Latest Wine Articles

Find excusive varieties of Ice wines in Canada

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:12:01 -0700

Ice wines are known throughout the world for their rich and extraordinary taste and people feel lucky if they are provided with an opportunity to have them. An Ice wine is rare desert wine that is produced in the extreme cold regions of the world. Canada is also a leading producer of wines especially the exclusive Ice wines. The climate in the region has favored the establishment of many wineries where some great varieties of Ice wine are produced. Niagara-on-the-Lake is one of the most renowned wine producing regions in Ontario, Canada where one can get to taste best ice wine.

In Canada, people have great fondness for an ice wine which is not regarded as an item to be consumed but rather as treasury. Winters in Canada are very harsh and therefore to ignite their senses, people love to have Ice wine and experience the rich taste. An Ice wine is such a delight for wine lovers that they look out for ways to come across different varieties of ice wines. Given this an Ice wine festival is source of pleasure for them.

A lot has been said about the rich taste of ice wines but to know how a Canadian Ice wine acquires it, it is important to understand the process of its production:

Ice wine is produced from the frozen grapes grown in the various regions of Canada where the climate conditions favor the growth of grape varieties. Grapes are left hanging in the vineyards until freezing leads to dehydration and a concentrated mixture of sugar, acids and extracts remains. Harvesting is then done manually only when the temperature reaches -10 to-13°Celcius. The grapes are then pressed to obtain the juice which after fermentation process turns into ice wine. It must be noted that no artificial freezing is allowed and the grapes are handpicked otherwise the resultant ice wine would lack its original taste. As winters in Canada are longer than in other wine regions of the world, Ice wines from Canada are found to be high on alcohol content.

Canadian Ice wine is available in a large variety that includes Vidal ice wine, Riesling icewine, Cabernet Franc and Oak Aged Vidal Ice Wine. Canada, being the leading producer of ice wine, one may come across a wide variety of ice wines made from different games. So for wine lovers, Canada offers the treat with its signature mouth watering Canadian Ice wine.

Wine making now made easy

Thu, 13 May 2010 05:15:35 -0700

The tradition of making wine at home is still continuing and people indulge in this art out of their passion to learn or for the love of wines. Wine making is also a favorite pursuit as people have great fondness for home-made wines. The art of wine making is very simple and just requires the inherent desire to make wine with rich taste which then can be devoured upon. In order to facilitate people in home wine making, many companies have come forwarded with their products which comprise of wine kits, several wine equipments and wine ingredients that make it easy for a person, whether he/she is a beginner or an expert, to carry out the process conveniently. All these items are necessary to make wines of superior quality. They have privileged people to make different varieties of wines at home. Wines are generally made from grapes but it can also be made from other fruits or any non-toxic plant or its part thus accounting for the large variety. Let us now understand the importance of the above mentioned things and how they help in wine making. Until and unless one gets familiar with these and how to use them, it is hard to follow the instructions or undertake home wine making which may then act as an impediment in producing good tasting and fine quality of wine. Wine making Kit: It is the foremost requirement for making wine at home and a basic wine kit consists of a number of useful items such as Fermenting Buckets, Lids, Airlocks, Carboys, Hydrometer, Wine bottles, Tubing, Spoons, Bottle Filler, Drilled Stoppers, Spigot and Sanitizer. As Wine Kits vary depending upon the types of wine to be produced, a winemaker must select a wine kit which suitably serves the purpose and will be appropriate for producing the desired wine. Wine Making Equipments: They are another necessary products required to make wine at home and include wine press, Corks and Corking, refractometer, bottle brush, Filter Kits, carboy, wine filter, Rubber Stoppers and caps, Barrels, Pitters, Destemmer and Testing Equipments. Wine Ingredients: Forming an essential part, Wine ingredients can be chosen on the preferences of the wine makers and comprise of Fruit Concentrates, Yeast, Fruit acids, Enzymes, Purifiers and preservatives, Wine Tannins, Fining Agents & Clarifiers. With the help of these Wine making Supplies, you can make your own wine at home. Those who have a passion for making wine must maintain regular wine making supplies so that they can pursue and refine the art of Wine making.

Wine Gifts for All Types of Special Occasions

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:09:11 -0700

Wine is a delicious treat for anyone and if these wine making kits are coupled with gifts it brings even more syrupiness to the occasion. If you are looking for a gift to give on any occasion, you can always go for wine kits to delight your friends. You can choose from a range of wine making supplies and equipment. Wine making equipment gift is sure to delight and surprise the recipient and will make gifts that will be cherished and remembered for years to come.

