The world’s top 50 wine markets grew 3% in value in 2017 compared to 2016, according to the latest Wine Intelligence Global Compass 2018-2019 report.
But while value grew, volumes sold remained the same as the previous year, indicating that consumers are prepared to spend more money on wine purchases, and reinforcing the trend in some countries towards ‘drinking less but better’.
However, the report also noted that bad harvests across the globe have helped drive price increases, while free trade agreements – particularly in Asia – have helped to lower prices while introducing new consumers to the category.
The US dominated the report’s metrics in terms of market attractiveness, followed by Germany, Canada, China and France. The report also reclassified a number of countries, changing the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and Belgium from ‘mature’ to ‘established’, and Japan from ‘growth’ to ‘established’, to reflect plateauing sales.
Other countries, including Italy, Portugal and Mexico, were bumped up from ‘emerging’ to ‘growth’.
According to Wine Intelligence CEO Richard Halstead, Donald Trump’s threatened trade war could “possible end a 25-year wine market growth” for the US, but otherwise, the global market “looks in pretty good health at the moment”.
