June 3, 2026 — The website WineMarkets.co recently published two market reports, one on the UK on-trade market and the other on the US on-premise market. They highlight the shares of grape varieties, countries of origin, appellations and brands among wine placements in restaurants in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Some findings:
- In the US, top 15 still wine brands have market penetration between 8% and 15% of accounts; in the UK, it is from 1.9% to 4.1%. The US market is a highly consolidated winner-take-all market, where consumers tend to prefer popularity over rarity and social signaling over exploration.
- Cabernet Sauvignon is the most popular grape variety in the US, with 14.4% of placements. In the UK, it is in 9th place, with 3.6% of placements based on this variety and with only 2% of wines varietally labelled as Cabernet Sauvignon.
- White and rosé wines are significantly more popular in the United Kingdom than in the United States.
- The share of alcohol-free wines in the UK is 8 times higher than in the US.
- In the United States, Spanish wines remain an underdeveloped category. Rioja is an important appellation in the UK on-trade market, but almost non-existent in the US.
- The difference between on-premise and off-premise prices is greater in the US.
Ilya Zabolotnov, the founder of WineMarkets.co, observes: “Wine consumption in the US apparently has a more pronounced performative dimension than in traditional wine-drinking countries or in cultures that exert less social pressure to “fit in”. It is a Bandwagon market, where the mere fact of popularity can be a powerful competitive advantage. The British wine market is more democratic than the American one, in the sense that it is not a winner-take-all market. Wine from any appellation and any grape variety, however little-known, has a chance of success if it has something interesting to offer; the public doesn’t have any prejudices”.
“In contrast to Americans, British men don’t seem to think that drinking white or rosé wine threatens their masculinity”, he remarks.
“The absence of Rioja in the US is striking. In the United States, price is perceived as the most reliable indicator of quality; this is the reason why decision-makers don’t actively seek best values for lower price. This is why Spanish wines, being internationally underpriced, are not popular in the US. […] For the British, Spain is a proper Old World winemaking country, and the outstanding value of Rioja wines has long been known to them. But lesser-known Spanish regions still have potential for growth”.
In Britain, still and sparkling wines are consumed according to very different patterns. “The UK sparkling wine market is structurally very close to that in the US. Why is this the case? When it comes to sparkling wine, the British public seems to behave similarly to Americans when they consume any wines, still or sparkling: drinking becomes less of an exploratory journey and more a hedonic pastime in a safe space of familiar brands that convey certain lifestyle values. The purpose of sparkling wines in Britain is different to that of still wines. The novelty of experience is less important”, Ilya Zabolotnov writes.
Both reports are available for free download:
The US on-premise wine market report
https://winemarkets.co/media/pdfs/wine_in_on_premise_in_the_us_2026.pdf
The UK on-trade wine market report
https://winemarkets.co/media/pdfs/wine_in_on_trade_in_the_uk_2026.pdf
About WineMarkets.co
WineMarkets.co is a business intelligence solution for wineries, importers, distributors and trade bodies. Its database currently contains 3.7 million on-premise placements across 16 countries.
