Vinarchy bets on occasions, not grapes, to grow UK wine
Vintelligence reorganises how wine gets sold in the UK around four consumer occasions instead of region and grape, with Vinarchy targeting a million new drinkers and £1.4bn in category growth by 2029.
Vintelligence, a new category strategy from wine group Vinarchy, wants UK shoppers to choose bottles by occasion rather than by region, grape or vintage. Launched to retailers and on-trade venues on September 25, it organises wine around four labels: My Go-To Wine, Good With Food, Marking The Occasion, and Fun Together.
Vinarchy is the wine group formed from the 2024–25 merger of Accolade Wines with Pernod Ricard's international wine assets, now owned by Australian Wine Holdco. Its portfolio includes Hardys, the world's number two Australian wine brand; Campo Viejo, the top-selling Rioja brand globally; and Jacob's Creek, among the ten most valuable wine brands worldwide — a stable with more than AU$2 billion in combined consumer sales in 2024 alone.
Four occasions instead of a wine list
36% of wine shoppers enter a store with no intention of buying a bottle at all.
My Go-To Wine covers familiar bottles and easy trading-up; Good With Food targets pairings for everyday meals and takeaways; Marking The Occasion is built around celebrations; and Fun Together is aimed squarely at the social drinking moments where wine currently loses out to beer, cocktails and ready-to-drink cans. Vinarchy's own research found that 36% of wine shoppers enter a store with no intention of buying a bottle at all — the conversion gap Vintelligence is designed to close.
A number that still has to be earned
Vinarchy says the approach could unlock £1.4bn in UK wine category growth by 2029, an 11% expansion over three years, and bring a million new consumers into wine. The figures come from the company's own modelling, not an independent audit, and the scheme rolls out in stages: UK retailers and on-trade venues from September, with convenience and wholesale following from January 2027.
Whether reshuffling shelf categories moves more bottles than the export slumps already squeezing producers elsewhere in Europe is a separate question — one Vinarchy will only be able to answer once Vintelligence has had a full year on UK shelves.
Vinarchy has not said which of its own brands will anchor each of the four occasion labels first, leaving retailers to decide how literally to follow the new grouping on shelf.
