Bubbling over

Sparkling wine has always been linked with France, however, bubbly from other countries is just beginning to take off. By Ben McFarland.

UK sales of French wine may have been superseded by its Australian rivals, but when it comes to wine with bubbles, the general consensus is that nobody does it better than our Gallic friends across the Channel.

If there's something to celebrate, traditionally nothing but a bottle of French fizz will do and this Christmas will be no different with the vast majority of corks whizzing through the air in UK pubs and bars originating from a small region in North East France.

In the past, sparkling wines produced elsewhere have lived under the shadow of champagne and struggled to be taken seriously by UK wine drinkers looking to splash their cash. Latest figures show champagne growing at one per cent with other forms of fizz fighting for a small yet growing share of the sector.

However, there are signs in the take-home market that sparklers from outside this small alcove in France are beginning to shed their image as the poor relation to the real McCoy and moves are afoot to replicate this trend in the on-trade.

There is an increasing number of accessible, modestly priced and good quality alternative fizz options available now from both the new and more traditional worlds.

Cava, the Spanish sparkling wine produced predominantly around Barcelona, makes up 40 per cent of the non-champagne sparkling wine market. While cava is produced in the same manner as champagne, the grapes used, maceabeo, xarel-lo and parellada, are very much Spanish and the price is certainly more palatable, about half the price of its French neighbour.

Paul Waddingham, group category manager at Waverley, the wine arm of Scottish and Newcastle, said: "Cava is growing very fast in the off-trade. Consumers have bought into it and they are beginning to be on familiar terms with it as a brand - they recognise it when they see it on a wine list."

In Spain, the two cava brands that dominate are Freixenet and Codorniu and both are looking to develop their presence in the UK on-trade.

Codorniu, exclusively distributed in the on-trade by Matthew Clark, is featured in a generic campaign designed to raise the profile and sales of Spanish wines during the Christmas period.

Freixenet, with its distinctive black bottle, is the biggest brand in the sector and is one of the few bubblies to advertise on radio, television, cinema and press. It will have invested £3m by the end of 2002, making it one of the largest spenders in the entire wine category, let alone the sparkling sector.

As is the case in the still wine category, the producers from the New World are by no means oblivious to the charms of sparkling wine.

"Overall, sparkling wine is not a major category but there is clearly a growing interest from the consumer," said Richard Wilson, on-trade director for Australian winemaker BRL Hardy.

"The main driver may be cava but there are New World categories moving in slowly and we recognise that there's a real opportunity to be seized. There's a big gap in the market for good quality sparkling products and it's an opportunity to introduce something new to the wine category."

"It's certainly becoming more acceptable to drink sparkling wines on a wider range of occasions than in the past.

"They have traditionally been for special occasions but its starting to be drunk as an every day drink and a viable alternative to still wine as well as champagne."

BRL Hardy boasts a number of sparkling wines in its portfolio but the bubbly brand causing the biggest commotion is Banrock Station. In addition to a Banrock Station sparkling chardonnay, BRL Hardy has released a red bubbly in the shape of the Banrock Station sparkling shiraz. Since its launch last year, it has gained quite a following as a quirky alternative to other fizz and has benefited the distinct lack of competition in a niche area of a niche sector.

Earlier this year a baby version was launched in a 25cl bottle aimed at moving the category towards a stylish and younger target audience. Richard believes this is the key to growth in the on-trade with consumers drinking the wine from the bottle using a straw.

"We're looking to attract not only wine explorers but also people who drink flavoured alcoholic beverages and we are about to launch a new product very much geared towards the nightclub sector," he said.

"The 75cl bottle has been very successful but the smaller version is much more approachable and consumer friendly."

A number of sparkling wine producers are following in the footsteps of major champagne houses which, in recent years, have gone against convention and introduced a number of baby bottles boasting adult price tags.

Freixenet's growth has come on both the 75cl and 20cl sizes, with the latter accounting for an ever increasing share of the total and appealing to a different young adult audience, who see it competing with the likes of Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Breezer, rather than the more traditional competitors that the 75cl size faces.

Waverley is another company to adopt the small is beautiful approach with the launch of a new cava as part of its on-trade Intro 2 range, a selection of wines exclusive to the on-trade.

One of the biggest selling sparkling wines in the on-trade, Jacob's Creek, is also trying to get its foot in the fridge door and the Aussie sparkler is featuring heavily in a new poster and press campaign during the run-up to the festive season.

Sparkling Wine and the taxation issue​

As sparkling wine becomes more of an everyday tipple, Quentin Rappoport, director of the Wine and Spirits Association, argues the case for reducing the duty on the bubble.​

In the UK, we treat sparkling wine as a luxury for special occasions, but in many other countries, it is a normal aperitif. The reason is simple - UK tax discrimination.

At £1.16 a bottle, the UK has the second highest rate of excise duty in the EU. However, for sparkling wine, the rate is still higher at £1.65 a bottle. Why should there be a "tax on the bubble"?

Historically, it paid for the modernisation of the Victorian Navy and it has stayed because the government thinks of champagne as a luxury. Yet first growth clarets are a luxury, but they do not have a higher rate of duty.

In any case, under half of sparkling wine is champagne (think of cava) and market studies show that a greater proportion of sparkling wine than of still wine is drunk by the less well off, more often.

The result of this excessive tax is that there is an even higher incentive to buy sparkling wine from Calais, where the tax is 4p per bottle (20 per cent of the UK market is supplied by cross-border shopping). The market is dominated by big brands - the only ones which can overcome the tax barrier to entry.

A victim of this discrimination is English sparkling wine, which is of world-beating quality, but which finds it hard to compete against the cross-Channel shoppers.

There is no reason for taxing sparkling wine any differently from still wine. It is about time the surcharge was eliminated.

England's sparkling wine production​

There have been some significant strides made by English producers of bubbly in the last 15 years.

Few would imagine the English climate to be conducive to the production of sparkling wine, but this is one of many misconceptions surrounding the English wine industry.

The main regions for sparkling wine making in England are, as one would expect, in the areas with the least rainfall, namely the South coast, South East, and East Anglia.

The soil and geological condi