Vinexpo Paris and Wine Paris: Spirits to grow faster than wine during 5 years

Both the IWSR and Wine Intelligence reported in a joint conference at Vinexpo Paris that ‘Drinking less but better’ continues to be the key driver in spirits premiumisation and sets the outlook for vodka and national spirits towards 2023. This was the first such event to be held in the Vinexpo Academy’s programme of conference and events at the inaugural Paris show.

Thorsten Hartmann, Director of Consulting at IWSR said that superior volume growth in the ‘standard-and-above’ brackets is a feature of most spirits sub-categories, with the exception of India-produced whisky. Whereas the super-premium category (Premium-and-above) of spirits market is expected to grow at 4.7% CAGR during 2018–23, compared to the 0.4% for standard-and-below spirits for the same period.

Wine lags spirits in growth

It is a matter of concern for the wine industry that globally Spirits are expected to grow in volume at a higher rate of 0.6% during 2018-23, having an edge over wine growing at merely 0.2%. The spirits of course include local products like Baiju, concentrated in China.

Sparkling wine growth will be driven mainly by the US, Italy and Russia markets. Here, sparkling wines of the standard-and-above segments will drive overall growth, in contrast to the premiumisation growth driver in spirits. But this growth will not be enough to counter a slight overall decline for still wines.

Rose to continue shining

Rosé wine continues its success story with Wine Intelligence’s data of 2007–19 showing an increase  - in consumption across UK (50%), Canada (41%) and the US (36%)- India has been surprisingly bucking the trend even though quality of Indian Rose is improved significantly over the years. According to Richard Halstead, COO of Wine Intelligence, rosé’ continues to be driven by women and younger people. Moreover there is an increase in men drinking more of what was formerly regarded as an exclusively female drink. (In India, even wine has been considered more as a women’s drink). Men consider it macho to drink whisky and rum-followed by gin and vodka.

Richard Halstead also highlighted a number of trends indicating wine as the beverage of choice in the age croup of 30–64 years can no longer be taken for granted. These included the key trend that consumers appear to want to learn more about wine as a part of their lives, but their level of knowledge of wine has fallen, according to the survey.

Packaging important

Packaging is becoming more important now-how bottles appear and appeal to the consumer is more relevant to the consumer who is concerned with what the product says visually about it. Instagram is thus becoming very important for the visual impression of the bottle.

Wine a vast subject

It is interesting to note that the consumer today, especially the younger consumer, seems to be saying,” I want to learn more, but know less”. DelWine has always proclaimed that wine is a vast subject and initially a novice is likely to feel he knows a lot but when as progresses he realised he has only scratched the surface and there is so much more to be discovered and there is an endless world ahead that can be rewarding or confusing but certainly overawing for people of most ages.

Every year, the Vinexpo group publishes one of the most exhaustive market studies on global wine and spirits consumption: the Vinexpo/IWSR report; this is a mere summary An initiative spearheaded by the Bordeaux-Gironde Chamber of Commerce and Industry, VINEXPO came into being in 1981. Today it is the leading event organiser in the wine and spirits sector. In 39 years, Vinexpo has gained a unique understanding of the market and gathered a huge global network of influential distributors. The brand now organises events in five cities worldwide-Bordeaux, Hong Kong, New York, Shanghai and Paris; the current one is on February 10-12. It also organises a roadshow, Vinexpo Explorer.

Subhash Arora

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