NZ wine sales sparkle in UK as French bubbly loses fizz

New Zealand sparkling wines have benefited from French champagne corks not popping so frequently over the Christmas holiday period in Britain.

Majestic Wine, Britain's biggest wine warehouse chain, yesterday reported that the recession had impacted on champagne sales as drinkers turned to less expensive sparkling wines.

The strength of the euro against sterling had also made New World wines, including New Zealand's, even better value.

Majestic chief executive Steve Lewis said the most popular sparkling wines included Lindauer and Cloudy Bay Pelorus from New Zealand and Green Point from Australia.

The company's New Zealand wine sales over the 10 weeks to January 5 had risen by 29 percent, helped by strong demand for sauvignon blanc in the 5 pounds-7 ($NZ$13-18) range, The Times of London reported.

New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan told NZPA that New Zealand  wines were continuing to trade strongly in the United Kingdom despite the recession, "which is pretty pleasing news".

Most New Zealand wine in Britain sold for between 5 pounds and 6 pounds a bottle.

"That is part of the market that is very much the focused on quality wine and where we can be profitable, given our costs of production and the long distance to the market."

Mr Gregan had no figures for recent exports of New Zealand sparkling wine exports to Britain but said the fall in French champagne was "what you'd expect in  recessionary times".

"People who want to drink sparkling wine often trade down to a slightly cheaper product and New Zealand would have been the beneficiary of that practice, along with other New World producers," he said.

Currency movements had also played into New Zealand's favour.

Mr Gregan said that New Zealand wine exports to Australia had also been doing well and the industry hoped exports to the United States would improve in 2009, after the fall of the kiwi dollar against the greenback, but that would depend how hard the recession bites in the US.

Majestic Wines said its business customers, in particular, had cut back on the French bubbly in their pre-Christmas parties.

"Businesses need to be seen to be controlling their costs and champagne is seen  as a conspicuous item. Private clients are still buying champagne for themselves but for events or parties they're opting for other sparkling wine," Mr Lewis said.

NZPA