Nun turns over gold leaf

Blue Nun fans are being treated to a new luxurious sparkling variant, complete with real gold-leaf flakes.

Blue Nun Gold, which is packaged with a Champagne-style gold foil top, is a light wine containing fine flakes of 22-carat gold leaf.

The wine is naturally sparkling as a result of secondary fermentation, and at 11% abv is lower in alcohol than the standard Blue Nun wine. It will be available to the on-trade in 75cl and 20cl single- serve bottles.

"It's a quirky, fun, affordable treat that will add sparkle and glitz to any occasion," said Blue Nun press officer Karis Hunt.

Although the wine is positioned as a luxury variant of Blue Nun, it is designed to offer consumers value for money in comparison to other sparkling wine options. The suggested retail price for a 75cl bottle in the off-trade, for example, is £7.99. The larger bottle is expected to appeal to on-trade consumers as a sharing bottle for a "girls' night out" occasion, said Hunt.

The Blue Nun brand continues to attract a loyal following of female consumers aged 55+ who have remained faithful to the brand since its '70s heyday, but moves to reposition the brand in recent years have helped attract a new target audience of females aged between 21 and 30 years-old, according to the company.

The Gold variant is designed to appeal to Blue Nun's younger consumers, without alienating its more mature fans.

"This wine is targeted at women of all ages, regardless of demographic," confirmed Hunt.

On-trade distribution for Blue Nun Gold, which was created at the Langguth Estate winery, will be looked after by Halewood International.