Wine voted as most preferred alcoholic beverage in the UK. Credit: Kym Ellis on Unsplash.

Wine has emerged as the UK’s favourite alcoholic tipple, according to a survey released by Wine Drinkers UK.

The survey, conducted by Yougov on behalf of Wine Drinkers UK, suggests that people in the UK prefer wine over other alcoholic beverages available in the market.

Wine Drinkers UK is a campaign group consisting of winemakers and sellers. The organisation has urged the Chancellor to stop penalising wine drinkers in favour of other drinkers at the next Budget.

The survey interviewed more than 2,000 consumers in the country.  Results showed that 81% of the people consumed wine over the past 12 months, surpassing the beer (79%) and spirits (79%) figures.

This is said to be equal to more than 33 million wine drinkers in the country.

During the last ten years, those consumers have been subject to tax rises of almost 40% on wine.

The poll revealed that 28% of people preferred wine, while 23% of people chose beer as their favourite alcoholic drink. 20% preferred spirits over both beer and wine.

Furthermore, research shows that 90% of consumers are unaware that wine has been taxed heavily in comparison to beer or spirits during the last five years.

Wine has won the status as the most widely drunk and most popular alcoholic drink. Despite this, tax rises on wine in the last decade (39%) have overtaken those on beer (16%) and spirits (27%).

Consumers have already spent an estimated £2.1bn on wine taxation this year, which is said to be the most tax paid on wine by any country in Europe.