Although the US has dramatically increased its own wine production, sales of imported wines are still growing rapidly, with bottled still wine imports up 21% in the nine months to September 2000 versus the same period the previous year. Italy and France still comprise the majority of imports, though Australian wines are the fastest growing segment, with an increase by volume of 40% to September 2000. Australia has now overtaken Chile as the US’s third largest source of imported wine and France as the second most important importer by sales value. It presently accounts for 14% of the US imported wine market, representing just 3% of total value at retail level and 2.4% of volume.
