WineLovers Discussion Group

Adams Handbook came out with a release not long ago showing the most recent figures of table wine consumption broken down by state.

Here are the Top Five Wine Consuming States:

California 17.9%
Florida 8.4%
New York 8.0%
Texas 4.8%
New Jersey 4.5%

(A little simple math reveals that those five represent about 43.6% of total US table wine consumption.)

So where does your state rate? Any idea?

I'll spare the agony and tell everyone right now that the last state on the list is.........(ta da) North Dakota at 0.1%. They are at the 51st spot (counting in DC).

Hoke wrote:Adams Handbook came out with a release not long ago showing the most recent figures of table wine consumption broken down by state.

Here are the Top Five Wine Consuming States:


California 17.9%
Florida 8.4%
New York 8.0%
Texas 4.8%
New Jersey 4.5%

I'm a bit surprised to see FL that high on the list, but I chalk it up to the "FL Jim" effect.

Mark Lipton

Well, that makes sense, as it is total consumption and I believe the states you listed are the most populated. I think per capita would be more interesting figures.

Howie Hart wrote:Well, that makes sense, as it is total consumption and I believe the states you listed are the most populated. I think per capita would be more interesting figures.

Yeah, I'd like to see the per capita figures too. But I haven't seen those anywhere. (And having said that, expect some enterprising internet-savvy geek to come forth with same.)

Howie Hart wrote:Well, that makes sense, as it is total consumption and I believe the states you listed are the most populated. I think per capita would be more interesting figures.

There's a quick round-about way to get at it: a little quick googling puts these state' shares of the US population (in round figures) at:

CA 12%
FL 6%
NY 7%
TX 8%
NJ 3%

Comparing these to the wine consumption figures, it appears of these CA, FL and NJ are all consuming at roughly 50% over the national per capita average. NY isn't quite pulling its weight and they must be drinking beer in TX. Overall, your supposition about population was right: 43% of the population, 43% of the wine consumption.

If you asked me to guess, I'd put my money on DC as topping the per capita list - relatively small population, lots of well-funded expense accounts.

D.C ranks #35, at 0.5%.

And if the population rankings I saw from the Census Bureau site were right, Wyoming ranks last in population, but North Dakota ranks last in consumption. So Wyoming is at least making an effort. What the hell is wrong with those people in North Dakota?

Here's some state by state data; these are number of 750-ml bottles per 100 adults consumed per year. Data from Adams Wine Handbook 2004:

1. District of Columbia 3,711 (insert appropriate Ted Kennedy joke here or "your tax dollars at work")
2. New Hampshire 3,123
3. Nevada 2,805 (tourism)
4. Delaware 2,476
5. Massachusetts 2,418
6. Connecticut 2,306
7. Vermont 2,274
8. California 2,258
9. Rhode Island 2,238
10. New Jersey 2,210
.
.
(the bottom ten)
.
.
42. North Dakota 758
43. South Dakota 725
44. Oklahoma 684
45. Kansas 675
46. Utah 674
47. Kentucky 668
48. Iowa 654
49. Arkansas 648
50. Mississippi 532
51. West Virginia 450


My source was: http://zinquisition.blogspot.com/2005/0 ... state.html

Note: the odd metric means the average per adult ranges from 37.11 bottles per year in DC to 4.5 bottles per year in West Virginia. I'm impressed that the New Jersey 22+ bottles per year is so close to the California number.

Bob Ross wrote:47. Kentucky 668

Aw, geez, that looks bad. :-p

It shows why state data is a little misleading, though. In urban Louisville and Northern Kentucky, and around Bob H's house in Lexington, Kentucky's numbers are probably well above the national mean. In the rest of the state, out where family trees don't branch, nobody knows what wine IS.

Hoke wrote:D.C ranks #35, at 0.5%.

Ah, but with only 550,000 people, D.C. has less than 0.2% of the national population and so are consuming wine at something like 2.5 times the national per capita average. So they might just win the per capita contest!

So...how 'bout them Californians, eh?

Adams need to do some research....statistics lie.


Here's the worldwide consumption of wine by country [top 10]:

France
Italy
United States
Germany
Spain
Argentina
United Kingdom
Russia
Portugal
Romania

Source: http://www.wineinstitute.org/communications/statistics/keyfacts_worldwineconsumption.htm

Tim,
You know the old line about statistics, "There are lies. There are damn lies. Then there are statistics." That about sums it up.
Cheers!
James

Nevada's up there because of the tourism, eh? We know that tourists only drink beer or Jack Daniels. Those numbers look good because of my had work. It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

James Roscoe wrote:Tim,
You know the old line about statistics, "There are lies. There are damn lies. Then there are statistics." That about sums it up.
Cheers!
James

Right on, James.

By consumption I guess you mean purchasing? Because of course all those fancy NY and CA wine purchasers are really just stocking their cellars with bottles for investment, never to be literally consumed..

(Sort of, although I guess they're a minority)

If you check my dustbin you will quickly see that I do my share in keeping Ky's ranking from dropping any lower.

The state of Canada to the north does not want to be left out in this equation!!!!

http://www.fas.usda.gov/gainfiles/200006/25698102.pdf

Jenise, where does Washington rank in all of this? Oooops forgot, you are all buying Canadian wine. No reliable figures.

Just to make the mathematics more complicated, perhaps someone can dig up how much (on average) each of these bottles costs. Is CA buying more expensive wine perhaps?

Also, how much wine does each of the states produce?

Bob Parsons Alberta. wrote:The state of Canada to the north does not want to be left out in this equation!!!!

http://www.fas.usda.gov/gainfiles/200006/25698102.pdf

Jenise, where does Washington rank in all of this? Oooops forgot, you are all buying Canadian wine. No reliable figures.

Bob,
The former assistant Pastor at our church moved to Kitchener, Ontario. His olest son was a student of mine and before the move he looked into Canadian culture. He used to joke he was going to take over Canada by inventing beer filled donoughts. When I read the link I was instantly reminded of his wise crack. Both Americans and Canadians still have a way to go before a true wine culture has been created.
Cheers!
James

I agree that averages can be misleading -- for a number of reasons. I'm sure that the New Jersey numbers are boosted by the repressive rules in Pennsylvania -- I know there are some major retailers in New Jersey near the border, and periodically the newspapers carry a human interest story about someone getting caught "importing" wine into Pennsylvania.

But, I suppose, lots of folks in the northern burbs carry wine home from NYC.

I do have fun figuring out outliers from averages, though -- the analysis can teach you something -- I learned a little bit about Kentucky from your reactions. Thanks.

Neil, I've seen copies of the Adams report, which would probably give a good indication. But $685 is a hefty price -- worth it for the marketers but probably we couldn't garner enough interest in the Group to buy our own copy. :-)

http://www.beveragehandbooks.com/comers ... Product=78

Otherwise, I thought Hoke did a really good job by his estimating, which will have been based in sound excellent statistics. Maybe he will chime in.

Regards, bob