Supermarkets selling 'British' wine made from imported grapes

Wine producers in the UK are concerned that the labelling of cheap wine made from imported grapes as 'British' could damage the reputation of British-grown produce

'The danger going forward is that foreign buyers will not be able to distinguish between our high-quality produce and the imported stuff' (iStock)

Major UK supermarkets are selling ‘British’ wine made out of imported grapes from elsewhere in Europe, prompting concerns about the reputation of wine grown in England.

Tesco, Asda and Lidl are among those selling wines made from cheap grapes grown and pressed abroad and labelling them as British produce.

The practice is legal and widespread in the £240 million discount wine industry, and cheap wine brands have become increasingly popular in recent years.

However, British wine producers are concerned that selling cheap wine made from imported grapes and labelling it as ‘British’ is “disingenuous” and will leave customers believing that wine grown and produced in the UK is of an “inferior quality”, which could threaten their businesses both in Britain and abroad.

Although wine made from imported grapes is fermented in the UK, it is not made from the grapes that are grown in British vineyards. Because it is often not made clear on the bottles that the grapes are imported, British wine producers are concerned that customers could be led to believe that British-grown grapes are generally of a low quality.

“The key to exporting our increasingly popular English wines around the world is quality control,” Richard Balfour-Lynn, owner of English wine company Hush Heath, told the Sunday Telegraph.

He said that discounted wine being labelled as British may be misleading: “It suggests to the consumer that their bottle of low-cost wine is grown and processed here.”

Mr Balfour-Lynn said that if the reputation of British wine was threatened, it may affect sales abroad if foreign customers are unable to tell the difference between British-grown wine and the cheaper variety.

“The danger going forward is that foreign buyers will not be able to distinguish between our high-quality produce and the imported stuff.

“If they are put off by it… that hampers our efforts to build a reputation abroad.”

A spokesperson from Lidl said: “To make it very clear, British wines in our stores are not labelled as English wines as the two have different meanings.

“We allow our customers to make informed decisions and everything that we sell in our stores has very clear labelling.”

Though EU laws mean that only wine grown in England can be labelled ‘English’, and similarly with Welsh wine, the same is not true of the word ‘British’, which can be used to label wine that was produced or bottled, but not necessarily grown, in the UK.

Most supermarkets claim that wine from brands such as Three Mills and Silver May Point is ‘British’. Their websites states the wine is produced from imported grape juice.