In 2010, the United States surpassed France as the largest wine consuming nation in the world, thanks in large part to the Millenial generation in its 20s and 30s that is appreciatively drinking wine like its Baby Boomer parents. The Millenials value wine to the extent that they are also willing to spend a lot more for it than the national average of $3 to $5.99 a bottle. The news came from Gromberg, Fredrikson & Associates, a wine industry consulting firm in Silicon Valley, and has been widely reported in California, which accounts for 61 percent of total sales in the U.S. with a retail value of $18.5 billion, not a shabby number. Another reason for increased consumption might be that all 50 states now produce wine. In any hamlet where people are making this most charming beverage, the neighbors happily learn to drink it.
For anyone with temperance tendencies, who might be worried by the information, please note that average wine consumption in our country is just 2.6 gallons per capita per year, whereas in France, it’s 14 gallons. We have precisely 11.4 gallons to go before we become French fried. Americans may drink very little wine, but regardless of the economy, the weather, or the occasion, we’re steadily drinking more. The world has taken notice, and the U.S. has become the premier destination for every wine producing nation on earth. Our country is the repository of an extraordinary array of different wines from various places at all prices, a virtual wine paradise for anyone who might like to step into a store and buy a bottle for dinner.
While we may be importing a lot of wine, we’re also exporting it. In 2010, U.S. wine exports, 90 percent from California, jumped 25.5% in value to an estimated $1.14 billion. I’m always surprised when I find a relatively small winery, maybe 10,000 cases, that allocates a certain amount for export. As one small producer told me, “Why not? It’s always good to diversify our market.” In other words, exporting wine is not a profit center just for big wineries. Thirty-eight percent of our wine was shipped to the European Union, and the other top markets were Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, and China.
A particularly joyous part of the Gromberg-Fredrikson announcement was that sparkling wine consumption increased 10 percent in the U.S. While the category is only 4.6 percent of all wine sales, the jump indicates that we’re drinking sparkling wine for occasions other than weddings. I love the trend and wouldn’t be without Prosecco to toast unexpected good news, a random visit, or friends who come through the door for a dinner..
The calendar marked the beginning of spring on 21 March. If the weather didn’t notice and is still cold in your county like it is here, take heart. The season will arrive and will be a very fine reason to open a wine with bubbles. Enjoy!
How wine consumption is actually counted
A headline about one country passing another rests on total volume, not on how much any single person drinks. Total volume rewards a large population, and the United States has roughly five times the residents of France. Per capita figures tell the opposite story, which is why both numbers can appear in the same report without contradicting each other.
Most national wine figures come from tax and shipment records rather than from surveys of drinkers. Wine is taxed when it leaves a bonded winery or clears customs, so the volume entering the market is documented long before anyone pulls a cork. Analysts then divide that volume by the population to produce a per capita figure. Wine Institute’s industry statistics pages gather the shipment and per capita series that most reporting on the American market relies on.
Two caveats follow from the method. Shipment volume counts wine that entered commerce in a given year rather than wine actually consumed that year, and it lumps together everything from jug wine to sparkling. It also divides across everyone counted, drinkers and abstainers alike, so the average per resident sits well below the average per drinker.
Two ways to size the same market
The two measures answer different questions, and confusing them produces most of the arguing that follows a wine statistic into print. One describes the size of a commercial opportunity. The other describes a drinking culture.
| Question | Total volume | Per capita volume |
|---|---|---|
| What it tracks | All wine entering a national market | Market volume divided by population |
| Driven by | Population size and distribution reach | Habits, meal customs, price and availability |
| Useful for | Sizing importers, shippers and retail demand | Comparing drinking cultures across countries |
| Blind spot | Says nothing about individual habits | Says nothing about the scale of the business |
Why the American market kept widening
Wine reached American tables through three separate channels that grew at once. Domestic production expanded well beyond the traditional coastal states, imports arrived from every producing country on earth, and grocery and restaurant distribution carried both to towns that had never stocked more than a few labels. Each channel widened the range a household could reach without traveling.
Local production matters more than its volume suggests. A winery in a state with no wine tradition introduces its neighbors to the category, and those neighbors go on to try wines from elsewhere. That pattern has repeated in region after region, which is why a small operation with a tasting room can shift local habits out of proportion to the cases it makes.
Exports followed the same logic in reverse. A producer that sends part of its production abroad spreads risk across markets with different currencies and different seasons, which is why modest wineries and not only large ones maintain export accounts. Our overview of California’s wine regions covers how differently these areas developed and why their output ranges so widely in style.
The sparkling wine detail worth keeping
Sparkling wine grew from a small base, which is exactly what makes the growth interesting. A category tied strictly to weddings and New Year’s Eve cannot expand much, because the number of those occasions is fixed. Growth in sparkling wine therefore signals that people were opening bottles on ordinary evenings.
That shift changed which bottles made sense to keep on hand. A wine reserved for ceremony appears once a year; a wine treated as an aperitif has to be affordable and easy to serve cold. Our notes on matching wine to celebrations take up the same question from the host’s side.
The same logic explains why sparkling wine sales concentrate so heavily in the last weeks of December in some markets and spread evenly through the year in others. Where bubbles are ceremonial, the calendar governs. Where they are simply a category of wine, weather and appetite govern instead, and the annual total climbs.
FAQ: reading wine consumption figures
Does per capita consumption mean the average person drinks that much?
No. Per capita figures divide the whole market across the whole population, including everyone who never drinks wine at all. Among people who actually drink wine, the average is considerably higher than the headline number.
Why do reported figures for the same year sometimes differ?
Different organizations measure at different points in the chain. Some count wine leaving wineries, some count wine cleared through customs, and some estimate retail sales, so the totals rarely match exactly. The trend line matters more than any single figure.
Are imports and domestic wine counted together?
National consumption figures normally combine both, since both are consumed in the same market. Production figures are the ones that separate domestic output from imports, which is why a country can be a large consumer without being a large producer.