Wine sales in the United States from all production sources increased 2 percent from the previous year to a new record of 360.1 million 9-liter cases with an estimated retail value of $34.6 billion, according to Wine Industry Consultant Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, Woodside, Calif. Of this total, almost two-thirds or 207.7 million cases of California wine account for a 58 percent share of U.S. wine sales with an estimated retail value of $22 billion, he says. Including exports, California wine shipments to all markets in the United States and abroad reached 250.2 million cases in 2012, he says.
"The U.S. is the largest wine market in the world with 19 consecutive years of volume growth," said Robert P. Koch, president and chief executive officer of Wine Institute, San Francisco, in a statement. "Competition for retail shelf space and consumer attention is intense, so California's high-quality, record wine grape harvest in 2012 could not have come at a better time. California vintners continue to respond to growing worldwide demand with a wide array of outstanding wines from regions throughout the state, and Wine Institute is supporting the effort by opening markets and eliminating trade barriers in the United States and abroad."