UK Consumers are Buying More Wine on the Internet

A new report has shown the Ideal Wine Company that UK consumers are buying more wine online than ever before, as millennials increasingly come to appreciate our favourite tipple.

Future of wine buying

The World Wide Web has provided people with the tools they need to buy luxury products such as fine wine more easily than ever before. For example if you’re a fan of vintages from Burgundy, you can buy the Chambertin Potel 2005 online from the Ideal Wine Company for only £314.50. The internet is the future of wine buying. A study conducted by Wine Intelligence, a consultancy firm, showed that 79% of respondents prefer to buy fine wine on the internet than at the cellar door.

According to Natasha Rastegar, the Australia and New Zealand manager for Wine Intelligence, this is because buying wine online offers convenience and more opportunities to secure better discounts.

Wine Quarterly report  

Rabobank has recently released its Global Wine Quarterly Q4 report. This document indicates that whilst the growth rates of online wine sales vary across the world, they have one thing in common. They outpace growth in traditional retail markets around the planet by a country mile.  City A.M reported that this observation made by Rabobank in its Global Wine Quarterly Q4 report applies to the UK. The report suggested that total wine sales in this country expanded 3.5% in the first quarter of 2015. However online wine sales grew by a staggering 11% within the same span of time. 

Influence of millennials 

This begs the question, why are we buying more wine online? The Rabobank report attributed this rise to millennials; consumers aged between 18 and 29. Millennials are an “increasingly wine-drinking demographic,” and this is a vital reason why online wine sales recorded such rapid growth in the first three months of this year.  The influence of the millennial market isn’t just restricted to the UK. The US is thirsty for wine, with experts predicting that American wine consumption will increase 11% from 2014-2018.

David Trone, owner of US wine chain Total Wine and More, argued that this rise in American wine consumption will be driven by the country’s 77 million millennials. He suggested that 18-29 year olds are “less risk averse, more sophisticated on food and wine, (and) well-travelled.” 

Buy wine online 

If you want to see why millennials are set to raise American wine consumption, and why UK 18-29 year olds are driving online wine sales, check out the Ideal Wine Company’s product list. You can buy the Antinori Tignanello Toscana IGT 1990, a standout vintage, from us for only £331 per bottle!

The Benefits to Drinking a Glass of Red Wine a Day

The Ideal Wine Company team recently learned that new research has indicated that drinking a glass of red wine a day could be good for people with type 2 diabetes.

Health benefits

If you’re a regular reader of the Ideal Wine Company blog, you’ll know that various studies have shown that there are a number of health benefits to red wine. The anti-oxidants in your favourite tipple can be better for you than an hour in the gym, as well as help ward off age-related memory decline. New research has shown that red wine might also be good for people with type 2 diabetes as well.

The study

The Independent reported that it was research recently published in the ‘Annals of Internal Medicine’ journal that suggested this ground breaking finding. The study involved 224 participants with type 2 diabetes (which is linked to obesity), and who often abstain from alcohol. The subjects were randomly asked to drink 150 millilitres of water, white wine or red wine with their evening meal for two years.

Participants who had a glass of red wine with their evening meals had healthier blood fat profiles. In other words they had more “good” cholesterol than participants who drank mineral water or white wine. They boasted better cholesterol levels and healthier hearts, something researchers linked to the phenol antioxidants found in the dark grapes used to create red wine.

Found to be superior

Iris Shai, the professor from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev who served as the lead scientist on the study, commented on its results. Shai said: "Red wine was found to be superior in improving overall metabolic profiles.

"Initiating moderate wine intake, especially red wine, among well-controlled diabetics, as part of a healthy diet, is apparently safe, and modestly decreases cardio-metabolic risk. The differential genetic effects that were found may assist in identifying diabetic patients in whom moderate wine consumption may induce greater clinical benefit."

Try our red wine

This just goes to show that you can reap a number of health benefits when you drink a glass of red wine a day. Here at the Ideal Wine Company we feature a number of fabulous red vintages on our product list. You might want to buy the Antinori Tignanello Toscana IGT 1990, a delightful vintage from Italy that’ll provide you with a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

What Does a Cabernet Sauvignon Taste Like?

