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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2009 > April > 07 > Entry
Americans, Canadians buck worldwide trend, boost wine consumption
Check out the hot-off-the-presses Associated Press story headlined “World wine consumption falls for 1st time in years”.
The numbers paint a picture of declining consumption in the traditional wine countries such as France and Italy while New World countries such as the U.S., Australia and Canada are discovering the magic of the grape in ever-increasing numbers.
Here’s an excerpt from the AP story:
After years of non-stop growth, global wine consumption started to retreat last year, along with the rest of the world economy, The International Organization of Vine and Wine said Tuesday.
The overall drop isn’t too dramatic: The group says its initial estimates for 2008 show consumption down 0.8 percent, at 243 million hectoliters (6.4 billion gallons) compared to 2007’s 245 million hectoliters.
But the latest figures on wine making and drinking around the world reveal a few key shifts. For the first time, the United States surpassed Italy in terms of total wine consumption, with 27.3 million hectoliters compared to 26 million for Italy, the group said.
… Consumption fell in all of Europe’s major wine-producing and consuming countries, including France, Italy and Germany, Europe’s biggest wine-drinking nations. The United States, Canada and Australia saved the day by raising more and more glasses, partially offsetting the European drop.
Nice to be on the positive side of this trend. But these numbers beg the question: What will 2009 bring?
We’ll ponder that over a nice glass of Riesling …
Thanks to Denise for spotting this story and forwarding it to Uncorked …
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Wine industry
Comments
By chiefwino
April 10, 2009 11:51 PM | Link to this
I did not have time to find the numbers for adult population. However, I believe the relative level of consumption would be similar, because the proportion of children would be similar between these western nations (i.e an ~5 to 1 ration of cases consumed).By Dylan, www.ourwinestory.com
April 9, 2009 12:38 PM | Link to this
I don’t know if chiefwino’s numbers work out properly. Unless the US population figure excludes persons under 21. The same goes for Italy’s figure, it would have to be representative of people 16 and older to be accurate for wine consumption per capita.By mel
April 8, 2009 4:14 PM | Link to this
I agree with chiefwino. if fact we probably exceed the italian consumption by several times over. at least some of us do(responsibly of course)By chiefwino
April 8, 2009 8:01 AM | Link to this
But if you look at per capita consumption (how much wine per person per year) then the US is in the minor leagues. Based on 2008 population numbers from the CIA World Fact Book (Italy population -58.145 million & USA -303.825 million). It works out to ~12 bottles of wine per American and ~60 bottles per Italian. Only a few years ago the average in the US was closer to 9 bottles a year. Based on the number of wine events going on in the Dayton area every week, we are certainly doing our part to keep the average up.