A recently published study
by a wine distributor showed the current trends in wines sales in the United
States this year.
The top five brands were
Barefoot, Franzia, Yellow Tail, Kendall-Jackson and Sutter Home. Only the
Kendall-Jackson cost more than $10 a bottle, and the Franzia (which comes in a
five-liter box) was about $2 a bottle.
Only eight of the 89 brands
in the report cost more than $15 a bottle, and only one cost more than $20 a
bottle.
The average price for the
top 89 brands was about $7 a bottle, more or less the average price of a bottle
of wine sold in the U.S.
The top 10 brands were not
natural or boutique or artisan, but made by the biggest multi-national
companies in the world, including E&J Gallo (Barefoot and Gallo Family) and
Constellation (Woodbridge and Clos du Bois).
In the Wine Spectator's top 100 wines of 2011,
only nine cost less than $20, only one cost less than $10, and only two were
regional wines. In other words, almost the exact opposite of the real world.
Yes, this may not be an
exact comparison, since the Spectator list measures "quality." But
that itself is significant, since it says that the wine that most of us drink
is inferior and doesn't cost enough. That's a stunning assumption to make, and
exists almost nowhere but wine.
What are you drinking this
year?
Cheers
Tim
