SLO County News BlogGolf, Wine, Real Estate, Business & Travel NewsCalifornia Wine Sales set RecordThursday, April 06, 2006California wine sales in the United States hit another record in 2005, a rise experts attribute to a combination of factors from the Supreme Court weigh-in on wine shipment to the vino-centric movie, "Sideways."California wine shipments to U.S. markets amounted to 441 million gallons at a retail value of $16.5 billion, said Fredrikson, publisher of the Gomberg-Fredrikson Report. That was up 3 percent from the 2004 record-setting 428 million gallons, which had a retail value of about $15 billion. About two out of every three bottles of wine sold in the United States comes from California. Looking at sales of all wine, including other states and foreign producers, domestic sales grew by about 5 percent to 703 million gallons valued at $26 billion. Sales have been growing ever since 1991 when CBS' "60 Minutes" did a story on the perceived health benefits of wine. But the rate of growth picked up about four years, Fredrikson said, in part because of the introduction of "supervalues," such as Two Buck Chuck, the nickname of Charles Shaw wines that sell for $1.99 in California. The success of the wine road trip movie "Sideways," which opened in the fall of 2004, and last summer's Supreme Court shipping ruling -- forcing states to treat local and out-of-state wineries equally -- added to the momentum. Read More
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