UK consumer has now matured and been able to understand more about wine. The cry is now for "fruit driven" wine styles. And the fruit driven wine style is one which the supermarket wine buying teams are embracing whole-heartedly. They are even sending out winemakers to work with the local producers to make wine styles which the UK consumer will want to buy and will keep coming back for. The supermarket chains are certainly in control of an increasingly large slice of the UK wine market. A recent survey revealed that we have a per capita wine consumption was 18 bottles per year. Averaged out over the whole year that means we all drink around 2 glasses of wine a week. With the health benefits of drinking moderate amounts of red wine being shouted from the rooftops, the UK wine market has almost infinite potential to grow even further. Here in the UK, we are increasingly turning away from the Old World wine countries, and looking towards the New World. Australia, California, South Africa and Chile now provide around a fifth of all wines sold in the UK. When you consider that back in the early 80's these countries made virtually no impact, its easy to see the trend for the expansion of sales of New World wines in the future. Add to that picture the number of producers like Argentina who are entering the export arena and the New World roller coaster isn't likely to grind to a halt ... not for now anyway! So why is the New World doing so well. Its down to straight talking. Its easy for a consumer to anticipate what the contents of an Australian wine bottle will taste like from the plain speaking on the label. That’s not the case for many French wines. Unless you know what you're looking for, Old World wines tend to hide their potential behind the words on the label. So the old dull wines of some 20 or more years ago have been replaced by fruit driven flavours and thats what the consumer wants. As well as fruit, the consumer also wants red wine in preference to white. Red wine sales in the UK have overtaken white wine sales for the first time. Among other things that’s down to the changing profile of the wine consumer and the fact that people are buying wine to drink on its own. OK for my recommendations this month we're going to flout all these trends and go for a Spanish white and a Southern French red. First the white. A blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Verdejo grapes, 1997 Santa Catalina is a wonderfully fresh, crisp herbaceous white from Rueda in northern Spain. For the red, Somerfield do it again with their silver medal winning 1997 Gouts et Couleurs Syrah Mourvedre Vins de Pays D'Oc from Southern France. Its deep, dark ruby colour just invites you to take a glug with open arms. And when you do the black and red berry fruit flavours combine with the spice from the Syrah grape to linger long in the mouth and go on to a great finish. If you have any comments or questions please e-mail me at nigel@vinrouge.co.uk
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