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Monday, March 19, 2007
‘Merlot’ banned in Utah, and all I want to know is: who was the anonymous tattletale?
Check out this Associated Press story as well as this Salt Lake Tribune story and answer me this: What would be an appropriate “people’s justice” for the anonymous caller who tattled on the license-plate owner?
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Riesling’s in, white zin is out; New Zealand’s hot, and Chile’s, well, chilly.
More fun facts from the “Beverage Alcohol Annual Snapshot: A Review of 2006 — What’s Hot, and Not” produced by The Nielsen Company:
— Sangria was the fastest-growing category among wine sales in 2006, with sales jumping 10.9 percent compared with the previous year. Sales of table wines (chardonnay, cabernet, and other non-sparkling wines), which constitutes 86.3 percent of the entire wine category, rose a handsome 6.9 percent. Non-alcohol wines dropped 3 percent.
— When the folks at Nielsen looked at the sales figures of wines by their country of origin compared to the previous year, New Zealand was the biggest winner, with sales surging 38.4 percent in 2006. Other winners included South Africa, Argentina, Spain and Germany, with sales increases of 21 to 26 percent. But combined, all of the abovementioned countries still account for less than 4 percent of the market, while domestic wines account for more than 70 percent of the market, followed by Australia (10.2 percent of wine sales in the U.S.) and Italy, which has a 10 percent market share. The only country to record a sales drop was Chile, and that decline was less than 1 percent.
— Within that “domestic” category, California dominates, commanding a 64.9 percent total market share of all U.S. wine sales, and recording a 7.2 percent sales increase in 2006. Washington State, Texas and North Carolina experienced double-digit percentage sales increases compared to the previous year. Ohio was not listed separately in this particular report.
— The “hot” grape varieties in 2006 included Riesling (sales up 25.2 percent), pinot noir (up 20.3 percent), pinot grigio/gris (+17.9 percent), zinfandel (+11.6 percent) and cabernet sauvignon (+11.1 percent). The only grape variety to see a decline in sales? White Zin, down 0.7 percent. And chardonnay is still the dominant wine variety in America, accounting for nearly one out of every four bottle sold. Its sales rose 5.2 percent in 2006.
— Sales of rose table wine jumped 24 percent in 2006.
— Red wines sales appear to be benefitting from all of the positive health news that began to flood the airwaves in the fall of 2006. Over the first 16 weeks of 2007, red-wine sales accounted for 52.9 percent of all wine sales, compared to 51.6 percent over the same period in 2006, and up from 47 percent from 2003.
Any surprises here? Does this match your drinking trends? Or are we (ahem) ahead of the curve? For another take on the Nielsen numbers, check out our Wines & Vines friend Jim Gordon’s analysis of the numbers.
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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