Wine & Spirits magazine publishes 23rd Annual Restaurant Wine Poll

Modest budgets check out the most inexpensive wines on lists and affordable Italian selections, while big money is spending on classics from Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux.

Press Release - (New York, NY, March 9, 2012): Wine & Spirits magazine releases the results of its 23rd Annual Restaurant Poll today, reporting on the most popular wines in America’s top restaurants for the fourth quarter of 2011. The poll’s data illustrates that big money is spending on classics from Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux, while diners with more modest budgets are increasingly willing to check out the least expensive wine on the list.

Wine sales are on the rise as the economy awakens from the Great Recession. 69.8% of respondents said wine sales had increased as a percentage of their restaurant’s total sales, up from 62.6% last year. The average price for the Most Popular Wines in Restaurants rose 11% to $69.14, after hovering around $62 for the prior five years.

This year’s exclusive Restaurant Poll report appears in Wine & Spirits’ April issue, which is on sale at newsstands and bookstores Tuesday, March 13. The Poll ranks the popularity of wines by brand, variety and country of origin, as reported by sommeliers representing Zagat Survey’s most popular restaurants across the US.

“Sommeliers sound much more bullish this year than in recent polls,” says Joshua Greene, editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits magazine. “They are finding less price resistance from their guests, even as those guests have come out of the recession with a stronger sense of how to find real value on a wine list. That quest for value is driving a lot of diners to Italy, even in restaurants that have long been bastions of collectible French and California wines.”

Italy gained ground as the most popular source for imported wines, rising to 18.8% of the most popular wines, its strongest performance in the history of the poll. France also grew in strength, rising to 15.3% from 13.3% over the last two years. Spain, Argentina, New Zealand and Greece all dipped slightly, giving up shares of the most popular wines to Italy and France.

The Poll report includes “The Restaurant Top 50”—the 50 brands that received the most mentions from participating restaurants.

2011’s Top Ten Most Popular Restaurant Wine List Brands:
1. Cakebread Cellars
2. Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards
3. Jordan Vineyard & Winery
4. Duckhorn Vineyards
5. Orin Swift
6. Rombauer Vineyards
7. Stag’s Leap Winery
8. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
9. Ferrari-Carano Winery
10. Santa Margherita

Copies of Wine & Spirits’ April 2012 issue featuring the Poll results are available by mail for $8, including postage and handling. Members of the press interested in receiving the publication or scheduling an interview with Joshua Greene may contact Cord Medina at (415) 255-7736, x2, or email cmedina@wineandspiritsmagazine.com.

Founded in 1982, Wine & Spirits is published eight times a year and read by over 200,000 members of America’s wine community. Consumers and wine professionals read the magazine for information on established and up-and-coming regions and producers, the art and science of viticulture, industry happenings and food and wine pairing. Wine & Spirits, the only wine publication to win the James Beard award five times for excellence in wine writing, evaluates more than 10,000 bottlings every year.