US ‘phenomenally thirsty’ for wine: experts

The American wine market, already the world’s biggest, still has “phenomenal” potential for growth if handled with care, US wine professionals said this week at the world’s leading wine fair, Vinexpo. “We are a young thirsty nation,” one expert said, referring to the 370 million cases of wine guzzled in 2014 — 25 percent of them imported — as well as the steady growth in wine consumption in the past two decades, which is expected to see an 11 percent hike between 2014 and 2018.