United States is world's largest wine market

French people still drink more wine

According to the OIV, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, American consumers purchased a total of 29.1 million hectoliters of wine in 2013, a 0.5 % increase compared to 2012, while French consumption dropped 7 % to 28.1 million hectoliters. In total, from 2002 to 2011, the average sale per French person dropped 20 %, while the US went up nearly 17 %.

That does not mean that Americans now drink more wine than your average Frenchman: according to the latest numbers, French citizens drink 1.2 bottles of wine per week, which is 6 times higher than in the United States. America however has 300 million residents, a whole lot more than “tiny” France.

Volumes dropped

“In countries such as France, Italy and Spain, people used to drink a lot of wine, but consumption habits are changing. We [Europeans] drink less wine by volume, more quality wine. In the US, [people] have a tendency to consume more and more, notably quality wine”, OIV director general Jean-Marie Aurand said.

The worldwide wine production grew 9.4 % to 279 million hectoliters in 2013 and while the volumes sold dropped 2.2%, higher prices resulted in a 1.5 % turnover increase to 25.7 billion euro.