Wine Sales Down 5% for 2nd Straight Year

SAN FRANCISCO — Wine consumption in the United States dropped sharply for the second straight year in 1989, with Mississippians drinking the least and tipplers in the District of Columbia the most, a trade publication reported.

Drinkers in California, New York and Washington, the top wine-producing states, drank the most per capita, but New Hampshire was the only state to show a gain in consumption over 1988, according to Wines & Vines.

Americans last year drank 2.11 gallons of wine per capita, the lowest consumption of any major wine-producing nation and a 5.8% drop from 1988. Consumption in 1988 was off 5% from 1987.

By comparison, Americans over 21 drank 33.7 gallons of beer, 2.16 gallons of distilled spirits and about 35 gallons of coffee. Adult-only wine consumption was 3.03 gallons per capita.

Reflecting a national trend against alcohol consumption, individual states posted figures showing as much as a 19.5% drop from 1988. In Arizona, a half-gallon less wine per capita was consumed last year than in 1988.

The domestic wine market, including imports, fell 5.2% to 523 million gallons. It was a 64.1-million-gallon drop from a high point of 587.1 million gallons in 1986.

California wines accounted for 72.8% of consumption, while the other 42 wine-producing states held 12.6% of the market. The rest of the market, 14.6%, was imports.

Wines & Vines blamed the market drop on a continuing falloff in generic or jug wines, nearly all of it produced in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and a 16.7% dip in wine cooler sales.

Blush varietals such as white zinfandel and white grenache continued to gain market share, while premiums, which cost more than $3 a bottle, increased 7%.