Presenting wine gift is a gesture of care and concern, gift-giving is used to express emotions like love, affection, happiness and forgiveness. Today, wine and gift have become very common and there are a variety of wine making kits available in the market. To make your gifts more meaningful it is good to present home wine making kit instead of a simple wine bottle to your loved ones. Wine making supply adds a personal touch to the gift item and leave lasting impression on the recipient.

Giving wine gifts have become a passion and these days whether it’s a birthday party, wedding, or corporate event commemorating wine and gift is a part of the celebration. Wine gifts are distributed as a token of thanks to the guest and are considered as a gesture of appreciation. To make the event more memorable it is advisable to go for wine making kits. The significance and importance of the event is increased with wine gifts as they will remind them of the celebrations and the beautiful experience. Wine equipment and wine making supplies are a perfect token of love and warmth for the guest.

Buy Wine Kits to Make Wine At Home

Wine making is a very easing and exciting process, all you need is little creativity and imagination. But, if you do not have an inventive bent then what you can do is learn how to make wine at home from the instructions available with the wine kit. Some of the wine gift online stores also provide special Wine Kit Refills that allow you to make varieties, such as Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet/Shiraz and White Zinfandel.

These wine gift online stores provide winemaking system packages that help you with the make your own wine process and allow you to make unique and exclusive wine for your guests. Wine making at home allows adding a distinctive elegance to the wine and thus making it more delicious and special.

Artful winemaker is a one-of-a-kind personal winemaking system that makes a great gift and offers a completely new and innovative winemaking experience. Browse through www.artfulwinemaker.com for more info.

Merlot comes of age - Jan 2010

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:57:06 -0800

Red wine online has gone from strength to strength and during the winter months drinkers move into red wine from white wine and rose wine. Merlot this autumn has raced into the number one grape on our website. The reasons for this are very varied but also fascinating as it represents consumer's change of habits.

Merlot is undeniably soft, mild, easy to drink, but bursting with all the values a good red wine grape delivers. It is this that catapulted the grape to King of grapes in the US when in 1991 TV shows were extolling the benefits of red wine to the American consumer. It has become the Budweiser of the red wine industry in the USA.

Merlot was always the ugly sister of Bordeaux next to Cabernet Sauvignon until in the 1980's the US wine critics thought of this easy drinking red wine with a Bordeaux reputation. During the 1980's and 90's many New World vineyards invested in the grape and the Merlot lake was born.

The Marketing and PR people then span the Merlot tale and even the Australian wine producers bought the spin, as Merlot was a proven success. Merlot is in strong growth both among New and Old world wines. Even in Bordeaux the grape constitutes 56% of plantings, but in Pomerol it is 80%. In Bordeaux Merlot is blended with great grapes because of it's capabilities.

Italian red wine vineyards now plant the grape as the fifth most popular with the best wines coming from Tuscany, Umbria and Friuli.

California red wine producers have been very busy planting the grape and they are now the fourth largest world producer behind Bordeaux, Italy and Languedoc.

South Africa, Australia, Argentina and Chile have all been busy growing and marketing the grape but many of the Chilean Merlots are not virgin Merlots but field blends of Merlot and Carmenere.

Wine consumers the world over have begun to trust the grape as a trusted friend, easy to drink and good with food. The Merlot can deliver at its best a very smooth rounded red wine bursting with a velvety tannin and multiple berry flavours. There can be a spice or cinnamon tastes with hints of licorice, and truffles.

Merlot has also broken into the with food occasion both in the on trade and at home as it goes well with meat dishes, spiced dishes and good old English pub food. It has become a good comfort food red wine.

Four years the online wine retailers embraced the grape and have promoted it ever since. It is only really the Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon that have beaten Merlot into third position, but that is another story. We have witnessed good growth coming from several brands. The first is the Torres Atrium Merlot Penedes. This wine is made 100% from Merlot and is sourced from vineyards which form part of the Agulladol Estate. Matured for 6 months in French oak this fine Spanish red wine is deep coloured, with soft juicy plum and blueberry fruit flavours and typically soft, rounded tannins. The second is the Drylands Merlot, Marlborough which undergoes 10 months ageing in a mixture of new and seasoned French and American oak barrels. Shows soft, ripe flavours of black plums, berry fruits and spice with a firm structure, and complex finish. The last Merlot that has been in great growth is Errazuriz 1870 Teno Block Merlot, Curico Valley which is a red wine with a juicy plum fruit character which shows hints of oak and smooth tannins on the finish.

