Liberty wines has advised operators in on-trade outlets with a premium focus to turn their attention to red wine, French grapes and Champagne for the festive season.
Anticipated trends highlighted in the firm’s Premium On-Trade Wine Report include strong growth for red wine, with sales growth said to have doubled in December last year compared with the rest of 2014. Pinot Noir was highlighted as a particularly strong performer.
The firm found that premium outlets also bucked the trend in sparkling wine last December, with Prosecco coming second place to Champagne, which made up 63% of all sparkling wines sold in the sector.
The popularity of French wine wasn’t limited to sparkling either, with Liberty Wines reporting that sales of French wine in premium outlets increased 30.7% last December.
The report also found December 2014 was a good month for the wine sector as a whole, with 11.4% more cases sold when compared with the same period the previous year – and at a 23.3% higher value.
David Gleave MW, managing director of Liberty Wines, said that the “market preference for traditional choices” over the festive period “should be a key consideration for those making buying decisions at this crucial time of the year for on-trade profitability”.
