Sales of Buckfast tonic wine have soared across Britain due to English youths copying the hard-drinking antics of Scottish teenagers on YouTube, a leading academic has claimed.

Figures released yesterday showed Buckfast is now the best selling fortified wine in the UK with annual sales worth £31 million – a rise of 40 per cent in a year.

This means Buckfast now sells more that well-known brands such as Harvey’s Bristol Cream, Cockburns and Croft Original.

Produced by a community of monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, the drink has become synonymous with anti-social behaviour in Scotland, linked to 5,300 crimes in the Strathclyde Police area in the past three years.

However, the sales surge was greeted by Buckfast distributors, JD Chandlers, as evidence that the drink was shedding its image as a drink mainly consumed by teenagers in housing estates in Scotland.

• Full story at The Scotsman.

• Filed under Buckfast, Roman Catholic Church, Scottish Christian News Monitor.