Merlot wines have done very well in the last thirty years, producing easy drinking red wineswith strong Bordeaux provenance, easy blending characteristics have offered product versatility and its fit with food have extended the occasions it can be drunk. Long may its success continue for the online retailer.

Can Christmas come soon enough!

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:09:57 -0800

The drinks industry is not looking forward to a very merry Christmas with many predicting the worst for ten years as the off trade retailers slash champagne prices by fifty per cent, and Christmas on trade bookings are down by sixty per cent versus last year.

Have people suddenly stopped drinking, and has the drink responsibly message from government finally got through, or are there sectors still in growth ? The answer, is as always complicated. Online wine, and spirits are growing as consumers make active choices to buy wine online.

Wine online sales have grown as ease of delivery, wine choice increases and pricing becomes more competitive. Online wine choice is now greater than supermarkets or pub chains, as online wine merchants source wines from across the globe. At home drinking has reduced as people trade up to better varietals and invest in finer wines online.

Online Spirits are growing as consumers search for non supermarket brands that they have discovered during their travels or from personal recommendations. Volume brands such as Bacardi and Smirnoff struggle to sell online as consumers tend to prefer to buy these brands in the supermarkets along with beer and lager.

Champagne sales online as well as in the supermarkets are in free fall as the need for demonstration of wealth diminishes and consumers move to other fizz such as Prosecco. Online wine is growing but the industry volumes are shrinking and this Christmas will see total alcohol decline year on year.
Choice delivered by wine online will help drive category growth in the future as quality increases and volume decreases, but is this a bad thing ? After all alcohol can damage your health when drunk in excess, so perhaps quality will drive the correct consumer behaviours.

Online wine abv's have been increasing over recent years, which is a concern for health, especially for red wine online. The complete opposite has occurred in beer and lager as lower abv brands such as Becks, and Stella 4 have re-defined the market.

In January wine on line, especially red wine on line will be the winner, whereas champagnes won't win for anyone. Lower abv lagers will have stolen market share from premium lager and spirits online will grow ahead of last year. Nobody knows what will happen with off and on trade wines, but we believe that wine will decline in both these channels with all the growth going online.
2009 has seen the demise of First Quench, what will 2012 bring after the Olympics ? Champagnes should be back on growth by then, but maybe online wine sales will be as big as off trade sales. Imagine that.

An alternative Christmas Dinner

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:52:54 -0800

Dry turkey matched with an overly heavy red wine bought online. A slab of smoked salmon with a glass of Pinot Grigio and Christmas pudding with brandy is enough to send any wine connoisseur into a frenzy.

This year, why not make the celebrations a little bit more special by mixing traditional and contemporary food and wine. Make sure you use wine as a condiment to the food to enhance both the dish and let the dish enhance the wine

The traditional wine line-up generally includes an online champagne before you get to the table, maybe a sherry for Grandma, a white wine online with the fish starter, a red with the turkey and a dessert wine with Xmas pudding.

Well this year, I have decided to turn the traditional wine line-up on its head. The menu below starts with a dessert wine for the entrée then fizz with the starter, a Lebanese red wine for main and finishes with a sherry!

Go on try something new, I am sure you will not only love it but make it a Christmas to truly remember.

Entrée

Start with a range of appetisers to wet the appetite.

A range of light pates including Fois Gras, Pate de Fois, Duck and Orange Paté, and other light pâtés of your choice, served on a variety of different textured breads, is a great way to start off the seasonal food festivities.

Serve with a dessert wine! Yes a dessert wine matches perfectly with the pâté. The nuances and complexities of a lighter and less sweet dessert wine compliment light pâtés excellently, especially Fois Gras and the lighter goose and duck pâtés..

I recommend Etchart Torrontés Tardió, Salta , Argentina. This online wine should be enjoyed chilled either as an aperitif or at the conclusion of the meal. - Its lightish style should be matched with equally light dishes and goes excellently with light and delicate pates.

The long ripening season of the Cafayate Valley enables the Torrontés grapes used to make this rich, very grapey dessert wine achieve full maturity with correspondingly high natural sugar levels. The wine is cool-fermented in stainless steel vats and then bottled young.

Starter

I love smoked salmon, but it is so predictable. So throw away the lemon (lemon kills most white wines anyway) and be daring.

