Bridget Jones blamed for chardonnay decline

Helen Fielding’s comic creation Bridget Jones may have deftly captured the chaotic lifestyles of single, thirty-something women, but in doing so she appears to have sounded the death knell for chardonnay. According to the wine writer Oz Clarke (pictured), a notable drop in sales of the wine can be directly linked to its being the drink of choice of the fictional “singleton”.

He says: “Chardonnay has made some of the world's greatest wines. Everyone appreciated it – until Bridget Jones. She goes out on the pull, fails, goes back to her miserable bedsit, sits down, pours herself an enormous glass of chardonnay, sits there with mascara running down her cheeks saying, ‘Dear diary, I've failed again, I've poured an enormous glass of chardonnay and I'm going to put my head in the oven.’ Great marketing aid!”

Clarke’s assertion is backed up by retail analysts TNS, who claim that in the past 12 months, 7.5 million fewer people in Britain have bought the wine compared to the previous year. Such is the stagnation that the drinks giant Foster's Group has told growers that from next year it expects to pay less per tonne for "D-grade" chardonnay grapes.