Spanish/Argentinian Wine Consumption Falls

http://www.just-drinks.com/news_detail.asp?art=24808
Spanish wine consumption fell 1.3% to 562m litres in the first half of 2004 as Spaniards drank less wine at home, according to a report by national wine federation FEV.
A 3.4% gain to 337m litres in bar-and-restaurant wine drinking could not offset a 7.7% fall to 18.7m litres in home consumption, the report said.
The figures show that 60% of Spanish wine drinking takes place outside the home, "very differently from the extra-domestic consumption of other countries" FEV said.
Spanish demand for Cavas and other more expensive wines rose 8.7% to 1m litres compared to the same year-ago period. Table-wine drinking fell by almost 17m litres.

http://www.just-drinks.com/news_detail.asp?art=24821
Per capita consumption of Argentine wine in the domestic market fell 9.72% in August compared to the same month last year.
Across the whole population, per capita consumption fell to 2.5 litres. Consumption of those over the age of 18 also fell, by 10.27% to 3.76 litres on average, according to the figures from INV, the country’s wine institute.
Meanwhile exports of Argentina’s wine and grape juice reached US$26.7m in July 2004, up 32.86% year-on-year, according to INV.
In the first seven months of the year wine and grape juice exports totalled US$155.52m, a 29% year-on-year increase.
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What does this mean for the US market? Continued flood of cheap Spanish wines (woo-hoo!) and some great deals on Argentinians as well....

If these trends continue, the US may actually catch another wine producing country in per-capita consumption. Probably not, unless we somehow boot Utah, Mississippi, etc....