Do a triage of hot smoked salmon served with Thai sweet chilli sauce, Gravad-lax served with the traditional dill and mustard sauce, and smoked trout with nothing more than some capers and fresh tarragon. Top it off with one queen scallop seared in lemon chervil infused butter and finish with a smattering of sea salt crystals and a few redcurrants, and some crusty white bread.

For the wine at last some fizz, but not as you know it! Go for a rosé Brut fizz, for the budget conscious, Codorniu Pinot Noir Brut Rosé Cava , or if your budget stretches then the Duval Leroy Brut Rosé bought exclusively online.

The pink fizz, especially the Bruts, is an enigma. You get all the sweet notes and delicate soft berry flavours juxtaposed against the astringency and buttery mouth feel of the classic white Brut. With delicate, sweetish fish and delicate herbs - this is a marriage made in heaven.

The addition of salt - in the capers and sea salt enhances the soft berry flavours and floral notes even further. Finally the sweet chilli (and don't use too much) makes your palate more receptive to flavours and sets off the dryness. The buttery texture of the mouth feel and the butter of the scallop are divine. In fact with each mouthful the wine will change subtly and work with each different dish in perfect harmony -even though you have four different meats and seven different flavours on one dish.

Cava made from 100% pinot noir grapes are lightly macerated after de-stemming, in order to extract a light pink colour from the skins before pressing. Bottle-fermentation and aged for a minimum of nine months, this delicious Spanish sparkling wine is full of ripe summer-fruit flavours and is presented in a clear Codorníu gothic bottle.

The rosé Champagne is delicate and well rounded, complete with aromas of wild cherries and redcurrants. Made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, much of the colour coming from wine made from Pinot Noir grapes grown in the Premier Cruz of Vertus and the brilliantly named village of Bouzy . This is a beautiful salmon-pink coloured rosé matured for over two years in bottle.

Main course

Turkey is an import from the states and a recent Xmas invention, not that that should stop us but I find it too dry and it takes too long to cook, why ruin Christmas with the family by cooking all the time?

I prefer traditional meats and they take no time to cook (except for some preparation on Christmas Eve). Try a Beef Wellington or a Woo, Coo, Rush, Grunt pie (wild venison, wild pigeon, wild hare and wild boar). Both take just 30 minutes to cook on the day.

If you do want a big bird, roast a goose or a brace of ducks which I find much nicer than turkey.

For the pastry add some seasonal spices (allspice or mixed spice) into the pastry and serve with a mustard and port or Madeira gravy - Don't forget to add lots of seasonal herbs, and garlic to the roast veggies and do use goose fat to roast them in and put everything in together to save on the washing up.

For the wine, have you tasted a Lebanese wine? The country has been growing vines and making wine in the Bekkar valley for over 5000 years - much longer than in Europe - so we really are talking ‘ Old World '.

I recommend the Hochar Père et Fils Red, Château Musar, Bekaa Valley (from £11.43) or the Chateau Musar Red Gaston Hochar, Bekaa Valley, 2000 (from £20.60).

Both are savoury reds. If you think about traditional European fruits often the wines mirror the flavours (blackberry, plums, blackcurrants etc). Now imagine Lebanese fruits (dates, figs, raisins, sultanas, damsons, dried fruits, mixed spices), these wines mirror the fruits too. So if you imagine all the rich, warming comforting tastes and scents of Christmas and had to put it in a liquid, here you have it!

The perfect Christmas red wine, and excellent with richer fare. I call it Christmas in a glass.

Dessert

I love the flavours of Christmas puddings - a chocolate log and a warm minced pie.

But after all the above courses, I just don't have the stomach for them. So I prefer something lighter, yet with all the rich flavours. No easy task.

The only dish I have found to deliver everything I love, without feeling like a whale afterward, is Xmas Mess (much like Eton Mess but much more Christmassy). Plus it is so simple to make.

Break up a small Xmas Pud, a few mince pies, some bits of chocolate cake into small bits and add some raisins and broken chocolate. Lightly mix up with some vanilla ice-cream (the one with real vanilla pods in it), some very stiff whipped cream and finally add some broken up meringue. Generously drizzle some Gonzalez Byass Nectar, Pedro Ximénez Dulce (from £11.71) over it all and serve.

As you have it on the dessert it would be a shame not to serve it in a glass too. Pedro Ximénez is in fact a sherry. So why serve a sherry for dessert? Well the only way I can describe this wine is to ask you imagine the difference in taste between a sun dried tomato and an ordinary one. The grapes on PX (as it is affectionately known) are sun dried before pressing. This makes then so much sweeter and intensifies the flavours, so imagine a sun dried dessert wine!

