Wine is gaining ground as the drink of choice among Canadians, enjoying a 4.9% sales increase last year as the country’s beer sales continued their long-term decline. Compared to beer’s 50% value market share in 2003, when wine held just 24% of the market, in 2013 beer accounted for 43% of alcoholic beverage value sales, while wine had increased its share to 32%.

Overall growth slowed slightly to 1.5% in 2013, from 1.7% a year earlier, with volume hitting 328.7 million nine-litre cases, compared with 323.9 million cases in 2012.

The wine market is forecast to improve at a value compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8 per cent during 2012–2017 with volume growth being slightly lower, recording a 1.8 per cent CAGR.

Wine producers will be proposing a toast to Canadian consumers: a new study shows wine consumption in this country is growing three times faster than globally and Canada is projected to be the fifth fastest-growing wine market in the next five years.

In 2010, the average amount of wine consumed per person in France came to 46.6 litres per year, down from 104 litres in 1975.