Capping several years of steady, modest growth for both domestic and import wines, the wine market in the United States continues to grow, experts note. Fueled by consumers’ interest in fine wine and increased product launches, the market has grown “at mid-single-digit rates on dollars [and] smaller single-digit rates on volume as consumers continue to trade up to more expensive wines,” says Danny Brager, senior vice president of beverage alcohol for New York-based Nielsen. “Sparkling wines in particular continue to grow dynamically at double-digit rates.”
Susan Viamari, vice president of Thought Leadership for Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI), also points to this trend. “The wine market is on a positive growth trajectory during the past several years. Imported wines outpaced domestic through 2015 and the first half of 2016,” Viamari says. “Dollar sales in 2016 increased 5.9 percent [for] domestic and 4.4 percent [for] imported. In 2015, domestic grew 8 percent and imported grew 6.2 percent.