Wine Sales Down 5% for 2nd Straight Year

Wine consumption in the United States dropped sharply for the second straight year in 1989, with Mississippians drinking the least and tipplers in the District of Columbia the most, a trade publication reported.

Drinkers in California, New York and Washington, the top wine-producing states, drank the most per capita, but New Hampshire was the only state to show a gain in consumption over 1988, according to Wines & Vines.

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 was off 5% from 1987.

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. In Arizona, a half-gallon less 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.

California wines accounted for 72.8% of consumption, while the other 42 wine-producing states held 12.6% of the market. The rest of the market, 14.6%, was imports.

Wines & Vines blamed the market drop on a continuing falloff in generic or jug wines, nearly all of it produced in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and a 16.7% dip in wine cooler sales.

Blush varietals such as white zinfandel and white grenache continued to gain market share, while premiums, which cost more than $3 a bottle, increased 7%.