The research company’s findings were part of a wider debate titled Life After BRIC, held at ProWein 2013 today (March 25).

Using its 'wine market model', which is based on macro-economic and wine consumption trends, Wine Intelligence divided markets into the following categories:

New emerging (markets where wine is still a relatively new and unknown beverage):  Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, Peru, the Philippines, Vietnam, Colombia, Angola, India and Nigeria.

High growth potential (markets where wine is experiencing rapid growth from relatively low base): China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Brazil, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Mexico, Taiwan, Slovakia, Estonia.

Growth (markets where wine is becoming a mainstream product and experiencing growth): USA, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland.

Established (markets with strong historical growth which is tailing off): Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, Denmark, New Zealand, Ireland, Romania, South Africa.

Mature (markets where wine has reached its potential with stable or declining volumes):  Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Argentina, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Uruguay, Slovenia, Greece, Hungary and Croatia.

Speaking about Czech Republic and Poland - both singled out as ‘high growth potential markets’-  Wine Intelligence project manager Marina Ferfolja said the two nations had strong routes to market as EU countriesand are stable, transparent, and are showing good growth for imported wine.

About Indonesia, Malaysia and African countries such as Nigeria and Angola, senior research analyst, Stephen Lacey, said growth is “massive” because of new found aspirational and affluent wine drinkers and more general economic stability but sales could hit a ceiling because of high levels of temperance.

Richard Halstead, COO of Wine Intelligence, also noted that the US is still a great area to find sales as it blends economic stability, is far from saturated,  and has steadily grown over a number of years.