[ibglowin]

Interesting article about who is selling the most juice in the supermarkets!

San Rafael, Calif.—Cupcake Vineyards again ranked No. 1
in Symphony IRI’s annual Top 30 Momentum Wine Brands.
The California-based brand of table wines owned by The
Wine Group earned the top spot based on 10 measures of sales
performance. Cupcake contended against all other brands that sold
at least 100,000 cases in 2011 in U.S. food and drug stores whose
sales are tallied by SIRI, a Chicago-based market research firm.
This year’s No. 2 brand, Barefoot from E. & J. Gallo, moved
up from the No. 3 position in 2011. Third and fourth place were
awarded to two more Gallo brands, Apothic and Liberty Creek.

Washington state brand 14 Hands from Ste. Michelle Wine
Estates placed fifth. California accounted for 24 of the 30 brands,
while Washington provided three (all from Ste. Michelle.) Contributing one
brand each were: Italy, Cavit Collection; Australia, Yellow Tail;
and Argentina, Alamos.

SIRI chooses the Momentum brands solely by sales data, using
volume and dollar sales totals, volume and dollar sales change,
volume share in the price category and five other measures. The 106
brands that met the minimum sales of 100,000 cases were given
points for their rankings in each measure, and SIRI totaled the points
for each measure. The wine with the highest volume sales received
106 points, the lowest in volume sales received one point, and so on.
The Top 30 Table Wine Momentum Brands accounted for
32% of table wine dollar sales and 33% of volume sales in U.S.
food and drug stores where SIRI analyzes check stand scan data.
The brands also represented 45% of net category dollar growth
and 52% of net volume growth at the brand level.
E. & J. Gallo owns seven of the 30 brands, and Constellation
Wines U.S. and The Wine Group own three each.
Exactly half (15) of the Momentum brands were from the $8+
segments, and the other half from the under-$8 and box-wine
price segments. Within any single price tier, the largest number of
Momentum brands (10) came from the $8-$10.99 segment.
Most of the Momentum brands experienced strong incremental
sales growth, driven by higher levels of quality merchandising support.
Many brands also experienced healthy distribution gains.
Average pricing for the majority of the top 30 brands was
generally lower in 2011 compared to 2010. Finally, 2011 saw
several newcomers to the top 30 list, including Apothic, 14
Hands, Fish Eye and The Naked Grape.

[robie]

I went to a Cupcake wine tasting a few weeks back and was surprised. They have several international wines - Malbec from Argentina, red from Italy, something from South Africa, and of course Australia and USA.

They have a new wine called "Angel Food". It is a white with a very unique flavor, which I can't identify. It might be a touch of sassafras mixed in.

[ibglowin]

Their NZ Sauv Blanc was $8.99 and quite good. If your willing to pony up $5-8 more your can have the good stuff though.

[shoebiedoo]

I've been a fan of their Malbec for a while now. Great value. Their Chardonnay is good as well

[ibglowin]

Good top off wines for sure!

[joea132]

Originally Posted by shoebiedoo

I've been a fan of their Malbec for a while now. Great value. Their Chardonnay is good as well

I tried the malbec very close-minded and expecting a low quality wine. Boy was I surprised! Can't beat it for the money.

[Boatboy24]

Originally Posted by joea132

I tried the malbec very close-minded and expecting a low quality wine. Boy was I surprised! Can't beat it for the money.

I'm having some of their Red Velvet Malbec right now. It's good, but chocolatey, sweet. Definitely tinkered with. But I can see the American public eating it up.
I'd drink it with a chocolate raspberry dessert. Or chocolate covered cherries. Mmmmm...

[dan69man]

I really like the Cupcake wines and many on the list...but looking at the prices is depressing, the same wines here are an average of 10$ more expensive