Sales of wine in October were up 7% according to numbers released by Nielsen for the US market. Sales dropped sharply at the beginning of the year but picked up a tiny bit in September. This positive trend are confirmed by the October numbers. On the other hand, wine sales seems very cyclical with a big peak in December and January. Comparing the 2009 numbers with 2008 shows that this year’s sales are very similar to the sales volumes (in dollar value) last year, which seems to contradict that the wine sector in the US has been hard hit by the “crisis”. More info: www.winebusiness.com