High-End Wines Continue Dramatic Off-Premise Gains

High-end wines have continued their off-premise gains, garnering six of the top 10 sales spots, according to Wine Industry Insight’s analysis of data from Information Resources Inc. (IRI) for the four-week period ending July 12, 2009 over the same period last year. By contrast, the ten worst performing categories included only two in the $20+ range.

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VALUE PINOT NOIR LEADS GAINERS; SEGMENT 4 WHITE ZIN CRATERS

Pinot Noir selling for an average of $4.62 per 750ml bottle made the greatest gains while White Zin averaging $7.49 came in dead last among wines showing significant sales.

Syrah/Shiraz continues to perform with a split personality showing up twice in the five best performers and three times among the worst.

RED CONTINUES TO DOMINATE TOP SELLERS

While only three white categories made the top 10, two of the three wore high-end price tags:

• Segment 6 Pinot Grigio/Gris (avg. $14.67/bottle), up 28.4%
• Segment 1 Fume/Sauvignon Blanc (avg. $2.48/bottle), up 17.5%
• Segment 7 Chardonnay (avg. $25.41/bottle), up 16.2%

SALES & MARKET SHARES MIXED FOR TOP 10 LARGEST SEGMENTS

While Chardonnay selling for an average of $6.09 per bottle remained at the top of the dollar sales share category– at 7.5% — its share dropped 0.4% from the same four-week period in 2008. In addition, overall dollar sales were down 1.2%.

Of the 10 largest segments, six saw small market share declines while four also showed overall sales declines for the period. Merlot selling for an average of $6.23 per bottle showed the largest overall sales decline, dropping 5.4% from 2008. It also lost a 0.4% market share.