This week we want to take some time to talk about the grape that’s featured in many of the wines sold here at the Ideal Wine Company. What does a Cabernet Sauvignon taste like?

Popular grape

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the most widely produced grapes in the wine making world. You may be interested to learn, however, that it’s actually a crossbreed. It’s a natural crossing of the Cabernet France and Sauvignon Blanc grape, which took place way back in the 1600s.

Since then the Cabernet Sauvignon has gained a stellar reputation for its exceptional quality, and the grape is now grown in vineyards across the old and new world. According to Winefolly, the Cabernet Sauvignon is produced in France (the most prolific producer of the grape), Chile, the US, Australia, Italy, South Africa and Argentina.

Grape flavours

The grape has become so popular because it has the ability to provide first-rate wines that are full of flavour. The fruit characteristics of the Cabernet Sauvignon are blackberry, blackcurrant and black cherry. Other characteristics of the grape include violets, vanilla, liquorice, tobacco and black pepper.

This provides a final product that suits the palette of even the most discerning of wine critics. A Cabernet Sauvignon grape often produces a full-bodied red wine with dark fruity flavours and hints of black pepper. Some of these wines also tend to boast a high tannin count, making them wonderful vintages to pair with sumptuous foods that are high in fat.

Old vs. new

The truth is that the taste of a Cabernet Sauvignon largely depends on where it was made.  There are major differences between old and new world wines, and this certainly applies to Cabernet Sauvignon. A vintage produced in California, for example, will be a tad fruiter than one produced in Bordeaux.

This is because whilst 100% Cabernet Sauvignon vintages are often produced in new world wine regions, old world areas tend to blend Cabernet Sauvignon with other grapes. Vintages produced in Bordeaux, for example, often boast more herbal flavours such as violets and graphite.

Different experiences

In other words there’s no way to know what a Cabernet Sauvignon wine will taste like; you’ll encounter a different experience with every new bottle. If you buy one of the Bordeauxs sold by the Ideal Wine Company, it’ll taste different to one or our Californian wines. 

English Wine Production to Double In Less Than a Decade

New figures have indicated to the Ideal Wine Company that English wine production, once thought of as nothing more than a novelty, is expected to double in less than a decade.

Growing industry

When you think of great wine regions you think of Burgundy, Tuscany and Bordeaux. You can buy some great Bordeauxs here at the Ideal Wine Company. What you don’t think of is Kent, Sussex or Cornwall; the English have never been counted among the world’s best winemakers. Yet this once obvious truth is rapidly changing. Here on the Ideal Wine Company blog we’ve noted that the UK’s wine industry is growing all the time, and that our nation is even developing a robust wine tourism trade.

Wine production to double

The latest data indicates that there are now 470 vineyards and 135 wineries in England, which collectively produce 3.15 million bottles of our favourite tipple every year. A Group of MPs recently toured one of the UK’s most prominent wine producers; Rathfinny Wine Estate in Sussex, and as they did they heard some rather interesting news.

The latest statistics indicate that English vineyards have recorded an impressive growth rate of 11% over the past decade. The Drinks Business reported that this means that if English Vineyards keep charting their current trajectory, land under the vine in England and Wales, which stood at 1,884 hectares in 2013, will double in the next seven years.

Success story

Tim Loughton MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Wine and Spirits, was one of the politicians touring Rathfinny when the news broke. He commented on the growth volumes English wine production is expected to record, saying that it opened MPs’ eyes “to see at first-hand what an important British success story our domestic wine industry is becoming.”

The chief executive of the UK’s Wine and Spirit Trade Association, Miles Beale, explained why English wine production is set to become such a success story. He said: “It is fantastic to have MPs taking a real interest in the industry and seeing the benefits it delivers to local communities and the wider economy. The English Wine industry has the quality and technical capability to compete globally and – with capacity increasing rapidly – it represents great export potential for our economy.”

Producing stellar vintages

These figures have made it clear that English wine production is no longer the joke it’s been regarded as for centuries. Changing weather patterns are transforming various regions throughout the South of England into major players on the global wine stage, which are increasingly turning out stellar vintages.