Domestic wines key driver for growth in US market
Domestic table wines were responsible for a 4% increase in US wine sales last month, helping the total US wine market to shift up 3% to over $73bn in the past year.
According to market research firm bw166 domestic wine sales, including bulk imports, approached the $50 billion mark in the past year, a 4% increase compared to a year ago. These wines were the key driver behind the growth, rising by 5% to over $45bn, while over the same period domestic sparkling wines increased by 2% and bulk imports plummeted by nearly a quarter (23%), to $1.5bn.
In the off trade, Nielsen reported domestic wine sales of $810 million in the 52 weeks ended July 13, a mere 1% gain versus last year. Case sales, meanwhile, dropped more than 2% in the period versus a year earlier to 9.1 million.
Bucking the market as a whole, however, sparkling wines outperformed table wines, gaining more than 4% in value and 2% in volume. Table wines on the other hand gained less than 1% in value while volumes slid by more than 2%.
This reflects the ongoing premiumisation trend, with consumers spending more on a lower volume of wine. And when it comes to premium purchases, Cabernet Sauvignon is at the top of the rankings, with sales of $2.7 billion in the latest 52 weeks, up 3% from last year. But consumers are also increasingly turning to lighter wines, with sales of rosé, the tenth most-popular varietal by value, increasing by a quarter (25%) to $535 million in sales in the period.
Meanwhile, direct to consumer (DtC) shipments posted the strongest growth, with Wines Vines Analytics/ShipCompliant reporting value up 8% in July to As in the off trade, Cabernet Sauvignon was the varietals driving growth in this sector being the most-valuable and fastest-growing of the top varietals.
Cabernet Sauvignon shipments amounted to $912 million in the year to July, up 13% from the previous year. It now accounts for more than 29% of shipments in a channel that saw $3.1 billion worth of shipments in the latest 12 months. It was also the sole varietal among the top eight to record increasing sales; all others saw growth slow in the period.