Accolade Wines has added a new upmarket ‘wine on tap’ brand, called Vino Società.
The brand has debuted with a pair of 1.5-litre bag-in-box SKUs – South African Sauvignon Blanc and Italian Rosato – with which Accolade said it wanted to offer a “premium reinvention of the wine on tap concept”. A Chilean Malbec will follow next year (rsp: £16).
The 1.5-litre format would give shoppers “value and convenience”, said Accolade, with the wine remaining fresh for up to six weeks after opening, “ideal for consumers with a focus on moderation and portion control”.
The Rosato wine was “crisp and refreshing, with light berry and citrus notes”, it added, while the Sauvignon Blanc was “crisp, fresh and fruity, with zesty notes of citrus and grapefruit”.
The brand is also touted as being carbon neutral and using 80% lighter packaging, when compared with two 70cl industry-standard bottles.
Accolade cited Nielsen data that showed sales of bag-in-box wines were now accounting for 5.2% (£350.3m) of the light wine category over the 52 weeks to 19 June 2021. This was due to a combination of the pandemic and “product innovation”, it said.
Accolade was “focused on transforming consumer perceptions around the quality of wine on tap wines and introducing new shoppers to category”, said its marketing director for Europe, Tom Smith.
“Under-35s currently underindex on boxed wine spend, but as a demographic who value stylish products, which are less damaging to the environment, Vino Società addresses these needs and is the perfect opportunity to premiumise the category.
“Our consumer testing showed that over half of respondents would purchase Vino Società in addition to the alcohol they already buy, whilst Vino Società has the highest purchase intent amongst 20 to 34-year-olds.”
Accolade isn’t the only wine supplier betting big on bag-in-box. This year saw Kingsland Drinks, for instance, mount a six-figure investment into upping its production capabilities for bag-in-box by 50% – meaning it will now be able to pack more than 28 million litres of wine in the format per year.
Retailer Spar, meanwhile, launched its first own-label bag-in-box range in April, citing “double-digit growth” in the format.
The news comes on the back of a stellar year for the total wine category, in which still and sparkling wines grew by a combined £522.5m [NielsenIQ 52 w/e 11 September 2021].
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