When poured it has the colour of treacle not wine. The flavours however are like a liquid figgy pudding. Nectar by name and by nature and deserves its Gold medal

Made from 100% Pedro Ximénez, one of the two major sherry grapes. PX produces an intensely sweet, smooth Spanish dessert wine. With a bouquet of raisins and dried figs, it is delicious when poured over ice cream with fruit salad or dried fruit - serve chilled. The Gonzalaz Byass Nectar - Won Gold at the International Wine Challenge 2009 and Silver at the International Wine & Spirit Competition 2009.

Corks or screws?

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:25:14 -0800

Since the introduction of the screw top closure onto wine bottles the debate about cork and screw top has raged among the advocates and the traditionalists. The debate has not got any less heated over recent years, but have consumer habits changed?

New world wine producers led the way when it came to investing in screw top application machines. Australian and South African vineyards were some of the first. Old world wines such as French wines believed it would only be short lived, but the consumer has voted with their wallet.

Today the screw top has become accepted by the majority of online wine drinkers for many reasons. The primary reason is the abundance of screw tops used with online wine brands. The second reason is the perception of increased quality, i.e the belief that cork wines have a higher probability of being corked which can be an urban myth. The third reason is convenience as a screw top, especially for white and rose wines online offers the ability to drink from the bottle across multiple occasions during the week.

There is no real difference between screw top and cork, albeit the occasion of popping a great bottle of wine and smelling the cork. It is this ritual that makes the cork application unique and historically rich. To some this ritual is so important that screw tops are perceived as very low quality.

The growth of screw top will continue as vineyards invest more in technology, but we believe that the real top end of wines online will remain in cork because of the perceived increased value. Some brands just below top end have moved into screw tops but again these have been new world rather than old world. It seems that French wine may well be the last country to adopt the change, but perhaps they never will across top end wines.

In two years time those brands that had intended to move into screw top will have and then there will be two different categories, but we believe most online wine consumers are ambivalent now to the change for white and rose wines. Red wines are perhaps different as their richness and multiple flavour dimensions of the wine lend themselves better to a cork.

There is a problem with online wine shopping as unlike bricks and mortar retail the consumer finds it difficult to differentiate from a picture if the brand has a screw or cork top. To help with this some online wine merchants state on the wine description the application.

So if you are a screw top or a cork fan you can be secure in the knowledge that your choice is the right choice for you and your wine that you have chosen online will be divine. For those of you who just don't care then you are the lucky ones.

Maybe in the near future technology may again advance the closure after all there is a cork and a plastic cork. Only time will tell, enjoy your wine.

Cocktails this Christmas......?

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:02:51 -0800

Many online spirits websites are seeing the benefits of marketing cocktails online to consumers as the at home trend of cocktail making is growing at an accelerated pace. Five years ago many online retailers ignored the cocktail opportunity as they saw no commercial online gain. This has however changed drastically.

Cocktail making in the on trade has grown tremendously led by the Mojito, the Caipirinha and the Godfather. It is classic cocktails that are driving the growth as people have travelled to Cuba, Brazil and the USA. Big branded manufacturers and the London bar scene have pushed cocktails through education in bar. Mixologists now offer courses on how to make cocktails for popular work team building exercises.

Five years ago consumers did not know Mojito's had rum in and were born in Cuba and the Caipirinha was a product of Brazil and made from cachaca, but know they do and they are keen to make them at home. This has created online spirits opportunities as companies like the Purveyor and the Drinkshop have comprehensive cocktail guides so consumers can make cocktails at home.

This Christmas though we believe online spirits sales will be driven through online gin, online vodka and online rum with online bourbons being a close fourth. The reason is each online spirit has a classic signature drink such as a gin and tonic over ice with a squeezed lime wedge or rum and cola over ice with a squeezed lime wedge. Each spirit is also linked to amazing cocktail creation. If you take online rum for instance the online spirits consumer can make a mojito, a daiquiri, a Mai Tai or a classic Havana Libre and therefore with one bottle of rum create different cocktails for all their guests. Brands such as Hendricks and Sipsmith gin have created extensive cocktail lists for consumers to experiment with their brands thus discovering new tastes at home. The bartenders secrets have been exposed online and supermarkets tend to stock many of the natural ingredients that turn the online cocktails into ontrade cocktails thus encouraging trial at home.

