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June 9, 2007

Wine notes

Brian Schwarz and Thomas Lifson
The news gets better and better for both the California and American wine industries, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:
California wine sales in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 189 million cases in 2006, up 2 percent from 2005
Okay, two percent growth is somewhat anemic, barely above population growth among adults. So Americans are not drinking much more wine. But:
The retail value of California wine sold domestically grew 8 percent to $17.8 billion.
So people are spending more on wine, and presumably drinking better wine. This is excellent news. I promote the drinking of fine wine because I think wine can bring a lot of pleasure to a meal or social event. It can also be very good for you in moderation. It is not a good thing to drink large quantities of cheap wine.

But the final piece of news is even better:
U.S. wine exports, 95 percent of which are from California, totaled $876 million in 2006, an increase of 30 percent in value from 2005.
No doubt some of this is due to the cheap dollar, but it must also reflect international awareness of the quality of California and other American wine.

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