Wine is set to overtake beer as Britain’s most loved alcoholic drink, MailOnline can reveal.
On average, adults drink 39 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot each year, new data shows.
Consumption has increased 12-fold since the 1960s, driven in part by higher rates of alcohol consumption among women.
Meanwhile, beer consumption has more than halved since its peak five decades ago: from the equivalent of 276 pints a year to 110.
Industry experts said today that wine’s dethroning of beer as Britain’s most loved drink was “a long time coming”. Others speculated that the growing popularity of spirits could also see beer overtake it again in the near future.
Figures compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) show how much alcohol is consumed through different drinks.
The typical Briton aged 15 or over consumes 9.75 litres of pure alcohol a year.
Broken down, this includes 3.55 l of wine alcohol.
For comparison, in the early 1960s the figure was 0.3 l, which is equivalent to almost three litres. bottles.
As of 2020, the most recent year for which figures are available, we consumed 3.12 l of alcohol from beer.
The growing popularity of wine is believed to be due in part to the fact that women are increasingly drinking it.
“In 1970, most alcohol was drunk in the form of beer and in pubs, and wine was expensive and not widely available,” notes the British charity Alcohol Change in the “UK Trends” section of its website.
But the growth of the wine sector, he says, means that “we now consume most of our units as wine, and mostly at home.”
A huge push across the industry means supermarkets are stocked with a huge range of wines, some selling for as little as £3 a bottle.
Wine glasses have also increased in size over the years, meaning drinkers are consuming more without realizing it.
Meanwhile, beer consumption has plummeted from 7.85 litres in the late 1970s to 3.12 litres in 2020, according to the most recent figures compiled by the WHO.
This is partly due to a general decline in the amount Britons drink overall, as well as a so-called ‘flight to quality’ in place of bulk drinking.
In addition, low-alcohol pints are rapidly expanding their presence in the UK.
Bert Blaize, former head sommelier at Michelin-starred Clove Club restaurant in east London and the Mandrake Hotel, said wine replacing beer at the top was long overdue.
He said: ‘The industry has worked hard to make wine more accessible. Before, it was considered a bit of a snob.
‘I love beer, but wine is a superior product: it can transport you to a different place, country or time, and beer can’t do that.’
Mr Blaize added: “Maybe women are more concerned about what they are trying and not just going to the pub and getting drunk on beer – it’s more about having lunch and having wine on the table.”
Madalena Moreira, from Encirc, a UK-based bottling and glass manufacturer that tests more than 15,000 wine samples each year, added: “Beer is still drunk, but we’re not in an era where we finish our shift and go to the pub for a beer – it might be a glass of wine or a gin and tonic.”
Spirits have also gained popularity in recent years, partly driven by the stocking of home bars during the pandemic.
In 2020, Britons consumed an average of 2.56 litres of pure alcohol from spirits, the equivalent of 128 double gin and tonics. This figure is an all-time high, according to WHO data.
This compares with the equivalent of 108 double G&Ts in 1990 and 120 in 1979.
If current trends continue, rum, vodka and gin could overtake beer in both the home bar and on the town in the coming years.
The NHS recommends that people drink no more than 14 “units” of alcohol (about six glasses of wine or pints of beer) a week.
Drinking too much over a long period increases the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, liver disease, cancer, depression and dementia, they warn.
But leading experts have been arguing for decades about the harms of moderate alcohol consumption.
Some studies have suggested that a glass of wine or a pint of beer a day can prevent a number of diseases.