Britons shun cheap wine in favour of craft ale and luxury gin

A bottle of cheap plonk is no longer good enough for Brits, as supermarkets clear their shelves of cut-price wines in favour of upmarket alternatives.

Where shops once stocked rows of cheap wine from the likes of Echo Fall and Blossom Hill, they are now increasingly opting for pricier craft beer and luxury gin, which have both seen huge growth in the past year.

Data compiled by Nielsen for The Grocer Magazine, and reported by The Times, found California wine brand Blossom Hill saw sales in the UK fall by 17.5%, or £37.4m over the past year.

The Nielsen research also found that sales of Echo Falls, another budget wine from California, fell by 6.1%, or £11.7m.

Australian wine Lindeman's saw sales fall by 30%, cutting revenue by £22.7m and forcing it out of the 50 best-selling alcohol brands in the UK.

Hardy's which can be bought for as little as £2.50 per bottle from supermarkets like Tesco, saw sales fall by 4.5%, or £13.7m. The Australian brand admitted that business had slowed not just because of UK shoppers opting for more expensive wine, but a shift away from the drink altogether in favour of retailers' increasing range of craft beer.

Helen Stares, a client business partner at Nielsen, said: "People are indeed drinking less, but they're drinking more premium products."

Examples of more upmarket wines cashing in include Trivento, which describes itself as the UK's official barbecue wine; the Argentine malbec saw sales increase by almost 32%. Other premium wine brands seeing a boost in British sales include Campo Viejo, up 15.5% and Brancott Estate, up 8.8%.

Caroline Thompson-Hill, marketing director of Treasury Wine Estate, said: "For a number of years we saw an increase in wine brands on the shelf, with similar price points and similar propositions, all fighting for the same shoppers. As a result, retailers have undergone range rationalisation. But it's led to opportunities for more premium wines with different propositions."