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Summer Wines
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40 CATEGORY FOCUS Summer Wines
On cloud wine! After a highly anticipated wait, sunny days have finally arrived on Irish shores. And with the sun comes a panoply of opportunities to enjoy a fine wine or two, so ensure you don’t leave customers disappointed by stocking a strong selection including prominent showings of the bestsellers displayed on these pages, writes Gillian Hamill
W
ine is Ireland’s second favourite alcohol beverage with 32% market share, so it’s essential to have a refreshing selection on your shelves now that the summer days are well and truly here at long last, and thoughts turn to relaxing outside with a flavoursome tipple. The Drinks Ireland|Wine 2020 Market Report, published in August 2021, shows that wine comfortably remains the nation’s second favourite alcohol beverage after beer. In fact, 2020 saw a five-point increase in wine’s market share to 32.2%, mostly at the expense of beer’s market share which fell from 44.9% in 2019 to 38.9% in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic saw changing purchasing trends and overall alcohol sales fall by 6.6% in 2020, Drinks Ireland|Wine found. Beer and cider sales were significantly hit as those products are typically consumed
in the hospitality sector. However, generally about 80% of wine purchased in Ireland is in the retail sector. Due to the rolling lockdowns of the hospitality sector, an estimated 95% of wine sales were from the retail sector in 2020. Overall, wine sales in 2020 rose by 12% to over 10 million cases. According to industry estimates, the popularity of rosé continues to grow. It had an estimated 7% share of the wine market, which is double its share in 2016. White wine is Ireland’s favourite, with a share of 48%, followed by red wine at 45%. Meanwhile, Chilean wine remains the nation’s favourite for the seventh year in a row, In fact, it’s estimated that one in four bottles of wine sold in Ireland is from Chile, according to the report. Spanish wine continues to grow in popularity with a 15.4% share of the total
wine market in 2020, just ahead of Australia’s 13.8%. French and Italian wines are the fourth and fifth most popular wines respectively. Richard Halstead at www.wineintelligence.com, has also previously examined the topic of Ireland’s post-Covid wine renaissance. According to Halstead: “Ireland’s wine drinkers used the enforced stay-at-home rules to indulge in their wine habits – both drinking more and drinking better.” He adds that the trade is reporting increased interest in higher value wines, and also in more diverse styles and origins. “Trade respondents mentioned that their Pet-Nat, organic and natural wines have been moving well in recent months,” Halstead wrote, “as has their more special interest products from more niche origins such as Portugal, Germany, Austria and Greece, as well as more mainstream offerings from Chile and Spain.”
Delightful low alcohol options
Santa Rita is introducing three new low alcohol wines which will be sold under the 120 Reserva Especial brand tier as ‘De-Light’
simultaneously a cool vapour created from the wine itself rises from below and carries off all the lightest molecules in the liquid. The process is repeated until the desired level of alcohol is reached. This is a very gentle and sympathetic technique which works well in reducing alcoholic content yet retains the delicate aromas and flavours of the wines. The final wines are a blend of full alcohol and dealcoholised wines.
Following on from the launch of the 0% dealcoholised wines earlier this year, Santa Rita is set to introduce three new low alcohol wines. The wines will be sold under the 120 Reserva Especial brand tier as De-Light and include a De-Light Pinot Grigio at 9% alcohol and 80 calories per serving, a De-Light Moscato at 8% alcohol and a De-Light Cabernet Sauvignon at 9% alcohol and 80 calories per serving. The RRP of each is €12.50. Each wine is made according to traditional winemaking practices, with the Pinot Grigio and Moscato picked early to achieve lower alcohol and the spinning cone method used to reduce the amount of alcohol in the Cabernet Sauvignon. The spinning cones gently and repeatedly spin the wine out into thin liquid films,
ShelfLife July 2022 | www.shelflife.ie
Dealcoholised choices Santa Rita’s Dealcoholised wines are made using the spinning cone column distillation process after alcoholic fermentation is completed
Two Santa Rita Dealcoholised wines – a Sauvignon Blanc and a Cabernet Sauvignon, were launched into the Irish market in March 2022. The wines are made using traditional methods with dealcoholisation taking place after alcoholic fermentation is completed. The method used to dealcoholise the wine is the spinning cone column distillation process, with the resulting wine containing 0.4% alcohol and
