8.6.17 Latest Sherry Sales Figures

While the trend is in the right direction, total sales are down again. Less cheap wine and more good wine has been sold but not enough of the latter to compensate for the former. The first 4 months of 2017 saw total sales fall 8.6% (= 5% over last 12 months). January to April sales were 9.5 million litres as against 10.3 for the same period last year. This is mainly down to lower export sales for the period, down 13.4% (or 800,000 litres) especially in the traditional markets and BOB.

Germany was down 27%, Holland 17% the UK 14.5%, Spain 2.55% and Europe as a whole was down 16%. After recent growth in Spain, this fall can be explained by the later dates of Holy week and thus the ferias, so a more accurate reflection will be seen in the figures for May. Over the last 12 months total sales were 33.5 million litres, 1.8 million down on 2015, and this was entirely down to exports as Spain grew by 2.5%.

IWSR Premium Sherry sales forecast 

Sales of cheap, sweet “granny” wines are plummeting as their consumer numbers decline, while on the other hand, January to April saw strong growth in the dry styles, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Oloroso, Fino and Manzanilla, which together sold 5.2 million litres – a million more than the most popular sweet styles: Medium, Cream and Pale Cream. This change in taste is motivated by growing interest in the dry styles from wine experts and aficionados who are mostly younger and have greater purchasing power than the granny generation. Luckily it is much more profitable.