Wine Intelligence produces valuable research for the global wine industry. Below are some of their latest findings based on interviews with over 1000 wine drinkers from London, San Francisco, Berlin and Beijing. The research was reported by Wine magazine.
“Apparently wine drinkers in all four countries were unhappy and concerned about the high volume of alcohol, and actively seek wines with lower alcohol levels. A quarter of regular wine drinkers in the UK, US and Germany would prefer their wine to contain less than 10.5% alcohol. Chinese consumers are inclined towards wines with 8.5 to 10.5% alcohol.”
“Consumers in all four countries regard country of origin as an important issue when describing an ideal wine, led by China where 88% of wine drinkers list it as a priority. 71% in UK, 82% in Germany and 74% in the USA.” In UK and China, France was the most popular country of origin.
“Participants (especially from Germany and China) were also interested in organic, sustainably produced and fair trade wines. 86% of Chinese drinkers see these factors as essential, 67% of Germans support these elements, while in the USA they are less important, with 42% of consumers being concerned, and in the UK only 34%.”
“In China four out of five consumers favour red wine, followed by Rose. Interestingly 57% of German drinkers were more partial to red wine, despite their country’s fame for white wines. USA consumers also favoured red, with the UK being the exception, with 56% of consumers choosing white wine.”
“It seems cork closure was found to be important for an ideal wine, in Germany, USA and China, while UK consumers were equally content with screw-caps.”