Majority of Americans Buy Wine, Poll Shows

A new survey from The Harris Poll ® finds that almost six out of ten Americans are wine buyers, while 39% say they never buy a bottle of wine. Wine buyers are purchasing slightly more wine than they were five years ago.

 

When it comes to drinking wine, just over half of wine drinkers say they drink wine once a month or less often while 18% drink two or three times a month, 7% drink once a week, and one in five drink twice a week or more often.

 

These are some of the findings of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,475 U.S. adults aged 21 and over who buy or drink wine, and were surveyed online by Harris Interactive between December 9 and December 15, 2008.

 

More Americans are consuming wines from Australia, Chile, Argentina and South Africa and less people are drinking French and Italian wines.  However, nine out of ten American wine buyers and drinkers drink or buy wine from the United States, with almost the same number as in 2004.  Next on the list of countries where people do buy or drink wine from are: Italy (37%, down from 44%); Australia (37% up from 32%); France (34% down from 40%); Germany (22%, almost unchanged from 23%); Spain (22% and new this year); and Chile (20% up from 16%).

 

 

One thing that has remained consistent in the past four years is the amount of money that American wine buyers are spending on a bottle of wine.  Just over one-quarter of wine buyers spent less than $10 on their last bottle while three in ten spent between $10 and $14.  Just under one-quarter spent between $15 and $19 on their last bottle while one in five spent over $20.  When it comes to spending a lot on a bottle, over one-third of wine buyers say they have spent $30 or more on a bottle of wine.

 

 

Even in hard economic times (and maybe more so because of them) Americans are still buying and drinking wine, both from the U.S. and from other countries.  Many wine drinkers, just like they were four years ago, are interested in wines from other countries, but haven"t made the leap into purchasing them yet.  These wine producing countries, with a little more marketing, need to let American wine purchasers know they are out there and showcase the types of wines they offer.  If they can make a case for being more affordable than wines from other countries, that might also help spur their sales.