• More wine, less spirit, as British drinking grows

Now is the time for drinking, said Horace, and by jove, we are following his advice.  Wine consumption is on the up by more than 266 million bottles every year, according to the latest research, and by 2010 should see a total of near 32 billion bottles being polished off world wide annually -  an average increase from 2001 of over 20 per cent.

The UK is doing its bit to push these figures up, but contrary to popular belief, we are by no means the heavy drinkers of Europe or indeed the world.  We lag way behind Denmark and Germany in amount per person, and Australia and Holland are still ahead of us, though only just.

But what is surprising (to us) is that even taking the top consumption figure for 2010, this still works out at only 38 bottles per head, or five glasses per week!  Given that a good percentage do not drink at all, it means that some are having to imbibe rather more than their fair share to keep the wine trade growing.

These figures are released by VINEXPO, the major wine and spirits exhibition that takes place each year in France.  They forecast that the UK will be Europe’s biggest wine market by 2010, that red wine accounts for half of all wine drunk here, with rosé on the up, and that it is sales of higher priced wine which are driving market growth. 

This is evidence of a more sophisticated approach to drinking, underlined by a corresponding drop in sales of beer.  The British Beer & Pub Association may point to the fact that 100 litres of beer are drunk per head compared with 20 litres of wine but that is hardly like for like. A steady decline in the supping of traditional pints from just over 186 in 1992 down to just over 168 per capita in 2005 has prompted the Association to launch a “Beautiful Beer” campaign which, a spokesman admitted, has so far failed to stop the rot. 

But it isn’t simply a case of drinkers rejecting beer in favour of  wine. Some spirits have suffered too, notably a decline in Scotch whisky sales – though it is still the UK’s favourite spirit – while gin, once a British staple, is on the rocks, the only spirit where world wide sales are dropping. 

Instead, we are drinking more and more vodka, expected to overtake Scotch within 3 years. And rum and tequila are on the up, clearly benefiting from the vogue for cocktails.

DOING their best to ensure that the taste for fine whisky continues, Duncan Taylor have introduced an addition to their extensive collection of rare whiskies.This is a range of single malts, non chilled and non coloured for greater flavour, aged from 10 years, available from the beginning of February, from £30.