American wine overtakes France

For the first time ever American wine sales have overtaken French in the UK. In the year to November 2008 sales of American wine in the off-trade grew 3% to £781m, while French wine sales fell 3% to £780m.

This puts France third in the wine consumption league table, with Australia in first place with 23% of the market and Italy in fourth.

Ninety-five per cent of American wine is produced in California and crucial to the success of US wines is Californian rosé, a hit with British women with sales up 17% in the year to October against a decline of 5% in sales of French rosé.

The California Wine Institute puts the success down to marketing and finding out what the customer wants, something they say the Californians do better than the French.