There is also two more trends that are encouraging cocktail at home creation. The first is the growth of the cocktail guides as presents at Christmas. This trend has grown steadily as distribution of cocktail guides has grown from specialist retailers into mainstream. The second trend is the growth of cocktail shakers and cocktail equipment which is obviously important as without the correct tools these great cocktails online cannot be created.
This Christmas should therefore be the best Christmas ever for online cocktail making with all the above trends coming together.

If we however look to the future we see some interesting online spirit developments. We believe online spirits merchants will offer more functionality online to help people make better cocktails at home. This will be through video, search, buy all ingredients buttons and other downloadable applications.
If the UK can reach only 20% of the at home cocktail making of the USA then cocktail making is set to grow by over 160%.

Wine online goes upmarket...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:36:16 -0800

The profile of wine online sales has changed dramatically across the last six weeks as consumers ready themselves for Christmas. Wine online is changing from being very price driven and mass market, to more discerning and quality led.

Fine red wine online growth is slightly ahead of white wine online growth, but with a 9% shift from standard to fine wine, this is a noticeable trend. This trend has bemused some online wine merchants, but people do funny things in a recession. So what is going on in the online space you may ask ?
Online wine sales have been growing steadily for the last five years as the bricks and mortar retailers have been reducing the number of lines they stock. Also as online retail has grown and consumers trust the online space to a greater extent, purchasing from online wine merchants has become more convenient. After all you don't have to carry the bottles home.

The second trend that is happening is the trend of having less treats during a recession but spending more on them when you do. As a result consumers are trading up to better quality wines online. At the same time online wine merchants are offering 6 bottle cases rather than 12 bottle cases because consumers are consuming less, but want a more premium wine online.

This trend is also having a positive knock on effect for old world wines, as it seems consumers chasing the finer wine choice are buying French, Spanish and Italian wines ahead of Australian and New Zealand wines.
Online wine merchants like their bricks and mortar piers are also promoting the concept of quality over quantity to ensure responsible drinking trends are being adopted. There are several key wine online merchants running socially responsible campaigns to accelerate this trend.

The trend of fine wines online is predicted to accelerate as we move into the Christmas holidays, which can only be good for wine producers as well as consumers. There is a new generation of online wine merchants who are trying to demystify wine online, and provide choice, as well as create a shop window for small family vineyards. These merchants are also using the concept of food and wine matching to drive trial of new varietals and wines from different places such as Lebanon.

Of course the market will not change from standard to fine wines but choice will continue to drive wine online, and the real benefit of wine online, is to discover products that you have never seen in the real world.
As we move out of Christmas into the New Year certain consumers may change their buying habits from buying champagne online to other fizz brands. We strongly believe Prosecco online will start to nibble away at Champagne sales as people move away from the bling to taste. The UK does love it's Champagne, but Prosecco could be the new fizz of 2010.

Is the celebration over....

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:22:28 -0800

This Christmas looks set to be a disaster for online champagne sales, but what went so wrong ,so very quickly ? Wine online sales have been very stable during 2009, despite an aggressive recession as consumers have traded up from standard wine to fine wine on line. During the summer, rose wine online sales were also very strong as rose wine became the drink of choice ahead of Pimms throughout the gardens of the UK and Ireland. Champagne online might well be a different story.

If history has taught us anything, it is that during recessions luxury goods companies usually weather the storm, as people make fewer purchases, but spend more when they do. The thought process being I will buy a better coat, as it will last longer. This logic though does not relate to luxury champagne online, as champagne is seen as an outward show of success. You only need to browse a few wine online retailers to see a reduction in price and choice. In an attempt to protect margins Champagne houses have limited the production in 2010, but is it just the recession killing the category or is something else going on ?

There is a new online wine trend that is eating into champagne online sales and that is the growth of fizz. Prosecco and Cava are replacing champagne on line, and rose online sales. It is believed that the recession has created a re-think by the online consumer not wanting to spend their money on champagne. Many online wine merchants are seeing Prosecco sales growing and there is a belief that the online consumer will not return to champagne. On blind tests Prosecco can be as good if not better than many champagnes so if bling is not important anymore why change back to online champagne ?

The Prosecco grape offers wine online consumers something different to white wine or champagne on line. It offers a dry light grape, full of fizz bursting with aromas of apple and blossom. Many Prosecco bottle designs are also understated unlike their sister champagne.

Whatever happens trend wise, this Christmas will be tough for wine online retailers who struggle to sell champagne, but other fizz brands might be their salvation. The champagne online category will come back, the question is when and how big ?