(Wines&Vines) - The latest numbers aren’t in yet, but exports accounted for 16% of U.S. wine production in 2015 (51.2 million cases out of 320 million total cases). Naturally, everyone in the wine business wants to increase exports, and a session held Jan. 25 at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento addressed that goal. All of the speakers admitted that selling wines overseas was challenging. Challenges and obstacles include: 

• The United States has been the world’s largest wine market since 2010 and is easier to navigate for U.S. producers compared to exporting. 

• Americans pay relatively high prices for wine with relatively low taxes, leading to good margins for producers.