Wine Report 2007: Flying off the supermarket shelves
The league table for the multiple grocers looks, at first glance, remarkably similar to that for the market as a whole, but there are some subtle differences.
Again, Hardys is out in front, but the gap between the Constellation flagship and Gallo is wider than for the market overall.
That's because Gallo - up an impressive 19 per cent in multiple grocers - outperforms Hardys in the impulse and multiple specialist categories.
The same can be said of Blossom Hill, number three in the supermarket league table. The wine that the critics love to hate has had an uncharacteristically tough year outside the impulse category, though in supermarkets it is still comfortably ahead of Jacob's Creek.
Within the top 10, Wolf Blass and Lindemans are the stand out performers, but volumes have raced ahead of value and average prices have taken a hit. Rosemount's revival is evidently under way, though Foster's will be hoping for even more momentum next year. Perhaps the most important detail is that the decline has been arrested.
There is no room for Penfolds, reflecting the brand's repositioning as a wine for the specialist sector.
JP Chenet makes the top 10, providing France with a welcome representative in an elite that might have been swamped by the New World.
Black Tower is one of only two other European wines in the top 25, resolutely turning in a 37 per cent sales increase in defiance of all the obituaries that have been written over the years for German wine brands.
The other is La Gioiosa, the highest new entry in the supermarket league table. Its entry is perhaps proof that the UK's love affair with Pinot Grigio is far from over. It is perfectly conceivable that the D&D brand will be staking its claim to a top 10 position in the multiple grocers chart this time next year.
Calloway Crossing, which is a McGuigan Simeon exclusive for Tesco, had a successful year and achieved an increase in its average sale price in the process. Consumers are now paying around 40p more per 75cl bottle, and sales growth is well ahead of the volume increase that accompanies it.
Viña Maipo, Concha & Toro's entry-level Chilean wine, has burst on to the scene and looks set to do even better than its current 22nd position in next year's chart.
Unofficial data obtained by OLN shows that Australian wine still comfortably outsells French in British supermarkets, but both nations have seen healthy uplifts. Australia is up almost 10 per cent and France almost 9 per cent, with third place California achieving 7.5 per cent.
Italy, in fourth position, did slightly better - all of which makes South Africa's decline of more than 10 per cent so much harder to take. Kumala's decline will be blamed for much of that downturn - meanwhile, First Cape and Namaqua are motoring.
Private label remains incredibly important in the multiple grocery sector. In the Australian sector alone it's worth an estimated £95 million to the super-markets (up 10 per cent).
It is even more extreme for Chile, which relies on private labels for £72 million of its supermarket sales - more than the top four "genuine" Chilean brands rolled together.
South Africa's private label sales in supermarkets reach around £33 million.
* The Nielsen read of this sector includes some wines not recorded in last year's figures. This explains why some wines are shown as new entries despite a fall in their sales value.
| Top 50 wine brands in supermarkets | |||
| Year to May 19 2007 | |||
| Position | Brand | % sales change | |
| 1 (1) |  | Hardys | 0 |
| 2 (3) |  | Gallo | 19 |
| 3 (2) |  | Blossom Hill | -6 |
| 4 (4) | | Jacob's Creek | 0 |
| 5 (8) | | Wolf Blass | 31 |
| 6 (5) | | Kumala | -32 |
| 7 (6) | | Stowells | -10 |
| 8 (8) | | Banrock Station | -7 |
| 9 (9) | | Lindemans | 56 |
| 10 (10) | | JP Chenet | 15 |
| 11 (11) | | Echo Falls | 25 |
| 12 (17) | | Concha & Toro | 48 |
| 13 (21) | | First Cape | 72 |
| 14 (-) |  | La Gioiosa | 60 |
| 15 (16) | | Namaqua | 24 |
| 16 (18) | | Calloway Crossing | 33 |
| 17 (14) | | Rosemount | 3 |
| 18 (12) | | Isla Negra | -5 |
| 19 (26) | | Oyster Bay | 84 |
| 20 (15) | | Montana | 1 |
| 21 (22) | | Campo Viejo | 17 |
| 22 (-) | | Viña Maipo | 167 |
| 23 (34) | | Black Tower | 37 |
| 24 (19) | | Oxford Landing | -20 |
| 25 (13) | | Fetzer | -40 |
| 26 (20) | | Piat d'Or | -15 |
| 27 (38) | | Turner Road | 45 |
| 28 (45) | | McWilliam's | 22 |
| 29 (-) |  | Rawnsley Estate | 117 |
| 30 (43) | | Nobilo | 72 |
| 31 (-) | | Yaldara | 255 |
| 32 (23) | | Canti | -33 |
| 33 (24) | | Arniston Bay | -21 |
| 34 (25) | | French Connection | -18 |
| 35 (-) | | Blason de Bourgogne | 33 |
| 36 (37) | | Brown Brothers | 15 |
| 37 (31) | | La Châsse du Pape | -3 |
| 38 (29) | | Mateus | -6 |
| 39 (48) | | Rivercrest | 4 |
| 40 (-) | | La Villa | 278 |
| 41 (-) | | Evolution | -25 |
| 42 (-) | | Chileno | 50 |
| 43 (30) | | Torres | -9 |
| 44 (32) | | Calvet | -15 |
| 45 (-) | | Inycon | 150 |
| 46 (-) | | Canto de Flora | 90 |
| 47 (-) | | Renaissance | 176 |
| 48 (-) | | Marqués de Leon | -2 |
| 49 (33) | | 35º South | -20 |
| 50 (-) | | Villa Maria | 112 |
