A Treasury Department report ranked 10 of the top spirits and wine companies in the US market.
Both wine and spirits products vary dramatically in price, from products under $10 for a standard 750ml bottle to hundreds and even thousands of dollars for specialty products.
The lowest priced products are often, but not exclusively, produced domestically, while many of the more expensive ones are imported.
As with beer, production is concentrated in the largest producers.
The supplier level is significantly more concentrated with respect to lower priced wines and spirits than with higher priced products.
The largest wine companies supplying the United States include Gallo, Constellation, The Wine Group, and Trinchero Family Estates.
For their part, the largest suppliers of spirits in the United States include Diageo, Beam Suntory, Sazerac, Brown Forman, Bacardi and Pernod Ricard.
Wine companies
The retail level is generally classified into two categories, on-premises and off-premises.
On-premise retailers, such as restaurants, bars, hotels, and casinos, serve alcohol to customers for consumption on the premises.
In contrast, off-premises retailers, such as supermarkets, wine and liquor stores, club stores, and convenience stores, are those that sell alcohol for off-premises consumption.
The states heavily regulate alcohol sales by both groups of retailers. In many states, alcohol is sold in supermarkets, clubs, drug stores, and convenience stores, including chain and independent stores.
Other states allow the sale of alcohol only in a subset of these.
Multiple states do not allow the sale of liquor in grocery stores, and some states apply the same restriction to wine and beer.
Where these restrictions exist, private-label brands of alcohol, a major source of competition in some states, are much less likely to be available.
Distributors purchase, store, transport, and sell beer, wine, and spirits, and provide a variety of marketing and promotional services on behalf of suppliers.
These services may include branding for on- and off-premise retailers, installing bottle displays and shelf cleaning and organization, printing beverage menus, and decorating with brand names and logos.
