The New Zealand wine phenomenon has continued to gather pace with volume sales up 42.3% over the financial year to 2009 says a report from Nielsen.

Sales value has doubled over the last three years to now represent 8% of the total wine sold through the off-premise liquor market in Australia.

According to the Nielsen report, fuelling this movement is a core group of Aussie consumers aged in their 30s who are new to the wine category, who differ from the general wine buying population as they are more likely to live in metro regions, particularly Sydney, and have a household income over $100K.

Michael Walton, executive director, Pacific, Nielsen Liquor Group said, “A multichannel strategy is required to communicate to this group as they connect with many different information sources and are likely to generate word-of-mouth publicity.”

“Other opportunities to attract this lucrative group of ‘thirtysomethings’ include wine tasting opportunities in-store to reassure them about the quality and taste of the brand, as well as linking the brand to being good with food either with information in-store or on the actual bottle.”