Britain's the biggest importer of wine - especially from Australia

BRITAIN has overtaken Germany to become the world's biggest wine importer, according to official new data.

More than 1.62 billion bottles were shipped into the UK in 2007, the latest year for which confirmed figures are available. This represents a 12 per cent rise on 2003.

Britain's growing thirst for wine - almost all of it foreign - has given it a unique status among hard-pressed wine producers who are increasingly desperate to "crack" the world's most valuable export market, now worth £3.3 billion, according to industry body Vinexpo.

Many traditional wine growing countries barely tolerate foreign wine. In France only five per cent is from abroad.

Although the recession and the strength of the euro has already hit imports of expensive French vintages, consumption is forecast to grow a further four per cent by 2012. British tastes are almost equally split between red and white but there is a growing taste for rosé.

Imports from Australia rose by 27 per cent but France, where thousands of acres of vineyards are having to be grubbed up, suffered an 18 per cent fall.