Organic wine sales booming in UK

Organic food and farming group the Soil Association has told The Guardian sales of organic beers, wines and spirits rose by 14.3% last year to reach nearly £6m.

“Organic wines are seeing something of a renaissance” said Finn Cottle of Soil Association Certification. “While the whole organic market is in general outperforming non-organic food and drink sales, organic still wine – red, white and rosé – is a runaway success story."

It's a trend reflected across Europe: the world’s largest wine and spirit exhibition – ProWein – featured its first-ever separate area for organic wines last month, with 30 international exhibitors.

Aldi is jumping on the bandwagon too, with a new environmentally friendly Green Collection that launches in the UK this week, offering eight wines with organic, carbon neutral or ‘no added sulphur’ credentials to tap into the consumer trend.

Among the wines on shelf is the Australian label Wakefield Wines - while not organic, the Clare Valley-produced 80 Acres Shiraz Viognier and Shiraz Merlot are carbon neutral and priced at £6.99 a bottle. The vineyard has been carbon neutral since 2010. 

Aldi expects the Green Collection to appeal to the “Whole Foods generation”; millennial shoppers who are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of the produce that they are buying and consuming. The move is part of a bigger Aldi project, which includes free-from, organic and superfoods being introduced across the supermarket floor.

Mike James, Aldi’s wine buying director, told Off Licence News: “These wines are either better for the environment or seen as ‘better for me’.

“We are dipping our toe in the water here. We are convinced there is a more considered customer out there who is happy to spend a bit more for that feel- good factor."