World Wine Statistics: USA overtakes Italy in wine consumption

The item that has probably attracted the most attention is that the USA passes Italy in wine consumption in 2008. They now drink more wine in the US than in the old country: 27.3 Mhl (up with 0.8 Mhl) in the US compared to 26 Mhl (down 0.7 Mhl). That makes the US the world’s second wine consuming market, after France where we gulp down 31.8 Mhl (down with only 0.4 Mhl in spite of various government anti-wine measures). (Source: OIV)