Majestic: Top wine and spirits trends for 2018

Bigger = better

“Magnums are big news. In 2017 already, we’ve seen a 378% increase in year-on-year sales of super-sized bottles under £20. Rosés and house reds in 1.5 litre measures are proving particularly popular for weddings and parties, where a big celebration warrants big bottles! Wines in magnums also take longer to reach their optimum drinking age, this adds to the intensity, making them the connoisseur’s choice for premium wines. So expect BIG things for 2018. ‘It’s is all about socialising around a bottle,’ explains Richard Weaver, Buying Director at Majestic. ‘Magnums create brilliant centrepieces for dinner parties and events – particularly if you’re cutting back on your eating-out spend’.”

An appreciation for bigger format wines has been growing for several years now, but it has only been in the past year or so that the big retailers and supermarkets have jumped onto the trend, driven by demand for Prosecco. This year Aldi has added its first Jeroboam of Prosecco for Christmas, which will retail for under £39.99 for 3 litres, and follows the launch of the UK discounters first magnum of Prosecco two years ago. It has also added a new gifting box for its Malbec magnum which was available for the first time last year.

At the time, Aldi buyer Mike James said although the larger bottle format seemed “counter-intuitive” given the increased price point, people were increasingly using these formats to add theatre at larger scale celebrations and parties. While Christmas is the perfect time for large format wines, rosé has also been a key driver of the trend, with a pretty in pink magnum of rosé an increasingly popular table piece.