The following is an excerpt from the Wine Market Council's 2009 Consumer Tracking Study final report. The complete report and study results are available to current Wine Market Council members. For more information about membership, please click here.

The U.S. wine market continues to grow, despite the recent U.S. economic downturn. From 2007 to 2008, table wine consumption increased by 1.2%, the smallest gain since 2001 but a positive one. Although American wine drinkers consume much less wine than many other countries on a per capita basis, the U.S. is only behind Italy in the volume of table wine consumed, is the number one market for wine sales when measured in dollars, and is the fourth largest producer of wine overall.

The length of the current period of growth of the U.S. wine market is unusual for a country with a history of ups and downs measured in decade-long periods. This history is marked by a sudden consumption surge in the 1970s, a lengthy slump in the 1980s, and a slow and steady climb that commenced in 1994 and continues today. Beginning at 1.05 gallons in 1970, the adult per capita consumption of table wine shot up to 2.58 gallons in 1982. Next, a long period of decline began, resulting in per capita consumption reaching a low of 1.89 gallons per adult in 1991. During this period, table wine consumption dropped from a high of 174 million cases consumed in 1982, to 140 million cases consumed in 1991.

Table wine consumption in the U.S. has grown every year since its uninterrupted climb began in 1994. In 1996, table wine consumption surpassed the 1982 level reaching 176 million cases. The 200 million case mark was reached in 2000, and consumption reached 272 million cases in 2008. U.S. per capita consumption reached 2.96 gallons in 2008.

The trend in demand for table wine in the U.S. has allowed the U.S. wine industry to weather the recent economic storm, although wine sales at higher price points and sales of imported wines have been negatively impacted. Recent consumption gains for table wine have been driven by many factors including the adoption of wine in early adulthood by the large Millennial generation, the availability of quality wine at all price levels, and the acceptance of moderate wine consumption as compatible with a healthy lifestyle. Also contributing were increased and more highly evolved marketing campaigns by major brand marketers, and the ongoing media campaign conducted by Wine Market Council since 1995 that has helped change consumer attitudes about the occasion appropriateness of wine.

A look back at the rise, decline, and resurgence of the table wine market in the U.S. reveals both long term trends and independent factors that account for the movement of this market.

The wine boom of the 1970s and early 1980s occurred as the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation (born between 1946 and 1955) matured and drove the consumer market with their unique set of tastes and lifestyle choices. Many of these were distinctly if not adamantly different than the tastes and choices of the generations preceding them. Wine as a preferred form of beverage alcohol was among these. White wine growth dominated this period, with the ubiquitous “glass of Chablis” spurring increased table wine consumption by displacing other beverage choices (mainly other beverage alcohol choices) on occasions previously deemed inappropriate for wine. The simultaneous proliferation of high quality, premium table wines from emerging U.S. producers and from Europe was both a stimulus and response to the burgeoning demand for table wine during this period.

The wine boom reached its peak in the mid-1980s. For more than a decade following the high point in both total and adult per capita table wine consumption the market sagged, until the upturn beginning in 1994. As previously noted, wine consumption more than doubled in a decade from just 1.05 gallons of table wine per adult in 1970 to 2.58 gallons in 1982. The volume and per capita losses which followed and continued through the 1980s and into the early 1990s occurred during a period of continually rising per capita disposable income, as well as during a time when the consumer price index for wine lagged behind that of beer, spirits, food, and for the average of all consumer goods.

The various factors contributing to the market decline in table wine through these years included:


Today, Generation X adults, mostly in their 30s, have accepted wine in significant numbers. Moreover, the Millennial generation is exhibiting the same receptivity to wine that leading edge Baby Boomers did more than thirty years ago. Like the Baby Boom generation that is 77 million strong, the Millennial generation with 70 million members makes their dominance in the market inevitable. This generation, on average, adds 5% more new adults to the U.S. population each year compared to Generation X. The Millennial generation offers the wine industry the kind of growth potential not seen in more than thirty years. Moreover, Millennial generation adult wine drinkers have been impacted less severely by the economic downturn than older generations, and are sustaining their taste for wine and choice of wine in a variety of casual, everyday situations. The fact, too, that there are nearly 20 million members of the Millennial generation who have yet to reach the age of 21 gives some assurance to wine marketers of continuing market growth in the near term.

The complete Wine Market Council 2009 Consumer Tracking Study report and study results are available to current Wine Market Council members. For more information about membership, please click here.