New Wine Opinions Study Examines “Trading Down”

New Report on Wine Consumer and Trade Trends Released
The “Trading Down” Phenomenon Fully Explored

St. Helena, CA (October 6, 2009) – A new study of wine consumers and members of the U.S. wine trade conducted by Wine Opinions offers the first comprehensive and in-depth examination of shifts in the wine market within a foundering economy.

The  report – Market Track 1 – presents the results of independently conducted surveys of  the Wine Opinions trade and consumer panels and focuses on wine preferences and  sales by price point and appellation in both the on and off-premise sectors. It also reports trade strategies for coping with the new market environment.

The study confirms the trade-down trend and measures how it occurs as prices
transition from $10 to over $20 a bottle. Over one-third of consumers reported
boosting purchases wines costing from $6 to $15, while over 40 percent had cut back  buying wines over $30 and were not buying wines costing over $50 at all.

“The financial effect is a key part, but not the whole story,” explains Christian Miller, Director of Research for Wine Opinions, “when we broke out consumers by financial condition, we found shifts in purchasing even among those consumers who were better off. And yet some of the trends that were in place before the recession have survived intact.”

Among imported wines sold for under $20, the greatest gains shown are for wines from Argentina, Chile, and Spain.

Within California, wines from Sonoma County and Paso Robles showed the greatest increases in sales over the past 12 months, though most major regions showed at least modest gains. “There are some interesting divergences in purchase behavior among sub-segments of consumers,” notes John Gillespie, founder of Wine Opinions.

“For example, while out-of-state wine consumers are modestly increasing their California wine purchases across most major regions, Californians themselves are shifting between regions within California.”

The report also examines trends in wine club memberships, shifts in retail channels,  and changing wine purchase behaviors in restaurants. Trends among wine sellers are reported, including changes in sales by appellation and price point, use of social media to reach consumers, and sales promotion factors seen to be increasingly important.

The Market Track 1 report – the first of a series – is available to members of the wine trade on the Wine Opinions site at http://wineopinions.com/store.html.

The cost of the 75-page report is $395.
Information contact:
John Gillespie
Wine Opinions
(707) 815-9463
jgillespie@wineopinions.com