Lidl is to sell English wine for the first time, in a major commercial boost for the burgeoning industry.
As part of its latest push to attract well-heeled shoppers, the German discount supermarket will stock three Broadwood’s Folly wines made by the award-winning producer Denbies, based in Surrey. The wines, which will go on sale in early March as part of Lidl’s Easter offering, will retail at £7.99 for the rosé and white and £14.99 for the sparkling variety.
In July 2014 the supermarket unveiled a £12m push into the premier wine market, dubbed the “Bordeaux offensive” and its biggest UK product launch, in a bid to woo middle-class shoppers and pitting it against the likes of Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons.
The bargain fine wine range, which includes Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Château La Tour, has fuelled a 40% increase in Lidl’s wine sales over the last year. The company has used its European clout to buy wine in large volumes and pass on price savings to customers, and aims to make products seen as exclusive more accessible.
Denbies is the UK’s largest vineyard and currently produces around 10% of the country’s wine. Ben Hulme, the head of beers, wines and spirits at Lidl, said: “We are delighted to be offering a range of English wines as part of our Easter Wine Cellar range. The English wine industry is growing and is something we as a retailer are keen to support, therefore we are excited to have partnered with the Denbies Wine Estate to stock three delicious English wines; a white, rosé and a sparkling wine.”
“It is a great time for English wines,” said Julia Trustram Eve of the English Wine Producers trade body. “With the ever-growing consumer interest in, and demand for English wines, this is an exciting move within the multiple sector to make English wines even more accessible.”
The growing popularity of English wine has fuelled a rush to develop UK vineyards, with applications rising by more than 40% in the past year, new figures reveal.
Miles Beale, the chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said: “The production of English wine has seen record vintages in the last two years with 4.5m bottles in 2013 and 6.3m bottles in 2014. Based on the latest growth figures, this is set to double, with a staggering 12m bottles of English wine per year expected by 2020.”
Marks & Spencer recently launched its first Welsh wine, the Tintern Parva bacchus from Parva Farm Vineyards in Monmouthshire, and for Christmas it offered its first magnum of English sparkling wine, the 2010 Ridgeview Blanc de Blancs.
Waitrose, which stocks more than 100 English and Welsh wines, reported a 95% increase in sales of its range in 2014, and in October it stocked its first English dessert wine, again from Denbies.
The growing popularity of English wine has been helped by a renaissance in English food. Chefs want local wine to go with their locally sourced food, and English wine is now on the menus of high-end restaurants owned by Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver.
