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Sales of California wine hit record in US

"I characterize it as wine finally really getting traction with the American public."

Jon Fredrikson, wine industry consultant and publisher of the Gomberg-Fredrikson Report

California wine sales in the US hit another record last year, a rise experts attribute to a jelling of factors from the Supreme Court weighing in on wine shipments to the vino-centric movie, Sideways.

"Wine is enjoying this wonderful moment of very favorable attitudes," said industry consultant Jon Fredrikson, who compiled the figures released on Monday by the California-based Wine Institute.

California wine shipments to US markets amounted to 1.7 billion liters at a retail value of US$16.5 billion, said Fredrikson, who is publisher of the Gomberg-Fredrikson Report.

That was up 3 percent from the 2004 record-setting 1.6 billion liters, which had a retail value of about US$15 billion.

Total California shipments to domestic and international markets was 2 billion liters, up slightly from 2004.

Domestic sales

About two out of every three bottles of wine sold in the US comes from California. Looking at sales of all wine, including other states and foreign producers, domestic sales grew by about 5 percent to 2.7 billion liters valued at US$26 billion.

Wine sales have been growing ever since 1991 when CBS' 60 Minutes, did its "French Paradox" story on perceived health benefits of wine, refocusing interest in that subject.

But about four years ago, the rate of growth picked up, Fredrikson said, because of a number of things including the introduction of "supervalues," such as Two Buck Chuck, the nickname of Charles Shaw wines which sell for US$1.99 in California.

Wine movie

The success of the wine road trip movie Sideways, which opened in fall 2004, and this summer's Supreme Court shipping ruling -- forcing states to treat both local and out-of-state wineries equally -- added to the momentum, Fredrikson said.

"I characterize it as wine finally really getting traction with the American public," he said.

Looking at wine by price, sales of wines US$7 and above grew 13 percent, while wines under US$7 declined 2 percent. As in 2004, red wine edged out whites with 41.7 percent of the market versus 41 percent. Blush wine accounted for the remaining 17 percent.

Room for growth

At Joseph Phelps Vineyards in St. Helena, president Tom Shelton was glad to see sales on the upswing, but noted that US consumption of wine still lags totals elsewhere.

"Clearly, there's a lot of room for wine to continue its consumption growth," he said.
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