UK drinkers shun sparkling wines over Christmas 2021

Online searches for festive fizzy favourites such as Champagne and Prosecco fell flat over Christmas 2021, research has revealed.

Where the festive period would normally elicit an increase in interest in sparkling wines, data firm MediaVision claims that internet searches for the category fizzled out in the run-up to Christmas.

Analysis by the company found that online searches for 'Champagne' fell by 27 per cent between 1 and 25 December 2021 compared to the same period the previous year, while searches for 'Prosecco' dropped by 29 per cent. Another festive favourite, 'eggnogg', saw searches fall by 19 per cent.

It was part of a broader fall in searches for wines and beers throughout December 2021, which were down by almost a quarter (23 per cent) year-on-year.

MediaVision claims this decrease in traffic could be due to the the smaller number of Christmas parties held in 2021, after the Omicron variant of Covid-19 brought a steep rise in cases and cautions against "unnecessary" social gatherings in the UK.

However, a few wines and beers bucked the trend - these include 'Pinot Gris' and 'Viognier', searches for which were up by 13 per cent and 51 per cent respectively.

The analysis was carried out using MediaVision's Digital Demand Tracker, which analyses data from AdWords and GoogleTrends.

Louis Venter, CEO at MediaVision, said: "Eggnog, Champagne and Prosecco have long been mainstays of the Christmas party, and parties have been thin on the ground this year thanks for the continuing risk of the pandemic.

"It's too early to say that the data shows a shift in the UK's drinking habits more broadly, but we also carried out research for all of 2021 that showed online searches for 'gin' were down 14 per cent year-on-year, while searches for 'gin and tonic' decreased by 22 per cent."

5 January 2022 - Bethany Whymark