South Korea is now the ‘second most attractive’ wine market after the US, new report reveals

A new report by Wine Intelligence shows South Korea is closing the gap between itself and the US as the most sought-after global wine market.

In 2020, South Korea jumped eight places to bag the number two spot in the world for ‘most attractive global wine market’, according to The Global Compass Report. This year, not only has South Korea succeeded in retaining this position, but results from the latest report show it is also inching closer to its nearest rival.

The Global Compass 2021 Report is an annual study that measures key economic and wine market factors to rank the attractiveness of wine in 50 focus countries.

“Wine growth in the US is tailing off, whereas still wine volume in South Korea grew by more than +11% CAGR 2016-2020, according to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis,” said Lulie Halstead, CEO at Wine Intelligence.

Aside from the US and South Korea, the remaining top-5 ranked markets in the study are the UK, Ireland, and Germany, which all saw strong wine volumes during the year.

The report notes that Colombia has joined Brazil, Poland, Romania, South Korea, and Singapore as a “growth” market in 2021, with Mexico and Russia falling from that category down into the “emerging” wine markets category.

China, also considered an “emerging” market, fell 13 places in the rankings to settle at the number 17 spot.