Americans’ wine consumption dropped for the first time in 25 years
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Wine is falling out favour with Americans.
That’s according to a new report from industry group IWSR that found wine consumption has dropped for the first time in 25 years. Instead, Americans are drinking more spirits and ready-to-drink cocktails, like hard seltzers, following a broader trend of people seeking out less caloric beverages as they become more health conscious.
Beer also remains on the decline with sales falling 2.3% — its fourth year of decreases. Sales of domestic beer brands, like Budweiser, fell 3.1% its analysis showed. But it wasn’t all gloom for the sector because craft beer sales jumped 4.1% and low or non-alcoholic beer sales grew 6.6%.
The biggest growth across booze was in the ready-to-drink category. Sales surged 50% last year, buoyed by the apparently unquenchable thirst for spiked seltzers and is now an $8 billion industry.
Spirits, the other major category to grow, has a new top brand. Smirnoff was dethroned as America’s top-selling distilled spirit with the honor going to Tito’s Homemade Vodka. Sales of the Austin-based brand jumped 20% last year. Mezcal, tequila and whiskies originating from several countries, such as Japan, Ireland and the US, also grew.
