4 Billion

The value (in U.S. dollars) of annual wine, beer, and spirits sales at Costco. Costco is the largest retailer of wine in the U.S. There are 500 Costco warehouse stores in North America, and 49 million Costco members. A national team of 12 beverage buyers are responsible for everything from luxury wines to boxed wines.

It’s okay to put wine in the freezer to chill it down quickly.

Answer: True.

But I wouldn’t do it with an old or fragile wine. Wine can be chilled down in the freezer quickly, but since its mostly made out of water, (roughly 84% to 88% H₂O), it can freeze. The alcohol content in wine (generally between 11% and 15% abv) causes wine’s freezing temperature to be considerably lower than water, still it’s best not to leave a bottle in the freezer for more than 30-40 minutes. Flavors and aromas in wine may be altered if a wine is accidently frozen, and worse yet, the wine can expand in the bottle and explode if its left for too long.

“Nobody is growing as fast as Oregon.”

—Danny Brager, Senior VP, Nielsen, commenting on recent data revealing that Oregon wine sales increased 17% last year, compared to 3% for California and 2.8% for the U.S. as a whole.

4 Billion

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