Brits turn to rosé and box wines to slake their lockdown thirsts

Rosé and cask wines have emerged as the most popular wine choices during Britain's ongoing Covid-19 lockdown, leading supermarket Sainsbury’s has revelaed. 

Sainsbury’s said in a report that 6.8 million customers had bought bag-in-box wine during lockdown, saying the cheap format was proving particularly popular with younger consumers. 

"A new generation of customers are discovering bag-in-box wines for the first time, finding them the perfect remedy to overspending, for money and consumption, because BiB helps them to control both,” said Sainsbury’s wine expert, Helena Nicklin.

“There is nothing not to love about these wines – the quality has come on leaps and bounds and many of them offer much more sustainable packaging; something wine drinkers are increasingly conscious of. 

"We expect to see many new BiB brands appear in the next year or so to meet rising customer demand.”

Year-on-year sales of boxed wine are currently up by 41% at Sainsbury’s," The Drinks Business reported.  

“Lockdown gave bag-in-box wine an opportunity to shine," said Sainsbury's wine buyer Hugh Browne. 

"Shoppers could get the same great taste in a larger container that kept their wine fresh for six weeks from opening, which meant fewer trips to the shops.

"This made the move to a bag-in-box wine an easy decision for many customers in recent months – and this is a trend we see continuing to grow post lockdown as we bring out our new premium Taste the Difference bag-in-box wines in January.”

At the higher end of the spectrum, premium wines - wines priced over £7 a bottle - also enjoyed a 24% year-on-year sales uplift during the lockdown with rosé emerging as the star style.

Premium rosé sales are up by an impressive 60% at Sainsbury’s. 

Another British wine retailer, Majestic, reported an 11% increase in the average bottle price of sales.