US beats the French at wine consumption

America becomes the top wine market worldwide after Americans started drinking more and the French less.

The International Wine and Vine Organisation published figures revealing that, while US drinkers bought 29.1 million hectoliters of wine last year, the French bought only 28.1 million hectoliters, 7% less than in 2012.

Although the French still drink more per capita, with a weekly consumption rate six times the American average, US wine drinkers increased in numbers, thus overtaking France for the first time in history.

Antony Riboli, a Californian wine maker, believes that the increase represents the fact that Americans stopped viewing wine as a high-end expensive product: 'In the past, I think wine was very much high end, very expensive, that was the connotation. Now I think you’re seeing people saying, ‘Hey I can get a great bottle of wine for under $20 or under $15,’ or a glass of wine at dinner. Those are the changing trends in the industry and I think those trends are here to stay. People are embracing wine as a national beverage.'

On the other side of the spectrum, Chinese wine consumption fell by 3.8 percent in 2013, as compared to the previous year.