(TheDrum) - With a typically optimistic portrayal of the great British summer already on our screens, we are heading into one of the two ‘high seasons’ for wine as the gentle chatter of garden parties and smoke of barbecues float across the fences. The rise of the chatterati’s appreciation of the wine selection in the discounters, as well as the development of specialist offers from Waitrose and Tesco is putting ‘wine merchants’ under pressure.

We therefore decided to compare the online performances of five popular wine distributors in the UK: Majestic Wine, Laithwaites, Berry Brothers and Rudd, Naked Wines and The Sunday Times Wine Club.