(Forbes) - Despite what has been written in the past couple of years concerning the growth in Chinese wine consumption, the largest to benefit in status-hungry China have been top-shelf European producers of renoun. In America, where the largest volume is at the other end of the spectrum, two decades of continuous wine consumption growth, plus the fact that the U.S. economy is the strongest of the strong, has the overall wine world looking to it as its primary export market.

According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. is home to more than 322.25 million people, which makes it the third most populous country—the bureau projects just over 417 million by 2060. For wine producers, the best part is people in their twenties today make up almost 30% of the country’s population.

I couldn’t find an exact number of how many Americans consume wine, but when I calculated based on the number of cases sold in the U.S. and the per capita consumption figures reported, I came up with approximately 38 million wine consumers—that certainly would leave room for growth.

In fact, even though it has fallen off over the past few years, growth in American wine consumption has been ongoing for 22 consecutive years. For 2015, the growth is just 0.2%. Yet, according to Impact Databank, compared to other big wine consuming nations, the U.S. is still on a roll.

An Italian wine analysis group, Coldiretti, reports that in the 1970s Italians drank per capita about 30 gallons annually. California-based Wine Institute says that in the 1970s American per capita consumption was 1.4 gallons.

In this century, Italians have fallen to 10 gallons per capita, and American per capita consumption has just about doubled from its 1970s size.

Downward wine consumption pressure affects the French market, too. According to the International Organization of Vine and Wine, the French have cut their wine consumption by 7%, which represents four times as much wine per capita as Americans, but U.S. total wine consumption for the first time surpassed the French in 2013, by about 26 million gallons.

What are Americans drinking?

According to Impact Databank, in 2015, 18 million cases of sparkling wine accounted for 5.5% of the wine market; Italy’s Prosecco led the pack, from the Italian producers Mionetto and La Marca (owned by E & J Gallo). France’s Veuve Clicquot and Moët & Chandon led in retail dollars. At home, Barefoot Cellars (also owned by E & J Gallo) was the only American wine brand with over $1 billion in retail sales.