UK: Combat 'grapocalypse' with DIY wine kit

(Telegraph) - After Morgan Stanley raised a ruckus with a note predicting a global wine shortage, entrepreneur Mike Hobby launched a giant wine-making kit, which can produce up to 400 bottles of wine.

“Even drinking two bottles a week, your cellar will last nearly four years,” he said.

Grapes2Wine, a British manufacturer of high-quality wine kits for the discerning wine drinker, sells the giant wine kit for £720. “This is a kit for the serious wine lover,” he explained. “Protect yourself from price hikes or wine shortages by making your own.”

Last year, global wine demand exceeded supply by 300 million cases, fuelling rumours of an impending wine drought. Production in 2012 fell to its lowest levels in more than 40 years.

“Prices will inevitably rise and put already cash-strapped consumers in a tight spot,” said Mr Hobby. “Add this to the fact that wine prices are already at an all-time high and tax now accounts for 60pc of a bottle and the reasons for consumers to make their own wine really stack up.”

 Mr Hobby launched the business in September this year with business partner Doug Mahy. “We both had an interest in wine but we found that the wine-making kits on the market were not great quality,” he said. “Most of them, weirdly, came from Canada and I wanted to create a British brand.”

Grapes2Wine supplies kits to produce Merlot, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio, and Chardonnay. The business is on track to turn over £300,000 in its first year and supplies gardening centres across the UK, as well as running its own e-shop and selling through Amazon.

“Our customers are generally the kind of people who like projects,” said Mr Hobby. “They range from families with a couple of young kids up to the retired couple. Basically, it’s the people who enjoy the little luxuries in life but are getting squeezed because of austerity and pensions not paying what they expected they would.”