(Wines&Vines) - Direct-to-consumer wine shipments hit a new high-water mark in October, passing the previous record by $16 million.

DtC shipments totaled $240 million, which is the most since at least 2009, when Wines & Vines/ShipCompliant began tracking the channel.The October total is 8% higher than the same period in 2012 and 7% higher than the previous record of $224 million set in November 2012. During the past 12 months, DtC sales have totaled more than $1.56 billion, which is 10% higher than the 12-months previous. In addition to the robust DtC activity, off-premise sales in October remained higher than 2012, and winery hiring activity remained strong.

Off-premise sales were up over the previous year at the steady rate of 6% month to month and 7% in the past 12 months. According to Chicago, Ill.-based research firm IRI, sales reached $528 million in October and $7.2 billion during the past 52 weeks. October’s total was slightly lower than the $541 million spent in September.

Focus on Chardonnay sales

This month Wines Vines Analytics focused on Chardonnay. The varietal continues to be the most popular in the off-premise sales channel. Chardonnay accounted for 26% of the wine sold at convenience stores where bottle prices below $8 made up 73% of sales there. In other stores the figure was 44%.