Aldi publishes map of UK wine capitals

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 25 August, 2016

Glasgow is the UK capital for Prosecco while London is home of Champagne, according to discount supermarket Aldi.

The German discounter has revealed a new Wine Map of Great Britain which aims to paint a picture of which styles are being most widely drunk and where.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sauvignon Blanc was found to be Britain's favourite wine closely followed by Prosecco and Malbec.

Tonbridge emerged as the UK's home of Gavi, while East Anglian shoppers in Norwich topped the list for Shiraz.

Wine-lovers in Reading are most likely to drink a dry Chablis, while Edinburgh was the capital for Malbec.

The data comes from wine sales on Aldi's new website, which launched earlier this year.

The company looked at its first 16,000 online transactions, which revealed its 13 most popular wine styles and the regions from which these styles came from.

Glasgow came top for consumer-favourite Prosecco, which saw annual supermarket sales rise by 34% this year to £345 million.

The Midlands emerged as the region with the UK's most diverse taste palate.

Rioja was most popular with wine-drinkers in Leicester, rosé in Birmingham, rosé Champagne in Nottingham and Pinot Noir in Coventry.

Tony Baines, joint managing director of corporate buying, commented on the UK's growing taste for diversity.

"Despite the dominance of Sauvignon Blanc, we are more experimental than ever in our choices, with shoppers regularly trying new grapes and niche styles of wine," he said.

"Aldi's philosophy is to make quality wine accessible to all, whatever the budget. We can see the influence this has had on our customers who now demonstrate a great knowledge and understanding about wine in their wine choices and feedback. We expect consumers to keep trading up to more premium wines and for new, less well known variations of wine to become more prominent in the next five years as consumers become even more discerning."

The launch of the wine map follows the launch of limited edition wines into Aldi's range for its Wine Festival in August, consisting of wines from famous winemaking regions across 14 countries.