A Deep Statistical Look Into America’s Producers and Consumers
Over the last nine-plus years of this column’s tenure gracing The Examiner’s pages, I’ve intermittently focused on the raw statistics of wine production and consumption in the United States.
The history of our collective wine consumption is rather unique. Compared to the nations of Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, we are rather new at this indulgence. While we trace our wine roots to 18th and 19th century Spanish missionaries and European immigrants, those countries across the Atlantic Ocean can trace their roots as far back as 6,000 years ago.
And of course, the United States had a minor interruption in wine production and consumption, setting us back a step compared to other nations. Prohibition effectively shut down production and consumption for over a decade. Realistically, today’s wine industry is less than 100 years old.
But, in typical American style, the domestic wine industry, supported by thirsty consumers, picked itself up by the bootstraps, then caught up to, and surpassed, the rest of the wine-consuming world. By 2010, the United States became the top-consuming nation in the world.
A few wine producer stats:
There are currently more than 9,000 domestic wineries and tens of thousands of labels. Annual production is 326 million cases. Wine is commercially produced in all 50 states. As you would expect, California leads the pack, accounting for 46 percent of wineries, yet it produces 87 percent of all wine. By contrast, New York is home to 4 percent of wineries and is responsible for 4 percent of total wine production.
These stats continually boggle my mind: 84 percent of domestic wines are produced by 2 percent of the wineries; 70 percent of wines sold in chain restaurants are attributable to 10 percent of all brands produced; the 25 fastest growing wines are produced by two wineries, Gallo and Constellation.
A few more: Domestic wineries account for 65 percent of overall consumption, according to the Beverage Information Group, a national tracking organization. These statistics include wine consumed in-home and at wine bars, restaurants and group events. I have a suspicion that the latter two categories account for a substantial portion of total consumption (restaurant house wines, wedding reception wines, corporate events). The top supplier of the remaining 25 percent is Italy.
One more: Napa Valley lays claim to the most expensive wines in the United States, but it produces only 4 percent of the total wines (although it is the number one tourist attraction in California; Disneyland is second).
A few wine consumer stats:
Americans consume more wine than the French and the Italians, who are experiencing declines due to the changing beverage preferences of their youth and stricter DUI laws. And our average annual per capita consumption is 2.94 gallons (a record), or nearly 15 bottles. That’s 1.25 bottles per month (one glass per week) for every man, woman and child in the United States, which pales in comparison to our other favorite beverages (beer 28 gallons; bottled water 39 gallons; carbonated soft drinks 38 gallons).
But we are not at the top of this category. Who are the top per capita wine consumers? While the French (57 bottles, 4.4 glasses per week) and Italians (45 bottles, 3.5 glasses) consume substantially more than Americans, the residents of Andorra and Vatican City top the list at 5.7 glasses per week. The United States is not even in the top 50 countries. Of course, population accounts for the apparent dichotomy in consumption statistics; the United States population base of 300 million dominates Italy and France, with slightly more than 60 million each.
How do these statistics compare to your personal consumption and preference profiles? Don’t lose sight of the underlying basis for all of the above stats: they measure the continuing popularity of wine consumption as a pleasurable experience.
As someone much more insightful than I once said: “99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story.”
Nick Antonaccio is a 40-year Pleasantville resident. For over 20 years he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. Nick is a member of the Wine Media Guild of wine writers. He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reach him at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com or on Twitter @sharingwine.
