As a wine admirer over more decades that I care to count, I have often 
lamented that beer and bourbon remained supreme on the American alcohol consumption list, while wine was never in contention. 

This has now changed dramatically in just the past five years, as noted U.S. 
wine economist guru Jon Fredrikson pointed out in a speech at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium last month in Sacramento. "From the perspective of 3 ½ decades in the wine industry, I can assure you right now that .the future looks outstanding," and he predicts the U.S. wine market will surpass both France and Italy as the largest wine market in the world by the end of the decade.

The domestic wine market reached record sales volumes in 2005, as 
Americans bought an estimated 300 million cases, worth over $25 billion. 
Wine consumption on the European continentg is still far higher per capita 
than ours, but these figures have been sliding downward.

Fierce label competition is paced by imports from Europe, Australia, Chile 
and now Argemtina, with these regions creating premium wines at bargain 
price levels. New Zealand and South Africa have just become U.S. import 
sources. This has raised the bar for U.S. wineries who have found no 
salvation in exports, which have fallen.

Fredrikson credits Baby Boomers with fueling the market’s flames, as they 
spend their risen incomes on good wine as the restaurant industry emphasizes food and wine pairings. The sheer volume of drinking age U.S. adults has  grown from 164 million in 2000 to an estimated 184 million by 2010, and  there is a youth movement toward vino as beer sales have leveled off despite
the national brands emphasis on advertising their suds.

Hit movie hypes sales

The film "Sideways," released in 2005, gets considerable credit for making 
American Wine Country and wine tasting very "in" things to do. The screen 
play is set in the Paso Robles area of west central California and touts the 
desirability of Pinot Noir as wine of choice. The Oregon wine region first 
earned international repute with this varietal, and local wineries are seeisng a 
healthy sales boost for this glamorous red since the film gained attention. 
Pinot Noir, in fact, gained a whopping 8 5.4% in volume this past year. Its 
varietal cousin, white Pinot Gris, continues to gain sales stature, gaining 28% 
in dollar sales. 

The big three varietals in sales: Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet  
Sauvignon, showed only modest gains in 2005, each under 10%. Merlot has slipped the most. The domestic market’s growing wine appreciation is  underlined by the decline of White Zinfandel popularity, though one should credit this category with exposing the uninitiated to wine consumption, and
as  any wine afcionado will testify, once you taste something better in 
fermented grapes, you don’t reverse direction. The red grape known as
Syrah in California and Shiraz in Australia, is showing the same meteoric
sales gain as Pinot Noir. 

Australia dominates the imported wine category, passing both French and 
Italian U.S. sales in 2005. Chilean wines, noted import sales stars in the past
decade, have slipped, but exceed France, which now ranks fourth behind 
Aussie, Italian and Chilean volume on our shores.

Domestic labels outsold imports almost 4-1 in ‘05, but gained only 2.5% vs.
a 6.4% rise for offshore products.

"A glass of Chardonnay" was the popular by-the-glass call in American  saloons and restaurants over the years, but the growth of wine appreciation is now mirrored by the fact that sales of whites and reds in 2005 were virtually  dead even, and blush was a distant third. 

© 2006 Oregon Magazine