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Rocketing export figures show New Zealand wine is a growing tipple of choice among UK consumers.
Total wine exports to the UK - New Zealand's largest market - grew 26 per cent during the year ending November to $242.3 million.
New Zealand Winegrowers' global marketing director Chris Yorke said one in eight bottles sold in the £5-plus ($12.30) UK market was made here.
New Zealand wine increased its share of the growing premium UK market by 46 per cent last year, with 85 per cent of all New Zealand wine now in that segment.
"This is outstanding, especially considering New Zealand only produces 0.3 per cent of the world's wine," Yorke said.
The UK was the world's most sophisticated wine market because of the choice on offer to consumers, he said. Research had shown New Zealand's unspoiled environment to be a common theme in the British market and Yorke said the shipping miles argument was quite an easy one to knock down.
"If you look at the carbon footprint of a case of wine that's transported by ship from New Zealand to the UK it's about the same as trucking a case of wine from the South of France to the UK."
Total wine exports for the year ending November were up 28 per cent at $751.9 million, with the industry targeting $1 billion by 2010.
Jim Delegat, managing director of Delegat's Wine Estate, said wine was now considered an everyday luxury item. "Where it may have been thought that New Zealand wine would not compete in the supermarket environment it is being embraced because of its quality, value offering and the growth that it is offering the UK trade," Delegat said.
