Wine Sales Leveling Off

It couldn't keep going like that forever. Every year since 2009's negative growth during the recession U.S. winery sales have averaged about 10% growth each year -- until 2017. Last year's growth (thru 9/30/17) was just 0.3%. (Info from Silicon Valley Bank).

Does this mean a contraction is coming or just a leveling off?

Good ol' dependable
Ravenswood Zin
at about 15 bucks

Wine consumption is still growing in the U.S. and China, the only two major markets that are seeing growth. If you break U.S. sales down by price it's the very cheap and very expensive wines that are suffering. Wines around $15-$20 are doing nicely.

Possibly one bit of bad news for luxury goods like premium wine is with the two biggest generations of consumers, the Boomers and the Millennials. One has money, but is aging out of the wine market; the other doesn't yet have the income to purchase high-end wines.

Millennials are probably why we're seeing good sales of $15-$20 wines. This is likely also why we're seeing good growth in red blends, rosés, and Prosecco as they often fall in this price range. Wine sales in the $50-$99 range are actually doing okay, too. That's probably from the Boomers that haven't yet retired (by definition the youngest Boomers are in their mid-50s now).