The UK Fairtrade Wine Committee set its second annual wine tasting event at Vinopolis on November 1st. The tasting display wines from 18 producer groups from Argentina, Chile and South Africa, and nine importers were represented.
As fairtracing project, we were also there. We had the agreement from the Fairtrade Wine Comittee to hand out questionnaires and thanks to the help of Joy from Ehrmanns we finally reached very enthusiastic visitors that filled out the questionnaire and agreed to be interviewed in the near future. A good start for our work with consumers!.
Currently, there is an increasing demand for Fairtrade certified wine in the UK. According to the FLO, total UK Fairtrade sales exceeded £290m in 2006, running at annual growth rates of 40% for the past five years. Wine is one of the fastest growing categories of Fairtrade goods in the UK and general wine volumes increased by 116.7% in 2006 compared to 2005. The UK is by far the biggest market for Fairtrade wine, and looks due to continue increasing.
In order to highlight the quality of wines in this sector, the Fairtrade Wine Committee, also organised an Award during the tasting including 48 wines from the three countries where Fairtrade-accredited wines are produced. Chile was the big winner with wines picking up the two top prizes. Equality Fairtrade Sauvignon Blanc, from Chile’s Maule Valley, scooped the honor of Best White, and the Co-op’s Fairtrade Chilean Carmenère from Los Robles cooperative in Curicó was voted Best Red of the competition. Congratulations to our partner Los Robles!