Top 10 wine brands 2016 26th July, 2016 by Lucy Shaw While interest in wine among younger consumers appears to be at an all-time high, and brands are being forced to wake up to the importance of engaging with the next generation of drinkers who will ultimately go on to shape the market, consumption in countries with a rich wine tradition like Italy, France and Germany is in decline and forecast to fall further over the next four years. While Italy overtook France to become the world’s largest wine producer last year, at the same time domestic consumption fell to an all-time low. It’s a very different story in the US, which retained its crown last year as the world’s largest consumer of wine, with consumption slated to rise a further 2% between now and 2019 to 4.2 billion bottles per year. Interestingly, millennial consumers are driving this growth, despite being increasingly lured to other drinks categories like craft beer and Bourbon, which seem more adept at speaking their language. 

Encouragingly, wine lovers in the US are adopting a ‘less is better’ philosophy, with sales of wine over $10 a bottle on the rise. But while Americans may be forking out more on wine in general, boxed wine brand Franzia remains the world’s bestselling wine brand with a staggering 0.8% share of the total global market, according to Euromonitor. Consumption in China is picking up, with the country making an increasing impact on the global wine market. While exports are on the rise, imports grew by 37% in 2015 as the country’s thirst for wnes from all over the world develops. Back home in the UK, Prosecco continues to dominate the headlines and sales, as the Italian sparkler is increasingly viewed as an everyday treat. But while the UK remains a key player on the global wine stage, it is not yet known how its decision to leave the European Union will affect trade. With the powerhouses of the US and China dominating the global wine game last year, it’s unsurprising that the majority of brands in our top 10 hail from these two nations.

But we’re keeping a close eye on Chile’s Concha y Toro, which is quietly but steadily rising to the top of the table with wines that outperform for their price points. Read on for our round up of the top 10 biggest-selling wine brands in the world. Sales figures are based on a combination of data provided by the brand owners and industry estimates.Last month I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, the founders of Barefoot Wine.What's most humbling is that they had absolutely no idea what they were doing at first. gold top wine glassesFrom the start, with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they had to employ innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and strategic alliances. where to buy wine stationHaving learned the hard way, Michael and Bonnie fell forward into success.  the best wine with fish

The lessons they taught me were invaluable. As the CEO of Rich20Something, this is what I learned from their story. Stop thinking about following your passion, and start thinking about following opportunity passionately. Michael and Bonnie had absolutely no experience in the wine business. They were both business coaches who happened to have a lot of clients in the wine business. One of their clients was a grape grower, and this grape grower hadn't been paid by a particular client for three years. best indian wine for healthMichael went straight to the delinquent company to collect funds for his client, only to find out that the company was bankrupt. best wine crystal glassesMakes sense why they couldn't pay. good wine bottles giftsNow, here's what distinguishes an entrepreneur from anyone else. best bc wines of 2015

The company didn't have any money, but it did have a ton of extra wine. Michael noticed this and struck a deal, taking $300,000 worth of wine instead of the cash owed to his client.Upon returning to his client, Michael was met with more resistance: the grape grower said he couldn't possibly run another business, and so he wouldn't be able to sell the wine Michael claimed. And that's exactly how Michael and Bonnie got started in their wine business -- because of a completely unexpected opportunity that revealed itself through persistence and finesse.    best cheap wines in bcRelated: 7 Startup Strategies to Gain From Your LimitationsEarly on in their venture, Michael and Bonnie won a gold medal at a wine tasting event. buy best wine online indiaIn the middle of celebrating, a regulator walked over to them and asked: "Do you have the right license for this?"

It turns out they did not, and were fined $10,000 for their negligence. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way -- but it doesn't have to be so expensive. That's why -- as annoying as they can be -- you must pay attention to the smallest of details to come out on top.  Having no money for advertising, Michael and Bonnie didn't know what to do to get their product in front of consumers. They couldn't get into the big supermarkets, because nobody knew the brand. And, to make it worse, the logo of their brand was a foot. Who puts a foot on a bottle of wine? And who buys a bottle of wine with a foot on it?They couldn't even get into any of the local community's stores.Then, one day, they got a call from a guy who was running a local charity event and was looking for donations. Again, here's what distinguishes an entrepreneur from anyone else. They said they didn't have any money, but that they had plenty of wine. He took the wine and auctioned it off at the event. And, following that event, sales of Barefoot Wine skyrocketed in the surrounding area.

They tried the same thing in a few more towns -- and got the same results.Marketing via worthy causes is a brilliant way to advertise because you don't have to spend any money whatsoever. Doing this, and only this, is how Barefoot started to become one of the fastest growing wine brands in the country.Who are you more likely to listen to, your friend or an ad on Facebook? It's a simple truth, but one that seems to be easily forgotten amongst startup founders.By focusing on worthy causes and smaller communities, Michael and Bonnie made their customers fall in love with the brand. Those originals spread the word like wildfire, and the rest is history.There's no need to merely give someone else a "win" when you can create a "win-win". If you're giving someone your product or service for free, ask to be in their newsletter, or ask them to write a blog post about you, or give you some sort of publicity. Be smart about how you give. This is how Michael and Bonnie spread awareness about their brand in communities in which they had no foothold or connections.

Strategically, they created awareness and supporters in one fell swoop by having an awesome product and a valuable offer.  Related: 7 Creative Strategies for Marketing Your Startup on a Tight BudgetWhy? Because it's so hard to achieve steady cash flow in a new business. And when Michael and Bonnie say "sales", they don't mean just a few sales here and there. They mean opportunities where you can sell hundreds, or thousands. That's where the time needs to be spent.People have to trust you before they work with you and before they buy from you. You might be the most trustworthy person in the world -- but they don't know that. Show them that you are by asking what you can do for them, and then do it better than anyone else. Even better: do your research and find out what that person or company needs, and then offer to help them with it. Successful entrepreneurs take the initiative.Everybody, when first starting a business, wants to expand expand expand. This won't work, according to Michael and Bonnie, because when you're first starting out, you probably don't understand every facet of your business.

There will be stuff you don't even know that you don't know. Get to know your business, get to know everything about your business... only then will you be ready to expand.Related: Eternal Sunshine of a Flawless Plan: Winning Startup Strategies"We weren't born with the ability to start or grow a successful business," Bonnie says. We make mistakes and then learn from them. There's absolutely no excuse for wasting a perfectly good mistake, because every mistake is beautiful! They're beautiful because you have the opportunity to never make that same mistake again! That's how you grow a profitable business, by not making the same mistake twice.If you do it right, after making a lot of mistakes, you start to make a lot of right decisions over and over again -- and those compound!There's no getting around it: you need to take the time to recharge that biological computer between your ears. If you're a self-diagnosed "workaholic", this should actually be even more important to you than it is to most people, because taking breaks will allow you to be sharper and more productive and to make better decisions.