Michigan Grapevine

When people talk about Michigan’s growing wine industry, the term “growing” is usually defined by the increasing number of wineries, which now stands at 50. But the amount of wine those wineries make, bottle and sell is a more meaningful measure of the industry’s growth.

By that measure, Michigan wineries are pushing productivity standards that many industries would envy. Consider these five-year increment statistics from the Michigan Liquor Commission, which tracks wine sales based on taxes paid:

1996 Michigan wine volume: 739,372 liters (about 82,000 cases. 1 case = 12 bottles.)

Total wine volume: 48,420,521 liters

Michigan wine sales as a percent of all wine sold in the state - 1.53%

2001 Michigan wine volume: 1,901,661 liters (211,295 cases)

Total wine volume: 53,690,229 liters

Michigan wine share: 3.54% - More than doubled since ‘96

2006 Michigan wine volume: 3,638,488 liters (404,276 cases)

Total wine 69,059,321 liters

Michigan wine share: 5.27% — Almost a 50 % increase since ‘01

Five percent market share may not sound like much. But a fivefold increase in a decade is eyebrow-lifting. Just look downstate, where Toyota’s progressively bigger bites of the U.S. auto market share has caused all kinds of consternation.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Michigan, Wine production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.