Industry grumbles at this year's LIWF

Wine Intelligence is urging the trade to rethink its definition of the term 'fine wine'.

Launching findings from its 'Fine Wine: Who Drinks Expensive Wine?' report at the London International Wine Fair this week, the research company saw some delegates object to its definitions.

Richard Halstead, chief operating officer of the UK-based research company, said that the industry needs to acknowledge that some consumers describe fine wine as anything over GBP10 or US$25 per bottle.

However, Tim Hall, director of Scala School of Wine, accused Wine Intelligence of “lowering” the bar. “Wine connoisseurs would not describe anything below GBP30 as fine wine,” he said.

“It’s a pointless discussion about semantics,” Halstead told just-drinks yesterday (20 May). “Even supermarkets have classed a fine wine as anything above GBP10.

“In the real world a GBP10 bottle is a big deal to many consumers,” he said.

Around 3,900 consumers were sampled via Wine Intelligence’s online Vinitrac survey in the UK, the US and Switzerland. Amongst the findings were figures showing that 12% would spend GBP10 or $25 or more on fine wine “on a regular basis”, whilst 88% spent GBP10 or more “occasionally”.