US driving global growth of still and sparkling wines

America is driving volume and value growth of both still and sparkling wines and will spend $45 billion on wine in 2021, according to new figures from Vinexpo.

America leads the way in global wine consumption

Vinexpo reports that the US spent nearly $34 billion on wine in 2016 and remains the firm leader in value sales of wine around the world.

This upward growth trend is forecast to rise higher yet over the next five years, with Vinexpo predicting that Americans will splash out $45 billion on wine in 2021.

The US has emerged as the global leader of volume and value sales of still and sparkling wine and looks set to extend this lead in the years to come.

New Zealand is being singled out as the future star performer in the US in terms of imports, while France is also set to perform strongly in America.

The country is expected to lead world wine volume growth in 2017 for the 23^rd consecutive year when the IWSR figures are revealed later this year.

The IWSR forecasts that 2.66 billion cases of wine worth over $224 billion will be sold around the world in 2021.

In stark contrast to America’s growing thirst for wine, traditional winemaking countries like France, Germany and Italy faced declining volume and value sales in 2016.

While imports fell by 1% in Italy in 2016, the country still welcomed 25.5 million cases of wine from abroad that year, while Australia imported 15.7 million cases.

Having emerged as one of the greatest wine success stories in recent years, global sales of sparking wine are predicted to grow by 2% year on year until 2021.

America will grow to become the largest importer of sparkling wine in the world by 2021, overtaking the UK, with Prosecco leading the charge.

The inaugural Vinexpo New York is due to take place on 5-6 March this year, while the first Vinexpo Paris is scheduled for 13-15 January 2020.