Jacob’s Creek, Campo Viejo … the wines I grew up with are suddenly as relevant as Blue Nun

It shouldn’t really have come as a surprise. The truth is the bigger drinks companies have been struggling to make a go of branded “commercial” wine (by which they mean sub-£10 a bottle) for some time. Diageo, home of such giant brands as Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, got shot of its UK and US wine divisions some 10 years ago. In announcing its planned sell-off of Lindeman’s, Wolf Blass and Blossom Hill in August, Treasury Wine Estates said its commercial brands accounted for less than 5% of its profits; Pernod Ricard’s entire wine division, meanwhile, accounted for just 4% of its £10bn sales and £2.8bn profits, a meagre share that itself was 2% down on the previous year.