Christmas Essentials
Christmas Drinks
Soft Drinks
Home Baking
Soup
44 CATEGORY FOCUS Christmas Drinks
A toast to Christmas! Whether it be craft beers, ciders, wines or spirits, Irish consumers nowadays are spoilt for choice when it comes to innovative and flavoursome offerings. Ensure you don’t disappoint, by reading up on the latest news from the following in-demand brands, writes Gillian Hamill
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is the season to be jolly, when your customers will of course be keen to catch up with friends and family, and as such, a well-stocked drinks cabinet – or on-trend drinks cart – will be a seasonal essential. A recent report by Drinks Ireland|Spirits highlighted some of the key shopper trends which will impact upon your off-trade sales this Christmas. Domestically, the report showed, as one would expect, that the closure of hospitality venues had a negative impact on the sector, particularly for brands that rely heavily on the on-trade. Overall, sales fell by 4.8%, from 2.42 million 9-litre cases in 2019 to 2.3 9-litre million cases in 2020. Nevertheless, according to Drinks Ireland|Spirits’ report, some spirits categories benefited from the consumer shift to the offtrade in Ireland, with Irish cream liqueur sales growing by 26.5%. “Many of us will have seen the multitude of new ‘ready to drink’ (RTD) products hit the shelves over the course of 2020,” Drinks Ireland|Spirits continued. “These include spirits based RTDs and hard seltzers. As a category, hard seltzers did not exist in Ireland in 2019, but in 2020 nearly 90 thousand cases of various brands were sold.”
Bright, fruit-driven and full of flavour, Wolf Blass and Yellow Label wines have been selected from the finest South Australian regions
ShelfLife November 2021 | www.shelflife.ie
Meanwhile, although sales of vodka declined by 10.2% last year, it remained Ireland’s most popular spirits drink, with a 31.6% market share in the category Drinks Ireland|Spirits reported. This was followed by Irish whiskey (26.3% market share), gin/Irish gin (14.04%), and rum (7.4%). While sales of gin in Ireland fell by 6.6% between 2019 and 2020, it has seen remarkable growth in recent years, the report continued, with gin sales up by 184% between 2014 and 2019. Forecasts for the next five-year period suggest that the growth in gin and Irish gin has not ended and that the decline in 2020 will be seen as a Covid-19 related blip. Bryan Fallon, managing director of Heaven Hill Ireland, brand owner of Carolan’s Irish Cream Liqueur and Irish Mist Honey Liqueur, and chair of Drinks Ireland|Spirits, summed up the impressive performance of spirits, noting: “The resilience shown by the spirits sector last year in the face of the loss of one of the main consumer channels was remarkable, with producers responding with an increased emphasis on the off-trade and a focus on ecommerce.” Earlier this year, Drinks Ireland|Wine likewise reported some interesting insights on wine sales and consumer trends within the wine
sector. It’s estimated that one in four bottles of wine sold in Ireland is from Chile, according to the Drinks Ireland|Wine 2020 Market Report. The report also showed that wine comfortably remains the nation’s second favourite alcohol beverage after beer. In fact, 2020 saw a five-point increase in wine’s market share to 32.2%. The Covid-19 pandemic saw changing purchasing trends and overall alcohol sales fall by 6.6% in 2020. However, generally about 80% of wine purchased in Ireland is in the retail sector. Due to the rolling lockdowns of the hospitality sector, an estimated 95% of wine sales were from the retail sector in 2020. Overall, wine sales in 2020 rose by 12% to over 10 million cases. According to industry estimates, the popularity of rosé continues to grow. It had an estimated 7% share of the wine market last year, which is double its share in 2016. White wine is Ireland’s favourite, with a share of 48%, followed by red wine at 45%. While Chilean wine remains the nation’s favourite for the seventh year in a row, Spanish wine continues to grow in popularity with a 15.4% share of the total wine market in 2020, just ahead of Australia’s 13.8%. French and Italian wines are the fourth and fifth most popular wines respectively.
Quality, character and consistency
character and consistency. An outstanding range selected from the finest South Australian regions, Yellow Label wines are bright, fruitdriven and full of flavour, pairing perfectly with food to help make any meal an occasion. Wolf Blass Yellow Label gives consumers the opportunity to win the trip of a lifetime during November and December. Secret Escapes have teamed up with award-winning winemakers Wolf Blass, to offer consumers the chance to win a bucket-list trip to Kenya. From luxury digs to unforgettable experiences, don’t settle for anything less than extraordinary; take to the skies and head for the perfect safari escape. A host of prizes can be won, including four Secret Escapes vouchers to craft your perfect escape. For more information, visit www.wolfblass.com.
Wolf Blass was established in the Barossa Valley in 1966 and has grown from a humble tin shed to become one of the world’s most successful and awarded wine brands. A recipient of more than 10,000 medals and trophies at national and international wine shows, the essence of Wolf Blass wines is exemplified through the passion of its custodians past and present as the winemaker continuously strives to produce wines of quality, character, and consistency. The heartland of Wolf Blass winemaking, Yellow Label has delivered exceptional quality for over 50 years and epitomises the philosophy to always create wines of quality,
