You can take away our meals out, you can take away our fancy clothes, you can even take away our fancy coffee, but please don’t take away our booze. At least that’s what the world–and especially America–seems to be saying.

According to new research, as reported on emailwire.com, wine consumption hasn’t really gone down in the recession. If anything, it’s gone slightly up. Although there was a slight drop in sales when the financial crisis first hit, wine sales increased by 3% in 2009, and are expected to increase, according to the U.S. Wine Market Forecast to 2012, a report put out by RNCOS, a market research company.

The report also says that, although the U.S. is one of the fastest growing wine markets in the world, developing countries like Russia, China, Australia and India aren’t too far behind.

The recession may not have impacted how much we drink, but it’s certainly affected how and where we drink. According to the forecast, “while restaurant volume declined, the U.S. food store wine volume increased,” which means more people are saving money by buying their own wine and drinking it at home.

But is wine really the cheapest alcoholic beverage? Anyone interested in drinking on the cheap might want to check out Cheap Booze: A Guide to Drinking Through the Recession by Christine Sismondo on the blog, Gremolata.

Has the recession changed your drinking habits at all? If so, how? If not, why not? These days, I’m not enough of a drinker to switch over to cheaper wine, so when I go out, I still like to have a decent glass or two…but I’m sure I’d feel differently if I were 20 and just starting out in the world. How about you?