Three different measures of the wine industry economy were positive in September, as these three graphs indicate. Retail sales of wine, direct shipments to consumers and winery job postings all surpassed their results from the same period in 2009. This is the first publication of this Wine Industry Data Center page, which will become a regular monthly feature in Wines & Vines. Cabernet Sauvignon led all direct-to-consumer shipment sales from U.S. wineries by varietal as measured in dollars for the 12 months ending Sept. 30. In second place, Pinot Noir had slightly more than half the sales total of Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay was the only exception to the rule that consumers like to buy reds from their favorite wineries for direct shipping to their homes. Zinfandel and Syrah showed well considering their relatively low production overall. Merlot was sixth in sales despite its No. 2 spot among reds in retail store sales. The DtC data comes from a collaboration between ShipCompliant, the compliance software provider for wineries, retailers and importers, and Wines & Vines. It analyzes millions of anonymized transaction records from ShipCompliant through the lens of WinesVines DATA winery database. Source: Wines & Vines/ShipCompliant Shipment Model.