Off-Premise Wine Sales Increase 1.4 Percent in Through Feb 2

Off-premise wine sales data increased 1.4 percent from the same period of the previous year in the 4 weeks ending February 4, 2012, according to The Nielsen Company-tracked data. In the 13 weeks ending during the same period, wine sales increased 2 percent.

Domestic wine sales increased 3.3 percent while imported wine sales fell 3.5 percent in the 4 weeks ending February 4. In case volume during that same period, domestic wines increased 1.6 percent while imported case volume fell 3.4 percent.

Of note are the sweet red and Moscato/Muscat categories, which both had tremendous growth. The sweet red category grew 142.5 percent in the 4 weeks ending February 4 and Moscato was up 43.7 during the same period. In the 13 weeks ending January 7, sweet red wine sales grew 162.2 percent and Moscato sales grew 54.6 percent.

In the 4 weeks ending February 4, wine sales for wines $9 and up all grew while price segments under $9 all fell. The strongest growth took place in the $9 to $11.99 and over $20 segments. Wine sales for the $9 to $11.99 segment grew 8.3 percent and sales for the over $20 segment grew 7.3 percent. In volume, the $9 to $11.99 segment was up 11 percent while the over $20 segment grew 9.3 percent.