Premium-Priced Rose Wine Sales Up 45%

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. - Consumers tastes for wine are becoming increasingly upscale, driving sales of premium-priced rose wines up 45 percent in the past year, making the $6-and-over segment of this varietal one of the strongest emerging growth segments in all table and sparkling wine, according to new data from The Nielsen Company.

"It used to be that pink wine meant white zinfandel or generic jug wines," said Brian Lechner, director of client service, Nielsen Beverage Alcohol. "That is rapidly changing. The phenomenal growth in higher-priced rose wine over the past year tells us that this segment is finding a sophisticated new audience."

For the 52 weeks ending March 10, 2007, rose table wines accounted for more than $9 million in sales in food, drug, and liquor stores, up 45 percent from the previous year, a significant lead over the 8 percent increase for the overall table wine category. Sparkling rose wines showed similar trends, up 40 percent compared to just 4 percent for all sparkling wine.

Twenty-eight new brands of premium rose wine introduced in 2006, nearly twice as many as the 15 brands launched in 2005. Top-selling rose wines are also much more diverse in their country of origin than premium-priced chardonnays, cabernets, and merlots, according to Nielsen Beverage Alcohol. Six of the most popular roses are from France, two are American, and the remaining two are from Spain and South Africa, as compared to the other popular varietals, for which at least eight of the top 10 are produced in the US.

Progressive Grocer parent company The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows, and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research).
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