What you need to know
Irish consumers are most likely to drink wine at home while relaxing or with a meal. There is a preference for red and white wines and these products are most likely bought in a standard 750ml bottle. However, smaller packaging formats and non-alcoholic wines are growing in popularity as consumers look to reduce the amount of alcohol they drink to improve their health and wellbeing.
There is also interest in being able to order wine via delivery services and partnering with such platforms would enable brands to extend their reach within the Irish market to create a convenient new sales channel that will help to boost the overall value of the market.
Issues covered in this Report
This Report will examine the sale and consumption of wine throughout the island of Ireland in both the on-trade and off-trade. On-trade refers to any licensed premise that permits the sale and consumption of alcohol within these premises. Off-trade refers to any licensed retailer, including supermarkets, that sells alcohol for off-site consumption.
For the purpose of this Report wine refers to all wines, excluding the carbonated variants, produced from fresh grapes with an ABV of less than 15%:
Still Wine – restricted to still wines produced from the naturally fermented juice of fresh grapes, not exceeding 15% ABV. These are frequently referred to as ‘light’ or ‘table’ wines, although the latter term may also be applied to a certain quality of European wine.
Red, white and rosé wines are the three main types of still wines covered, with lower-alcohol wines (from 5.5% ABV), boxed wines and dessert wines also included here.
Champagne – including rosé and vintage Champagne, is produced under strict regulation within the tightly defined Champagne appellation of France. Within the EU, the term méthode champenoise is similarly restricted solely to the Champagne area.
Sparkling wines – including, white, rosé and red, are known by a variety of terms, dependent upon the region of production. For example:
Crémant – the generic name for sparkling wine made in France outside the region of Champagne.
Spumante – the Italian term for a sparkling wine.
Cava – a type of white or pink sparkling wine, produced mainly in the Penedès region in Catalonia, Spain.
English sparkling wine – any sparkling wine made in England.
Asti – a sparkling wine produced in the Asti region in Piedmont, Italy.
Moscato – a lightly sparkling wine also produced in Piedmont.
Prosecco – the name is protected under European law and can only be used for wine made from the Prosecco grape in the Conegliano/Valdobbiadene region of Italy.
New World – refers to wines from countries outside Europe, chiefly Australia, New Zealand and the US, but also South Africa, Argentina and Chile, for example.
Fortified wine – refers to wine with an added distilled beverage, which is usually brandy. These wines differ from spirits made from wine as fortified wines have a spirit added to them. There are a wide range of styles, with the best known being port, sherry, Madeira and vermouth. Also included are British fortified wines, Montilla and ginger wine.
This Report does not measure or examine other alcohol segments, except in relation to the competition they provide to wine. In compiling this Report, Mintel has gathered data from separate NI and RoI sources (eg CSO and NISRA). In some cases, therefore, it has not been possible to provide comparable data for each region.
