The Demise of Domestic Wine Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

You may remember a year ago when 2005 market data showed that imports were growing faster than domestic wines. Some bloggers called this a trend, but I didn't believe that, calling it a "blip". Well, the worm has turned and IRI data in 2006 showed robust growth for domestic wines, who grew 10.5% compared to domestics, who increased 8.6%. Imports did grow volume (i.e. bottles) faster, but did so at the expense of price point (in other words much of their growth must have come from lower-priced wines like yellow tail, Black Swan, Cavit, etc.).

Interesting information by region as well:

California +10.1% sales growth
Oregon/Wash. +16.1%
Argentina +31.5%
Chile +.2%
France +3.4% (the revolution lives...? or struggles on?)

This information was reported by Wine Market Report, check it out for the full story.