Sparkling dominates online wine searches

By Mathew Lyons

Published: 30 March, 2020

Nearly half of all wine-related online searches in the UK are for sparkling wine, according to new research from Italian wine specialists Independent Wine.

In all, 49.3% of wine searches over the past year have been for sparkling wine, with Prosecco the most popular single search term, accounting for an average of 84,300 searches each month.

The next most popular search term is Champagne, with 52,500 searches, while the two most-searched wine brands are Dom Pérignon (30,500) and Veuve Clicquot (28,400) giving Champagne-related searches an average monthly total of 111,400.

Highlighting that the search behaviour only shows which wines people are interested in, and not necessarily what they will end up spending their money on, Independent Wine said: "A person searching for Veuve Clicquot Champagne may consider prices and instead buy a Franciacorta.

"That said, it’s very helpful to see what customers are genuinely looking for – and what words they are using. For example that 6,900 customers are looking for Amarone, 2,600 for Valpolicella, and 1,600 for Amarone della Valpolicella, which is essentially the same wine."

Red wine came out as the second most-searched for wine category after sparkling, with 177,000 – or 35.4% – of all searches.

Within the red category, France is the overwhelming producer of interest to UK online consumers: 43,400 searches related to Bordeaux, while 16,800 concerned Châteauneuf-du-Pape alone.

Among varietals, Pinot Noir leads the pack with 9,800 monthly searches, followed by Malbec and Shiraz with 9,200 and 8,600 respectively.

White wines accounted for 73,800 searches, 14.7% of the total. Pinot Grigio is the most-searched white varietal, with 13,600 searchers, followed by Sauvignon Blanc on 11,500.

Just 0.6% of all searches related to rosé wine.

The figures were calculated searching keywords in main search engines, averaged across the last 12 months, with Independent Wine recording counts with over 1,000 searches.

The full research is available online here.

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