San Rafael, Calif.—Sales of domestic table wines in major U.S. food and drug stores grew 9% in November over the previous year, passing the $430 million mark, while sales of all wine including imports grew at a very healthy 7%. The highest priced wines continued to have even hotter growth rates; data from the Symphony IRI Group (SIRI) show that significant price discounting accompanied that growth.

Domestic table wine sales made their usual leap in November, prodded by purchases for Thanksgiving entertaining. In fact, the four weeks ending Nov. 27, 2011, brought higher sales than all four of the last December sales periods, usually the highest of the year. If history holds true, December sales could reach $450 million or more.

Year-to-date sales growth averaged slightly cooler than during the recent four-week period: 7% for domestic table wine and 6% for all table wines. Still, each of those figures is 1% higher than a year ago. To show how fast wine retailing is growing vs. the mostly flat economy, stores are posting overall wine revenue gains about four times the rise in the gross domestic product.

The hot category: $20-plus

While accounting only for 3% of all wine sales at the stores where SIRI analyzes checkstand scan data, domestic wines priced at $20-plus are particularly interesting to the thousands of small U.S. wineries that market high quality wines. For the year to date, the Chicago-based market research firm calculated a blistering pace of 29% growth in dollars and 33% growth in volume.

The pace was even higher in the recent four-week period, as sales of $20-plus wines grew 37% over the same period the previous year. The next lower price category, $15-$19.99, enjoyed the second highest growth among wines bottled in 750ml, at 22%.

All that growth in high-end wines didn’t come without a cost, however. A close look at the year-to-date average bottle prices by varietal, and the average price change per 9L case reveals that wines in the $20-plus category came down in price by $.75 per bottle, and $9 per case.

Vintners may not be excited to see their wines devalued on retail shelves, but they most likely appreciate the increasing orders. Volume of domestic tables wines in this category grew to 544,000 cases for the year as of Nov. 27.

Price reductions by varietal

The average price among domestic wines at $20-plus was $25.50. Cabernet Sauvignon lived up to its reputation as the king of red varietals by recording the highest average price, at $31.80, while Fume/Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling earned the lowest.

Even with its status, Cabernet came down by $.55 per bottle and $6.60 per case. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and red blends/Meritage each dropped by more than a dollar per bottle. Merlot prices shrank the least of any major varietal, perhaps because they have already found their floor after several years of Merlot-bashing by movies, wine media and sommeliers.

Imports at $20-plus saw virtually the same price decrease per bottle as domestic wines, but it seemed to effect sales less strongly. These imports grew 10% in dollars for the year to date—only one third the growth of domestics. Imported table wines in all categories grew less than 2%, and dropped slightly in market share from 22% for this period in 2010 to 21% in 2011.