Wine Drinking Drops for 2nd Year in a Row
Wine consumption in the U.S. dropped sharply for the second straight year in 1989, according to statistics released Thursday.
Drinkers in California, New York and Washington, the top three wine-producing states, drank the most wine per capita, but New Hampshire was the only state to show a gain in consumption over 1988, according to Wines & Vines, a trade publication.
Americans last year drank 2.11 gallons of wine per capita, the lowest consumption of any major wine-producing nation and a 5.8% drop from 1988. Consumption in 1988 dropped 5% from 1987 figures.
By comparison, Americans over 21 drank 33.7 gallons of beer, 2.16 gallons of distilled spirits and about 35 gallons of coffee. Adult-only wine consumption was 3.03 gallons per capita.
Reflecting a national trend against alcohol consumption, individual states posted figures showing as much as a 19.5% drop from 1988. That distinction went to Arizona, where a half-gallon less of wine per capita was consumed last year than in 1988.
The domestic wine market, including imports, fell 5.2% to 523 million gallons. It was a 64.1-million gallon drop from a high point of 587.1 million gallons in 1986, said the report.
Domestic table wines--still wines not more than 14% alcohol--fell 2.6%, while production of domestic champagnes dropped 6.3%. Last year marked the fourth straight year of decline for foreign champagne sales in this country; they were down 7.8% to 12 million gallons.
In 1985, champagne imports to the United States hit a peak of 15.8 million gallons, almost all of it from Italy, France and Spain, which together produce more than half of all the wine consumed in the world.
California wines accounted for 72.8% of all wine consumed in the U.S., while the other 42 wine-producing states held 12.6% of the market. The rest of the market, 14.6%, were imports.
Wines & Vines blamed the market drop on the continuing loss of ground of generic or jug wines, nearly all of it produced in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and a 16.7% dip in wine cooler sales.
It was the second double-digit loss in two years for the coolers, the sales phenomenon of the early 1980s that rescued California wine for several years. In 1988 and 1989, cooler sales fell 33.3 million gallons, falling from 21% of wine market share to 17% last year.
Still, the coolers--mostly cheap white wine, fruit juice and carbonated water--represented one of six gallons of wine sold in this country last year.
WINE CONSUMPTION Per-capita wine consumption in 1989, by state.
Percent Gallons change State per capita from ’88 Alabama 1.04 -7.1 % Alaska 2.64 -5.7 Arizona 2.10 -19.5 Arkansas 0.77 -8.3 California 3.75 -10.1 Colorado 2.28 -3.8 Connecticut 2.96 -7.2 Delaware 2.35 -6.0 District of Columbia 5.55 -11.3 Florida 2.47 -6.1 Georgia 1.47 -5.2 Hawaii 2.62 -4.7 Idaho 1.80 -15.5 Illinois 2.17 -5.7 Indiana 1.19 -7.8 Iowa 1.12 -4.3 Kansas 0.78 -15.2 Kentucky 0.73 -3.9 Louisiana 1.39 -1.4 Maine 2.09 -8.7 Maryland 2.15 -5.3 Massachussetts 2.99 -6.6 Michigan 1.82 -8.1 Minnesota 1.65 -10.8 Mississippi 0.55 same Missouri 1.39 -10.9 Montana 1.76 -8.3 Nebraska 1.17 -11.4 Nevada 4.54 -6.4 New Hampshire 3.12 +3 New Jersey 3.17 -1.6 New Mexico 1.71 -12.3 New York 2.64 -6.0 North Carolina 1.71 -3.9 North Dakota 1.03 -8.8 Ohio 1.38 -8.1 Oklahoma 0.81 -4.7 Oregon 2.88 -10 Pennsylvania 1.16 -2.5 Rhode Island 2.92 -6.7 South Carolina 1.48 -6.9 South Dakota 0.88 -8.3 Tennessee 0.86 -4.4 Texas 1.57 -1.3 Utah 0.72 -5.3 Vermont 3.21 -7.0 Virginia 1.95 na Washington 3.18 -7.8 West Virginia 0.66 -9.6 Wisconsin 1.89 -6.9 Wyoming 1.29 -5.1
Source: Wines & Vines