The U.S. is now the #1 export market for Portuguese Wine
Portuguese wines have been growing in popularity in the U.S. market over the past decade and this year the U.S. just surpassed Angola to become the #1 export market. Sales of Portuguese wine in the U.S. grew by more than 8 percent to just under 75 million dollars. The...
The state of Georgia signs new alcohol bill
The new alcohol sales bill, signed by Governor Nathan Deal, will allow beer and liquor manufacturers to sell their products directly to consumers from the manufacturing plant. Senate Bill 85 was signed into law on May 8th and will take effect begin September 1st 2017....
New Zealand wine exports to the U.S. breaks $500 million
Earlier it was reported that New Zealand wine has been growing rapidly in the U.S. market and is now in the top 3 in volume for countries exporting wine to the U.S. market. Updating that report, New Zealand wine exports have now surpassed $500 million in value for the...
Mexican alcohol imports on the rise
A recent Nielsen report shows that imported Mexican alcohol sales are on the rise. On-premise tequila sales grew by 7 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Tequila wildly outperformed the total spirits category, which saw limited growth during the same time period....
Winemakers slowly coming around to the idea of canned wine
Canned wine was seen as a far fetched idea, and almost a joke as recently as 2009. Canned wine even made its way into a popular comedy show at the time – It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. But the growing popularity of canned wine has taken hold and winemakers are...
Wine becoming integral part of Washington state culture
The state of Washington has slowly been embracing the wine culture over the past 40 years. The industry started in Spokane and grew from there. Beginning in the early 80’s there were only 30 to 40 wineries but at the time most people didn’t even know they existed....
Virginia stores report huge demand for brown spirits
Spirited Virginia, a Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control publication, recent said that inventory levels of many brown spirits are low due to “explosive growth” in the market segment. Over the past year the state has seen double digit growth in brown...
2012 looks to be a great year for Brunello
Many used to believe that even numbered vintages produced lesser quality Brunello, said a leading producer. The 2012 vintage is apparently so good this year that it has completely blown that theory out of the water. The weather conditions for that year were excellent,...
Nielsen Spirits Update for April
New numbers for April were recently released by Nielsen. Distilled spirits dollar sales were up by almost 5 percent in the past 4 weeks, 2 percent greater than the expected growth rate. In fact, every major spirits category outperformed their 3 month trends with...