Sparkling wine sales soar in UK over festive period, with Majestic reporting "record" sales

Sparkling wine sales in the UK were a winner in the annual festive shopping frenzy, with private label sales jumping by 22% in the multiple grocers in the four week run up till Christmas.

Majestic, the UK”s biggest wine retailer, reported a “record” Christmas trading season, albeit starting much later than usual, which the company attributed to consumers waiting to find out what the plans would be regarding Covid restrictions. “In the last week we were up against the market by 55% (according to Nielsen) and recorded some of our biggest ever days, even throughout lockdowns,” said a spokesperson. “Sales of Champagne and sparkling wine rose by 12% and 24% respectively in the Christmas period, when benchmarked against December 2020.”

Independent outlets also reported soaring sales, far outstripping their pre-pandemic turnover, and up on 2021.  “Christmas was buoyant at The Wine Society with another year of growth with sales 5% higher than 2020 and 28% higher than 2019 before the impact of the pandemic,” director of wine Pierre Mansour told Harpers.

“The big story of 2021 was the performance of sparkling wine, in particular Champagne which was tracking at about double the rate of 2020. Own label also performed well – our flagship wines under The Society’s Exhibition range were extremely popular, selling around 20% more than the previous year. It is further evidence that our members traded up for Christmas.”

According to the IWSR, consumption of all sparkling wine in the UK, led by Prosecco, will increase from 14.4m 9L cases in 2017 to 16.2m by 2022. Since 2012 consumption has increased from 1.8 litres to 2.8 litres per head per annum.

“English sparkling wine is forecast to add 100,000 cases to the market in the period to 2022,” said an ISWR report. “Imports of prosecco will rise to 11.7m cases by 2022, stealing share from Champagne, Cava and all still wine. However, the rate at which prosecco continues to steal share from Champagne over the forecast period will lessen as the former category approaches its peak point.”  

Photography:    Michelle McEwan, Unsplash