Supermarkets have reported a surge in magnums – wine bottles that are twice the size of ordinary wine bottles – as the wine enters the mainstream market.
Sales of the magnum bottle have surged by 500 percent at Majestic Wine (LON: WINE), the UK’s largest specialist wine shop. Supermarkets including Waitrose (LON: JLH), Sainsbury’s (LON: SBRY) and Tesco (LON: TSCO) have also posted a significant increase in sales.
“Shoppers are looking for more affordable choices in these wow-factor bottles,” said Waitrose wine manager, Anne Jones.
Not all are for this new trend of increased wine consumption. The head of the Alcohol Research Group at Sheffield University, Petra Meier, is concerned the growing popularity of magnums will counter progress to tackle binge drinking in the UK.
“If we get to the stage where there’s a price incentive to purchase them like there is with boxed wine, then this could become more of a concern,” he said.
Meier shared the concern that the bigger bottles will lead to “more and faster consumption” of alcohol. The UK has put in many schemes to address binge drinking, which is considered a major problem.
Binge drinking has been on the decline, with six percent fewer adults drinking more than four units on their heaviest day of the week now than ten years ago.
Joe Fattorini, the presenter of The Wine Show on Channel 5, said the magnum was growing in popularity due to its novel experience.
“Retailers are cottoning on that it’s not the drinking that’s important, it’s the
drinking experience,” he said. “There’s something very sociable about sharing magnums. It’s a way of bonding.”
Scotland recently introduced plans to have a minimum price per unit to beat alcohol-related problems in the country.
The minimum pricing scheme will come into force in May, with the minimum price being 50 pence per unit.