Back in 2010, Diageo won a UK court case against drinks firm Intercontinental Brands, and more specifically its Vodkat brand, which the court agreed was being “passed off” as genuine vodka, despite being a 22% abv mix of vodka and fermented alcohol (EU law stipulates that vodka must be at least 37.5% abv and made only from distilled alcohol).
The case generated a few headlines at the time but I’m guessing that most in the industry forgot about it soon afterwards. I recall it now for two reasons – firstly, because I acted as an expert witness in the case; and secondly, because of the UK launch, by Diageo, of three ‘mid-strength’ variants of its Gordon’s gin, Captain Morgan rum and Smirnoff vodka brands.
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The trio, the company says, aim to occupy “a distinct space between the parent spirits and no/low”, addressing the increasingly entrenched consumer moderation trend.
In 2010, welcoming the Vodkat decision, Diageo GB marketing director Philip Almond said: “Our concern was that consumers were being confused as to what Vodkat really was. Furthermore, because most vodka is drunk mixed, it’s very difficult for consumers to know whether they have or haven’t bought a vodka (in Vodkat).”
Returning to the present, Diageo says that all three mid-strength products will feature the colour teal on their bottles, in an effort to “help establish mid-strength as a distinct category”. They will be displayed alongside their parent brands, with messaging designed to help customers get used to the new sub-category.
Will there be confusion? Will there be cannibalisation? I suspect yes on both counts and it’s hard to ignore the ironic contrast between the company’s outrage 16 years ago and its desire to create a new sub-category today. How things change…
Leaving that debate to one side, if this new venture is successful, I’d suggest it will mean yet more challenges for the beleaguered wine industry, at a time when good news is desperately needed.
The magnitude of the challenges is illustrated by the launch by wine giant Vinarchy of Vintelligence, a new initiative that aims to attract 1m new wine consumers in the UK, unlocking what the company claims is £1.4bn ($1.85bn) in growth and boosting the UK wine market by 11% over the next three years.
Through Vintelligence, Vinarchy says it can reimagine the way wine is marketed: instead of grape varieties, regions and vintages, the focus is on occasion, taste and price, centred on four concepts: “my go-to wine”, “good with food”, “marking the occasion” and “fun together”.
The beverage alcohol marketplace now is less sub-divided and split into discrete segments
What does “fun together” mean? It’s designed to increase wine’s appeal in social situations where it has to compete with beer, cocktails and RTDs – to which we might now add mid-strength ‘spirits’. The point is that the beverage alcohol marketplace now is less sub-divided and split into discrete segments; and consumers, especially younger ones, are more content to hop between those segments, even on the same drinking occasion.
In this context, Diageo’s mid-strength venture constitutes another challenge to a category that has spent the past few years contemplating structural decline, from the slump in wine consumption in China to the immense challenges in the US and across much of Europe.
Vintelligence is one attempt at getting out of this mire; there will need to be plenty more. Consider recent trends in bulk wine shipments – not the sexiest part of the market, for sure, but a real signifier of where wine sits in terms of consumer priorities.
According to data released by the World Bulk Wine Exhibition (WBWE), which takes place in Amsterdam on 30 November and 1 December, global bulk wine exports were down 10.3% by volume and 11.8% by value in the year to the end of March.
The analysis fixes on two main factors driving the slump: declining trade between producer countries, and especially between Spain on one side, and France and Italy on the other. When harvests in France and Italy are insufficient to meet demand, Spain, the world’s biggest bulk wine exporter, steps in to fill the gap.
But demand has fallen, and Italy’s 2025 crop was ample by recent standards. France’s wasn’t, but neither country had much need to ship in tankers of wine from over the Pyrenees. Spain’s bulk wine exports plummeted by 23% in the first quarter of 2026.
The second factor concerns bulk shipments from Australia and New Zealand, chiefly to the US and the UK. Bulk wine imports to the US slumped by 22% in the first quarter, while the UK recorded a more moderate decline of 3.7%.
Why does this matter? Because bulk wine is the engine room of the global industry; not all bulk is low-priced hooch but nonetheless it is crucial to the volume end of the wine market – the bit that attracts people into wine in the first place because of affordability and that cements wine consumption as if not an everyday habit, then at least an every-week habit that is an established fixture in the shopping trolley.
Wine has talked about the importance of recruitment for as long as I can remember. But, at a time when the older wine-drinking population is exiting the scene – because of health concerns, or simply because they’re dying – they are not being replaced by younger consumers at anything like the same rate. The many other options out there – from RTDs to cocktails to no/low to mid-strength ‘spirits’ – are helping to see to that.
Part of the answer to this conundrum has to be accessibility – easing the consumer journey into wine from curiosity to habit. The wine industry hasn’t always been terribly good at this: the Napa Valley is, by some measures, one of California’s top three tourist attractions but, according a report from Silicon Valley Bank, the average tasting fee charged by wineries there in 2025 was $79. And that’s before you’ve bought a drop of wine.
It’s to be hoped that Vintelligence, and other similar initiatives, signal a change of approach and mentality from an industry that has been, in the past, all too often reactive, both in terms of the external challenges it faces, and in terms of its relationship to the consumer. There’s no doubt that it’s desperately needed.
