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

With no and low-alcohol categories on the rise and the sober-curious boogeyman around every corner, we needn’t wait for rock bottom to take a hard look at our sales strategy and make a change today.  While much of the wine & spirits industry points the finger at Gen Z & Millennials, the World Health Organization or the Surgeon General, the truth is there’s only one entity responsible for the trajectory of our revenue.  According to Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin in Extreme Ownership, when “problems feel overwhelming and insurmountable . . . it’s our human nature to shift blame, find excuses, and avoid consequences. But taking ownership over what went wrong and accepting the reality of the situation gives you complete control over how you can solve these challenges.” Trying to sell alcohol in 2025 is tough. Plain and simple, no way around it. With that acknowledged, let’s explore what we can do about it.   A Sign of

The Power of Data: Transforming Winery Strategies for Growth

Make better decisions with a 360° view of the wine industry and your customers By Laurie Wachter   “2023 was really a difficult year for wine, and 2024 will be […]

Wine Market Council Punches Up: IDs Challenges, Focuses on Opportunities

Now is the time for bold action and new ideas. By Alexandra Russell Wine Market Council gathered members yesterday for its first in-person Research Conference in five years. President Liz […]

2024 may well be one of the most challenging years in recent history for the American wine industry. Let’s change that. Multiple Alarm Bells At the recent Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento, several prominent experts in various fields sounded the alarms during the enormously popular “State of the Industry” session attended by several thousand industry members. Wine Economist Mike Veseth compared the present with the distant past when similar clouds were on the horizon. Wine market analyst Danny Brager cited several troubling trends in consumer demographics, beverage preferences, anti-alcohol pressures, and apparent wine industry apathy. Steve Fredricks of Turrentine Brokerage repeatedly urged California wine grape growers to immediately tear out 30,000 acres of vineyards—roughly the total in New York State for grape juice, wine, and table grapes–to alleviate the current and chronic excess supply situation. Let’s Get to Work! We possess

Join SipSource Analysts and industry veterans Danny Brager and Dale Stratton as they forecast what to expect this holiday season and preview trends that are emerging from exclusively available 2023 wholesaler depletion data. Find out what’s hot and what’s not in wine and spirits this holiday season as they discuss what categories will lead the way during holiday celebrations and into the new year. Don’t miss what SipSource’s Channel Shifting Index (CSI) tells us about 2023 on- and off-premise trends and what they could mean for your 2024 business planning. Register here.  

An Uncertain Economic Vintage: Wineries Navigate Consumer Demand Challenges Amid Recession Concerns

Three industry experts discuss the effects of economic uncertainty at a pivotal point for the wine industry  By Laurie Wachter   As the American economy teeters on the edge of […]

April brought some welcome rainfall to California’s Coastal growing areas: Up to five inches fell in some locations but, in most, rainfall was sufficient enough to get things looking nice and green but not enough to meaningfully replenish water reserves. Indeed, we are hearing that water usage curtailments in some Coastal areas will start in May, and allocations for the federal Central Valley water management project could be at 0%.  Given the ongoing drought conditions, tentative early expectations are for a 2022 crop shorter than average, though we have been seeing – and receiving reports of – healthy-looking vineyards with good cluster counts and sizes. The picture will be a lot clearer in June once veraison is underway. The Central Coast and Central Valley are slightly behind last year in terms of degree day accumulation, a reflection of the forecasted cooler-than-normal spring.  The early morning hours of April 12th brought a frost episode that had a pa

As we move into the second quarter of the year, California’s bulk wine and grape markets are proceeding steadily, with some particular areas – namely Napa and Sonoma – commanding high interest while other areas are quieter. Overall, while retail sales from the first quarter of 2022 are assessed, inflationary input costs are adjusted to and spring’s clusters are counted and dissected, some degree of caution pervades buying behavior.  Rabobank’s latest Wine Quarterly report cites a “perfect storm” of five challenges facing the wine industry in the US and globally: Rising shipping/ trucking costs, rising gas prices, rising labor costs, five years of geopolitical uncertainty (tariff wars, COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine conflict) and “relatively tight” inventories after two-successive short crops in 2020 and 2021. Rabobank references a “regionalization of supply chains” in response to rising trucking and gas prices, with c

NAPA, Calif. – January 19, 2022 – Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and their investors, today released its 2022 State of the Wine Industry Report. The 21st edition of the annual report assesses current conditions in the wine industry and provides a unique forecast for the year ahead based on proprietary research and economic and behavioral trends among consumers. While premium wine companies led the industry with the best sales growth since 2007 – and nearly 30% of wineries described 2021 as their best year in history – the US wine industry as a whole experienced a decline in sales volume and failed to take advantage of the tailwind of businesses reopening as COVID restrictions loosened. SVB will host a live videocast with SVB Wine Division founder Rob McMillan to discuss the annual report and state of the wine industry on January 19, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. PST with Amy Hoopes, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer, The W