REPORTS of a global wine shortage could prove to be a boon for a company that sells giant kits for producing bottles at home.

Grapes 2 Wine says the price of a bottle in the shop is likely to rise further after Morgan Stanley reported that production had dropped to its lowest levels in more than four decades.

Now the company, based in Lower Pennington Lane, Lymington, is selling a giant version of a popular wine-making kit for £720 on Amazon.

The kit comes in six grape varieties and the company says it yields 400 bottles in four weeks.

The price works out at £1.80 a bottle for the equivalent of a £6 supermarket wine, the firm says.

Home wine making has seen a resurgence since the recession.

Portugeuse Cork estimates there were two million corks sold in the UK last year for home production – suggesting 100,000 home wine kits were sold that year.

Mike Hobby, founder of Grapes 2 Wine, predicted another spike in home wine-making following the Morgan Stanley report.

He said: “The report showed that demand exceeded supply by 300 million cases in 2012.

“If this continues, prices will inevitably rise and put already cash-strapped consumers in a tight spot.

“Add this to the fact that wine prices are already at an all-time high and tax now accounts for 60 per cent of a bottle and the reasons for consumers to make their own wine really stack up.”

He added: “The British public has become a lot more discerning when it comes to wine since the days of the awful 1980s home-brew kits.

“They are a lot more au fait with what they like and don’t like and now it’s all about quality wine.

“They want their Cabernet Sauvignons and Merlots.

“Now they can make those themselves at home for £1.80 a bottle and they know what went into it.”

Grapes 2 Wine’s standard wine kits, which cost £49.95 for a starter kit with all the juice and equipment and £54.95 for the juice kits, yield 30 bottles each time.