New sparkling wine products launched into the Australian market are being credited as one of the main drivers of a strong growth in the category.
The latest results of ACNielsen’s Wine Index survey reveal that Australians are lapping up sparkling wine with sales growing at 7.3% per cent per annum, faster than any other wine segment.
It is also the fastest growth recorded in the category since its peak during the millennium celebrations at the end of 1999.
The strong growth for sparkling compares to just 2.8% growth across the total wine category with sparkling now accounting for 20% of total wine sales.
AC Nielsen associate director, liquor, Michael Walton, said the trend in the sparkling sector was in contrast to those across the sector with sparkling buyers paying more per bottle unit.
Walton said that while there had been healthy growth in volume across the wine market value growth was not corresponding indicating that consumers were buying more wine but paying less for the pleasure.
However, in contrast, the average price paid for a bottle of sparkling wine was up to $10.63, compared to $10.53 in the past 12 months to May 2005.
Walton said the survey showed that sparkling growth had primarily been driven by new products such as sparkling rose and fruit flavoured spumante—rising 48% and 159% respectively. Spumante scored the next highest rise (9%), followed by champagne (6%), and sparkling white (2%). Sparkling red got the thumbs down falling 9% in the volume stakes.
