The 2026 State of the Industry session at Unified was cautiously optimistic but did delivered a clear message: the wine industry is not in a temporary downturn, it is undergoing a structural reset. We are deep into this adjustment but there is still work to be done. Declining consumption, excess supply, margin pressure, and changing consumer behavior are no longer emerging risks; they are now realities. They are now the operating reality. What made this year different was the alignment between market data, producer behavior, and financial results. The conclusions echoed the themes in the most recent SVB State of the Wine Industry Report: slower demand, elevated inventories, capital constraints, and the need for sharper business discipline. A Global Market Under Pressure As Mike Veseth, The Wine Economist, noted, wine is now a global commodity. Approximately 45% of all wine crosses at least one international border. While global trade continues to grow, overall consumption is

The introduction to our Global Report of August 2023 started as follows: “Another month of limited buying activity has passed by on the world’s bulk wine markets, with the traditional lull during the Northern Hemisphere summer holiday season now exacerbating the quietness. Pockets of activity exist but these feel like exceptions in an altogether quiet landscape.” Last year’s “pessimism in all major producer countries about the long-term drift away from wine consumption” is continuing through 2024, but shorter crops and the return of China as a buyer in Australia have helped make the landscape appear a little more active.  Some exporters have experienced a better year. Shorter European crops in 2023 were followed by shorter Chilean and South African crops in 2024, tightening availability of generic and varietal whites that were already in better supplydemand balance than their red counterparts. Versus disappointing sales last year, Spain’s

Afternoon Brief, September 13th

New Wine Market Council Study Shows How Consumers Are Shifting in the Wine Category and Desired Price Points: Lately the wine news has been filled with reports of declining wine consumption in the U.S. Because of this, Wine Market Council (WMC) launched a new research study to investigate why this is happening and what types of wine and price points are still desirable...

Diam is the global leader in manufacturing technical corks and known for their product performance of clean and consistent corks with control choices of ageability. Their latest innovation, Mytik Diam 10, was showcase at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium and Francois Margot, Sales Director, Diam North America explains why it’s a significant innovation for premium sparkling wines. “Our new Mytik Diam 10 is a sparkling cork made for long aging. Of course, we always guarantee a high level of neutrality with non-detectable levels of compounds like TCA, TBA and other anysoles, and we also guarantee consistency for our whole range of corks,” says Margot. “The innovation is in the mechanical performance and oxygen management that allows us to guarantee aging for 10 years.” Diam offers technical corks for still wines ranging from Diam 2 to Diam 30 with the number indicating the aging guarantee, but the Mytik range of sparkling wine corks previously only i