Anarchy: Broadland Drinks is shaking up the French wine category

Broadland Drinks is promising to shake up the French wine category with the launch of French Anarchy; an edgy new brand designed to widen appeal and help bring additional shoppers into the category.

With volumes of still wine having fallen by 15 per cent over the past decade, France has seen declines of 35 per cent.Figures over the last 12 months show both French White and Red continue to underperform versus their respective categories, yet French Rosé has bucked the trend proving that radical change is possible.

Whilst French wine is generally seen as premium, prestigious and high quality, many modern wine shoppers view it as elitist, expensive and stuck in the past, rejecting it on taste, complicated terminology and lack of suitability for informal occasions.

Consisting of a Malbec, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Rosé – all three French Anarchy liquids have been specially blended to provide fruit forward wines which are better suited to modern palates, offering commercial appeal whilst showcasing French wines in a fresh new way. The contemporary branding and impactful packaging design have been created to disrupt and stand out prominently on a fixture dominated by traditional labels, attracting consumers to purchase for more everyday consumption occasions.

The bespoke wines are shipped in bulk from France, then bottled into lighter weight bottles at Broadland’s BRC AA+ winery in Norfolk. This creates a lower carbon footprint as the number of trucks required to import the wine is reduced by half compared to shipped in bottle wine, and the bottle itself is 20 per cent lighter than a traditional French Burgundy bottle.

French Anarchy is now being sold in to both national and regional customers at a suggested retail price of £9.50 per bottle.

The brand will be supported by account specific activation, as well as social media, PR and sampling to raise awareness and drive trial.

“We couldn’t find a modern, easy drinking French wine, so we ripped up the rule book and blended our own," said Nicola Cannon, Broadland Drinks Head of Brands. "French Anarchy offers completely different, easy-to-drink fruit forward wines which will be popular with modern consumers. Additionally, as part of our one-stop shop to cut carbon, French Anarchy is also the lower carbon alternative for retailers as it’s bottled in lighter weight bottles here in the UK”.