For some time now, there has been exponential growth in sales of new aromatised wine-based beverages. Indeed, it was hard to miss the “grapefruit rosés” lining the shop windows this summer. As a matter of fact, the phenomenon is spreading widely and consumption of these beverages now extends beyond the summer months. In this respect, the Head of the Economy and Law Unit, Ms Svinartchuk, was interviewed on 7 February for the On en parle programme on the Swiss radio station “La 1ère – RTS”. Listen to the interview
“Wine-based beverages” are beverages obtained from wine, which could have undergone aromatisation, sweetening and colouring. These beverages have a fairly low alcoholic strength by volume, between 3.5% and 14.5%. The addition of alcohol is not permitted and the minimum wine content in the final product is only 50%. There is quite a wide variety of colouring, sweetening and aromatising substances. As such, this product category is very large. It should be noted that the use of the word “wine” is not permitted in the sales denomination. “Peach white” or “grapefruit rosé” are therefore used as opposed to “rosé wine aromatised with grapefruit” or “peach-flavoured white wine”.
The range of products included in the “wine-based beverages” category is huge, both in terms of taste and quality. The definitions for this category, both at a European level and an international level, only set minimum requirements with regard to the types of ingredients and processes used.
While lower-priced products (at 2-3 euros a bottle) make up the majority of the market, high-end products have also started to appear, comprised of 90% PDO wine aromatised with syrup. These sell at around 10 euros a bottle.
Scale of the phenomenon: The phenomenon is clearly spreading. While at the moment it is hard to know the exact statistics, several market analyses are available. We are talking about sales (in France alone) of 22 million litres in 2013, compared with nearly 13 million litres in 2012 and 4 million litres in 2011. To get a real sense of the significance of these new products, it is necessary to compare these figures with the total wine consumption, which was estimated at 30 million hectolitres in 2013. This means that aromatised wines accounted for almost 1% of the total wine consumption. In a very short space of time “grapefruit rosés” have certainly succeeded in carving a place for themselves among the classic wines.
