UK is number one market for Spanish Wines
According to this article UK is number one market for Spanish Wines – Talking Retail, there is good news for Spanish wine in the UK. Sounds great. Sounds important, but I would say that this is only half the story. Spain is the third largest producer of wine in world, but we also have the largest land area under vine. Granted, a large chunk of this land consists of low density plantings in areas such as La Mancha, with less then stellar wine varieties like Airen. That said, we do have the capacity to grow and produce more, and after talking to many producers at Alimentaria, I realized that there a lot of room to expand sales. The UK may be the biggest market for Spanish wine, but with America poised to become the largest wine consuming nation, this statistic could change quickly.
Questions for Readers: If you are in the UK, do you see Spanish wine occupying more space at your local wine shop? Are restaurants offering more Spanish wine choices, both low and high end? If you are seeing Spanish wine in your area, are they from a handful of regions, or is the UK exploring the vast and diverse Spanish wine landscape?
If your in the US, or elsewhere, what do you see? Is Spain becoming more accepted? Are you seeing one region denominating or is there considerable diversity? I ask because, I fear that while sales increase, we aren’t finding anything new, just more of the same. What do you want to find on your local shelves that you are not currently seeing?
We’d love to hear what all of your are experiencing while searching for Spanish wine. Start the conversation below…
Cheers,
Ryan Opaz
Popularity: 7% [?]
I think that Roger Scruton is a pretty well know wine writer/philosopher in the UK, and he has been known to promote Spanish wines…
I think they are growing in popularity in the states too but, around here you see a lot of Jumilla wines, and a lot of Atteca…
It is interesting that the UK has now become the #1 market for Spanish wines, replacing Germany which was #1 for some time. Has Germany's consumption of Spanish wines decreased significantly, or has the UK just increased their consumption significantly?
It should also be noted that Spain is still only the UK's 7th supplier. Chile rose to the #6 spot in the UK. The UK's general wine consumption may just be increasing, thus leading to increases on all their imports.
In my region of the U.S., you are starting to see more diverse Spanish wines, from differen D.O.s. Though there are mostly Rioja/Ribera del Duero wines available, there has been an upsurge in Jumilla wines. Plus, you can find a scattering of other regions, including Bierzo, Mentrida, Yecla, Alicante, Rias Baixas, and more. It is slow, but moving steadily forward. An average wine store might carry at least 6-8 different Spanish regions.
I think that Roger Scruton is a pretty well know wine writer/philosopher in the UK, and he has been known to promote Spanish wines…
I think they are growing in popularity in the states too but, around here you see a lot of Jumilla wines, and a lot of Atteca…
It is interesting that the UK has now become the #1 market for Spanish wines, replacing Germany which was #1 for some time. Has Germany’s consumption of Spanish wines decreased significantly, or has the UK just increased their consumption significantly?
It should also be noted that Spain is still only the UK’s 7th supplier. Chile rose to the #6 spot in the UK. The UK’s general wine consumption may just be increasing, thus leading to increases on all their imports.
In my region of the U.S., you are starting to see more diverse Spanish wines, from differen D.O.s. Though there are mostly Rioja/Ribera del Duero wines available, there has been an upsurge in Jumilla wines. Plus, you can find a scattering of other regions, including Bierzo, Mentrida, Yecla, Alicante, Rias Baixas, and more. It is slow, but moving steadily forward. An average wine store might carry at least 6-8 different Spanish regions.
Living in the U.S, I have noticed in both the west and east coast liquor stores (control states to be specific) a HUGE jump in Spanish wines, especially in the past year. I agree with Richarda that there has been a large surge in Jumilla, but I have noticed more of a jump in Toro and Monsant DO's in the control states. I have also seen a massive influx of Albarino, it seemed almost in a two week span that there were 8 new Albarinos in my local liquor store. I have noticed a lot more wines out of Galicia, especially from Rias Baixas and Ribeiro. While I love to see more and more Spanish wines available, I have noticed the "Aussie Effect" happening at the stores and people are being bombarded with too many sub-par wines and getting overwhelmed and end up heading to a different section. However, on the positive side of things, I think people are so much more knowledgable about what they are buying that most often than not people will know how to weed out the average bottle of wine for that fantastic one, which you can still find for under $15 in the Spanish section. I would like to see more exotic or relatively undiscovered varieties and wines enter the market. I think items like Txakoli and some of the native Galician grapes Godello, Loureira and Treixadura would open up a whole new world of what Spain has to offer.
Living in the U.S, I have noticed in both the west and east coast liquor stores (control states to be specific) a HUGE jump in Spanish wines, especially in the past year. I agree with Richarda that there has been a large surge in Jumilla, but I have noticed more of a jump in Toro and Monsant DO’s in the control states. I have also seen a massive influx of Albarino, it seemed almost in a two week span that there were 8 new Albarinos in my local liquor store. I have noticed a lot more wines out of Galicia, especially from Rias Baixas and Ribeiro. While I love to see more and more Spanish wines available, I have noticed the “Aussie Effect” happening at the stores and people are being bombarded with too many sub-par wines and getting overwhelmed and end up heading to a different section. However, on the positive side of things, I think people are so much more knowledgable about what they are buying that most often than not people will know how to weed out the average bottle of wine for that fantastic one, which you can still find for under $15 in the Spanish section. I would like to see more exotic or relatively undiscovered varieties and wines enter the market. I think items like Txakoli and some of the native Galician grapes Godello, Loureira and Treixadura would open up a whole new world of what Spain has to offer.