This lengthy article was written by Robert Joseph and published in October 2006. It has not been edited.
For a wine producer of any size or kind, based anywhere in the world, the United Kingdom is, at some stage, inevitably at or near the top of a list of target markets. There are so many reasons to want to sell there. First, there is the appeal of competing in the most open and most wide-ranging market on earth. Volumes have been steadily growing at an unparalleled rate over the last 20 years, and the British now drink huge amounts of wine every day: 27 litres per head each year. The market now represents a staggering £9.75bn (€l4.50bn , $18.40bn) -up by 20% since 1997. Then there is the prestige of being in the realm of the greatest wine authorities on earth: men and women like Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent, Steven Spurrier, Serena Sutcliffe and Jancis Robinson. Britain is also home to the Institute of Masters of Wine and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, still the most internationally respected educational bodies, of respected magazines like Decanter and World of Fine Wine, and of the auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s through whose hands most great cellars still pass.
Armed with these thoughts and a case of samples, wine producers climb out of airplanes every day and eagerly set off in search of British customers; and that is when, little by little, reality begins to bite. For all its image, reputation and history, the UK is, they all eventually acknowledge, a very difficult place to sell wine, and it’s difficult for all the wrong reasons. Stated simply, this is a fundamentally dysfunctional market, and growing more so with every day.
