Canadian consumers have expressed a clear preference for U.S. wines over French and Italian bottles, helping sales of American wines -- mostly from California -- reach a record-breaking $1 billion in 2014.
According to the Wine Institute of California, Canada is now the largest export market for California wines: Last year, a record 6.1 million 9L cases of wine were sold to their northerly neighbors, outpacing traditional import sources such as France, Italy, Australia, Chile, Argentina and Spain.
Analysts credit an aggressive marketing campaign, new product innovations and diverse offerings for driving sales of California wines through the roof in Canada.
For comparison, while U.S. wine sales grew at a rate of 78 per cent over the last five years, the overall wine market in Canada grew 16 per cent, says the Canadian Vintners Association.
Meanwhile, another report produced by global trade group Vinexpo shows that per capita wine consumption in Canada is expected to grow at twice the rate of the rest of the world, to reach 16.4 liters per adult in 2018 -- or an overall increase of nearly 8 per cent.
The latest Vinexpo figures also show that Canada is the sixth largest importer of wines. Their stats project a nine percent growth between 2014 and 2018.
The biggest wine importing countries are Germany, followed by the U.K., U.S., China and Hong Kong and the Netherlands
