<div id="subtitle">Sales of California wines down; imports fuel strapped drinkers' desire for cheaper bottles</div><div><p>The wine industry received sobering news this week: California wine shipments dropped in 2009 for the first time in 16 years.</p><p>Analyst Jon Fredrikson says wine consumption is up 2.1 percent nationally, but consumers are turning to cheaper imports to tantalize their palates.</p><p>Figures show that sales appear to be down for all wines that cost more than $15 a bottle, while sales for wine less than $6 increased 5 percent last year. Cheap bulk wine imports from countries such as Australia, Chile and Argentina jumped 87 percent in 2009 to capture 32 percent of the U.S. market.</p><p>Americans drink 323 million cases of wine a year.</p><p>According to Fredrikson, California wine sales fell 1.6 percent to 236 million cases.</p><p>California produces 90 percent of the wine made in the United States.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67989225&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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