U.S. sales volume distribution of leading types of wine 2015
Wine industry
Chardonnay was the most popular type of wine in the United States during the 2014/2015 period, accounting for more than 19 percent of the country's total wine volume sales. The Chardonnay grape is used for making white wine, as well as Champagne. This grape variety, which originally came from the Burgundy wine region in France, is easy to grow and characterized by a high yield. The United States' second favorite, Cabernet Sauvignon, is a red wine which many believe to have originated from the Bordeaux wine region. In 2014, France was the world's largest wine producer, yielding more than 46 million hectoliters of wine. In 2013, most U.S. wines were produced in California.
In 2014, the U.S. wine consumption amounted to about 893 million gallons. The majority of wines consumed in the U.S. that year were of the table variety. Table wine refers to wine with a maximum alcohol by volume of 14 percent. Roughly 300 million 9-liter cases of table wine had been consumed nationwide. Franzia was the leading table wine brand as of May 2015 in terms of volume sales, followed by Barefoot and Sutter Home. California-based Barefoot generated more than 619 million U.S. dollars in sales during the same period, accounting for nearly seven percent of the table wine market.