Shoppers in supermarkets globally are buying more Rioja, including Reserva, Gran Reserva and Crianza variants, growing the wine's value sales by 5.33 per cent, and volume sales by 1.13 per cent, TheDrinksBusiness.com reports.
The disparity been the jump in sales value and the jump in volume sold reflects the growing willingness of the consumer to purchase more expensive Riojas.
During 2015 in the UK – its most important export market – it did "superbly," with volumes up by two per cent.
Barrel-aged wines, Reserva, Gran Reserva and Crianza improved their sales volumes by 4.2 million litres. While Crianza is the top seller of the three, Rioja Reserva had the largest improvement in growth margin (3.53 per cent). 61 per cent of the Reserva consumed was exported.
Ireland, China and Canada performed excellently with growth up by 40 per cent, 34.5 per cent and 23 per cent respectively. The Consejo Regulador of the Rioja region, which crunched the numbers, has said that on the back of 2015 it will advertise Rioja wines more aggressively in Ireland and Canada during the next marketing campaign.
The Consejo Regulador’s director general, José Luis Lapuente, said, "Achieving this milestone in the current circumstances is due to the great strength of the Rioja brand and to the Rioja wine industry’s ability to adapt to market demands with a dynamic and innovative model which offers both confidence and security to consumers."
Distinguishing Rioja wines from the broader category of Spanish wine, he added, “Rioja has managed to increase sales in both volume and value, which is quite different from the Spanish wine industry as a whole, according to Spanish Wine Market Observatory reports.”
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
