Economy Down but Wine Sales Up

In the last year, when many Americans dealt with the tough times by cutting back on nonessentials, it appears that they did not cut down on the consumption of good wine.  Sales of wine priced at $20 and above are flying off the shelves at a record rate, the most successful since 2006. It seems that consumers are not only buying more wine, but more expensive bottles at that. According to SymphonyIRI, a retail data collector, dollar sales of bottles marked $20 or more are up 19 percent from January 2010 through Sept. 5, compared with the same 2009 period.

Sales are projected to keep growing for wines in all price ranges. Increased wine sales at supermarkets and food outlets show that Americans are moving their wine consumption into the home, where they can drink less expensively than at restaurants.

SymphonyIRI claims that wine sales even outpaced those of domestic beer during Memorial Day and July 4 weekends of 2010. In the year leading up this past Independence Day, U.S. wine volume sales grew 5 percent to a whopping 162 million cases worth $8.7 billion.

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