Wine case sales continue to rise

Weak dollar but slowly regaining economy combine to improve wine case sales.

Reporter: Ayinde O. Chase

August 10, 2011 12:32 pm EDT

Wine industry experts say their market is regaining its momentum to mark the 17th consecutive year of case gains.

Analysts say case gains is a result of the improving economy and the resulting increase in consumer confidence.

According to the Beverage Information Group's recently released 2011 Wine Handbook, overall wine consumption rose 2.1% to 303.1 million 9-liter cases in 2010.

Because of the dollar's weaker value exports have been bolstered. Imports continue to be outpaced by their domestic counterparts.

This trend has been seen over the past several years partially due to currency issues shrinking importers' margins.

Domestics rose 3.0% to 229.4 million cases, and imported wines lost 0.9% to end the year at 73.6 million cases. In addition, Australian wines were down by 12.5%, and wine imports from Italy have taken the lead.

"The future of the wine industry looks bright," says Eric Schmidt, Manager of Information Services for the Beverage Information Group based in Norwalk, Conn. "Overall wine consumption is expected to increase over the next five years to 321.9 million cases."

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