A lot of the news about wine in the UK this year was about what we’re not drinking. Sales are on the slide, inching downwards by around 2% in the past year, and with the largest specialist wine retailer, Majestic, reporting a big drop in pre-tax profits in November.
Not even the big success story of the past decade could ride to the rescue: imports of prosecco fell by 7% this year – cue headlines about the end of prosecco-mania – while champagne endured an even worse slump.
What’s behind it? Well, teetotalism and moderation are on the rise, both full-time, and thanks to initiatives such as Dry January and Go Sober For October, temporary. This trend has contributed to the success of one of the wine types that we are definitely drinking more of: low- and no-alcohol wines were everywhere this year, although for me, sadly, they were no more palatable than they ever have been.
The main cause of wine’s struggles is Brexit. The fall in the pound has continued to push up prices of wines from all over the world – compounded by yet another above-inflation duty rise in the October budget. You’d struggle to find anyone in the trade who believes this situation will improve. Many of them started stockpiling wine in the summer, in preparation for no deal or another currency shock.
Which means that 2018 was the year when £10 replaced £8 as the point at which you can reasonably expect, rather than hope, to find interesting wine. That’s not to say there aren’t still decent bottles in the £5 to £10 range, but – and I say this from bitter (sometimes literally) experience of tasting the supermarket wine ranges – you have to cuddle up to a lot more frogs to find those increasingly elusive princes.
One such £5.99 princeling was an addition to the Aldi range over the summer (it’s since sold out), a wine that was also noteworthy for signalling a move to the mainstream for a pair of trends: Aldi Orange Natural Wine, from Romania, was a creditable budget example of natural and orange wine, both of which categories continue to produce intriguing wines.
I’ve also tasted excellent wines from Canada and China, Crete and Croatia, and been delighted anew by sparkling wine from Kent, Trentino and Limoux. In a normal year, any of these would be making the wine news along with dozens of other examples. For now, British wine drinkers may find consolation in the idea that, even as our tipple gets more expensive, the good stuff itself has never been more diverse.
Six on-trend wines
Raúl Pérez El Castro de Valtuille Mencía Jovén, Bierzo, Spain 2017 (from £12.99, nywines.co.uk; bottlapostle.com)
One of a generation of winemakers that has transformed the fringes of Spanish wine in the past decade, Raúl Pérez is a master of the mencía variety, here made in a very on-trend, brisk-and-beautiful, crunchy-fruited, wine-bar-friendly young red.
Zuccardi Serie A Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 2017 (from £11.50, hedleywright.co.uk; hailshamcellars.com; cambridgewine.com; cheerswinemerchants.co.uk)
Malbec continued to rule the red-wine roost in 2018, but with a much broader stylistic and qualitative range than before, with star winemaker Sebastián Zuccardi among those making wines combining depth, perfume and fluency.
Louis Bouillot Perle d’Aurore Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Rosé, Burgundy, France NV (£16.95, corneyandbarrow.com)
Sales of crémant, those sparkling wines made in the same way as champagne but in other regions of France, have been massively up this year. The tinkling fine bubbles, clarity and purity of red fruit in this Burgundian example show why
Castrum Douro Red Portugal 2016 (£10, The Co-op)
The retailer (The Co-op), the region (Portugal), and the producer (Quinta do Crasto) have all been on fine form in recent years, with this sumptuous, supple red all deep, dark fruits-of-the-forest juiciness and smoothly finished plumpness.
Domaine Les Yeuses Vermentino
IGP Pays d’Oc, France 2017 (from £7.95, leaandsandeman.co.uk; cambridgewine.com)
Vermentino is the Mediterranean white variety du jour thanks to its ability to retain breezy freshness and tang in the heat. This southern French example is superb value with its racy burst of fish-friendly citrus, stone fruit and herb.
Exhibition New Zealand Chardonnay Auckland, New Zealand 2016 (£14.95, thewinesociety.com)
The long, anti-chardonnay backlash is surely over now. Its rightful place as one of the great white grapes has been proved by any number of fine examples from across the globe, among them this gorgeous, rich-but-luminous example from top Kiwi Kumeu River.
