The more they stay the same. Or so it appears… somewhat.

Always anticipated, Restaurant Wine, a formidable on-premise publication driven and written by MS/MW Ronn Wiegand, has come out with its annual ‘Top 100’ on-premise wines and brands served. While there is some news… well, it looks pretty much the same, at least as far as who is in the rankings. Ronn takes on this ample project annually and in so doing ranks wines and brands based on total 9-liter cases consumed across the entire spectrum of American restaurants licensed to serve wine, from the casual segment to fine dining restaurants and from bars and lounges to hotel banquet departments. Continue reading »

Each and every year I look forward to reading the findings of fellow MS Ronn Wiegand’s Restaurant Wine newsletter issues that unveils the “Top 100 Brands” and “Top 100 wines”. Ronn, who is also a MW (one of three in the world who carry both titles), has been coming out with this information annually for several years and it’s always a good read and information packed. Though this year’s findings have been out for awhile, I just “re – came” across it in my files and was intrigued to revisit the findings.

The information is based on exhaustive research by Ronn and is always accompanied by interesting trend numbers from the previous calendar year, in this case 2007. According to the study, the top one hundred wine brands control a 41.5% share which is down from the previous year though the market grew between 2006 and 2007. Coming from only six countries (USA, Australia, Italy, France, Germany and Chile) all were up less Australia who had supply issues due to drought. You can see the heavy hitters on the list and a summary of this survey here. Continue reading »