(Just-Drinks) - Off-trade sales of US wine last year continued to eat into the on-trade as overall consumption increased for the 19th straight year, new figures have shown.

The US wine industry grew 1.9% to 318.0m nine-litre cases in 2012, according to the Beverage Information Group's 2013 Wine Handbook, released on Friday (20 September). However, on-trade share in US dollars fell by 0.2 percentage points to 43.6%.

In 2010, the US on-trade held a 44% share.

Total wine sales in the country stood at US$28.9bn last year, up from $27.9bn in 2011, the Beverage Information Group said.

Part of the success in the off-trade was down to an increase in direct-to-consumer sales, which last year contributed $1.4bn to the industry, the group said.