Firstly, let's give you, dear reader, some cold harsh truths about trying to enter the UK with your wines. Following over 10 years in the wine sector and having been involved in organising both small private tastings to national trade & press tastings to masterclasses, dinners, launch events, awards and more, I hope my experience gives you confidence in my words below.
The wine sector in the UK is mostly at the lower end of the price scale in that approximately 97.5% of sales are below £10 a bottle. What sounds even harsher, is that only 2.5% of wine sales in the UK are above £10 so into this mix goes classic fine wines such as Bordeaux and Champagne with brands galore to compete against from Rothschild to Dom Perignon. The UK market is highly competitive and price point is the key ingredient.
In order to reach the UK market, there are several ways in order to succeed, though with varying degrees of likelihood and the important question to ask yourself is 'How much time and financial investment are you willing to make?':
- Explore your network: Many wineries start by sending their wine samples to family and / or friends in the UK who are willing to try and show their wines as and when required. A cheap option and highly likely to be unsuccessful.
- Trade tastings: There are countless trade and press tastings that take place annually in London and at varying levels of costs and quality. It is important to research which trade show you should go with, the more target the better, though remember that you are at the mercy of the organiser and if little quality guests attend on the day then it is likely all you will be rewrded with is a number of people saying your wine taste nice and they have zero interest in buying wines / your wines.
- Sending wine profesionals your wines: A very common way that wine professionals get to taste wines is by receiving wine samples by post - Though please consider that this is an already swamped market and many senior wine critics may receiving 10's if not 100's of wine samples monthly so why will it be that your wine stands out!
- Awards: A great way to receive an indication as to how your wine performs in front of senior wine judges, but with a growing number of awards in the wine sector, will your wine simply be just another bottle with a gold / silver / bronze badge?
- Senior wine critic tasting notes: Big names in the industry can give out scores for wines, though more and more wineries have such scores, so will you simply be just another winery who has had a 90+ point score from James Suckling??
- Masterclasses / Dinners: A better way to engage, educate and potentially entertain is to have an event that focuses on your winery / wines / terroir ideally led by a respected senior wine professional and a senior team member from the winery. These events allow a better one to one session with a target audience from wine writers to buyers. Relaltionships are key in the wine sector.
- Launch parties / sponsorships: A place where plenty of your wines and branding are on show and people enjoy themselves whilst creating memorable moments with a place of your wine in their hand - There is much money to be wasted here so choosing the better events is key, do not just opt for any event to have your wines to freely quench the thirst of guests, try and get the best deal on POS positioning and importance of your wines during the event.
- Wine Consultants: A great way to find buyers in the UK market and grow brand identity is by instructing the services of a London wine consultancy where a dedicated team will represent your winery and showcase you wines on a more regular basis growing recognition for your wines. Most consultancy agencies will work on a monthly agency fee, very few will work on commission / sales basis.
