The State of Wine in America

Vinology has a really, really, really interesting (and a little sad) report on the top wines consumed in America last year. As I mentioned in a post awhile back, consumption of vino in the States is up, and has been every year for over a decade. But what's so interesting about this report, is that it shows how (for lack of a better word) cheap our tastes are.

Out of the top ten, there's only one red in the bunch. That red, which is made by Australian vintners Yellowtail, retails for under ten dollars and, in my opinion, is almost undrinkable. Other highlights on the list include boxed wine, saccharine-sweet white zinfandel and a number of other grocery store standards. Here's a bit from the post:

"Based on the simple measure of how many cases of each wine were sold at these restaurants, we get a picture of the most important person in America when it comes to wine: the average American wine consumer.

And why is this person so important? Because they are the bread and butter of the wine industry. They are the fuel for the wine engine. They are the bottom 95%, so to speak, whose spending habits make (or break) the market and who make up the pool of wine drinkers from which true wine lovers slowly graduate to more expensive wines and esoteric habits like...reading wine blogs."

So for all the gushing I've down about our wine culture, it looks like there's still a lot of ground to cover. Follow the link at the start of this post for the full report. You might be surprised.