(Wines&Vines) - Retailers, restaurants and wineries all saw sales increases in 2015, swelling the size of the market for U.S. wine to more than $38 billion. Year-end data also confirmed the strength of trends toward higher price segments and thriving sparkling wine sales.

The regular Wine Industry Metrics reports by Wines Vines Analytics now include data on the entire U.S. wine market thanks to a new partnership with market research firm BW166. The company’s managing partner, Jon Moramarco, said that 2015 consumer expenditures on U.S. wine in all channels including on-premise and off-premise (of which direct-to-consumer is a component) grew by 3%, or $1.3 billion.

BW166 reported that the value of on-premise domestic wine sales rose by 9% to $12.9 billion, while off-premise value rose just 1% to $25.2 billion. The split by channel was 34% on-premise and 66% off-premise. Including imports, U.S. consumers spent $53 billion on wine in 2015.
BW166 began issuing reports in May 2015 and Moramarco said the goal is to “collect and make available the most accurate data on not just wine entering distribution, but the value of wine, beer and spirits sales.” His subscribers are wine and spirits producers, some distributors of both, and a mix of private equity investors and bankers.

Moramarco has worked for wine and spirits companies his whole career, including Allied-Domecq, Constellation and Winebow. He has operated as a CEO of various companies for more than 20 years with net sales spanning from $50 million to more than $1 billion.

“I actually believe in fact-based decision making, and at times the numbers that were available didn’t line up very carefully,” he said. “What really drove me to start BW166 was that I wish I had had better data all those years ago.”

The company’s name has a story behind it. Giuseppe Moramarco, Jon’s grandfather, acquired Bonded Winery 166 from the Jesuits during Prohibition. This winery was known as California Mission Vintage Company and was located in downtown Los Angeles.