Navigating a path forward amid the headwinds Welcome to the Ciatti Global Market Report on Substack – a new home, but with the same incisive and actionable market intelligence as before. The latest pricing tables, collectively now called the Global Pricing Grid, will be published separately in a few days. The bulk market was quiet globally through July into early August, as is typical when the Northern Hemisphere is on its summer holidays and/or preparing for harvest. However, the quietness exceeded normal levels in some countries, and speaks to a feeling – borne out by some export statistics – that 2025 has seen an intensification of the sluggishness that has characterised the bulk market since the end of the pandemic’s retail demand spike. The same period last year was also slow, but August 2024’s Global Market Report was able to state: “Shorter crops and the return of China as a buyer in Australia have helped make the landscape app

In a down market like the one the wine industry faces today, wineries are taking different paths to adapt. Some pull back, reducing production or pulling vineyards. Others seek to acquire struggling wineries, consolidating to broaden their portfolio and leverage their production facilities. Another route is to premiumize their brands to rise above the fray and appeal to confirmed oenophiles with white glove winemaking and customer service. The other turn along the price path is to downgrade to a more affordable price to attract shoppers who are increasingly price-conscious in this economy. These are only a few of a bewildering array of choices for wineries, and the decision tree will take each winery owner or winemaker to a unique solution. Chris HollingsworthChris Hollingsworth, General Manager at Punchdown Cellars in Santa Rosa, outlines three reasons a winery might choose a custom crush facility like the one he runs. “An established brand might want to change facilities to tak

February 9, 2024 – Novato, CA – The California Department of Food and Agriculture Preliminary Grape Crush Report, containing tons crushed and prices of wine grapes sold during the 2023 harvest, has been released. The Crush Report provides growers and wineries insight into the inventory position of the California wine business as a whole and influences market dynamics for the current bulk wine market and grape market.  The 2023 Crush Report, coming in at a total of 3.6 million tons, fails to capture the full story of the 2023 harvest. The crop would have been considerably larger if not for soft demand and disease pressure that caused some acres to go unharvested. Despite the size of the overall crop, most wineries found themselves with an excess supply amid challenging conditions in consumer sales.  For specific details on 2023 harvest, see below: Key Insights by Region   Tons Crushed 2023 Tons Crushed 2022 Net Gain/Loss Equivalent Gallons

Afternoon Brief, December 28th

The Existential Crisis of Bordeaux's Small Grapegrowers: Protesters carried dead vines through the streets of Bordeaux, pleading for help as shrinking wine consumption in France and changes in China have left them facing ruin...

In October 2021, as the world started to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic amid the vaccine rollout, we reported: “The global recovery is spurring inflationary pressure across supply chains and compounding a shortage of shipping containers, shipping vessels, and efficient port operations”. A year on, each of these problems persists, but we can say – in general – to a lesser extent.  According to Drewry’s World Container Index as of 6th October, average 40ft container prices on the major US-China-Europe routes had dropped for over 30 consecutive weeks, standing 64% below their peak of 12 months ago. Although the current average price on these routes is still 160% higher than average 2019 rates – and on some routes even higher – the price trend appears to be moving in the right direction. Supply of containers is still tight on many routes but we are hearing of vessel space becoming easier to find and the shipping process growing smoother in

The bulk market globally can be characterised as slow, even for what is a traditionally slow time of year when the Northern Hemisphere summer holidays are is in full swing. As well as there being few buyers, some already-acquired wine is being put back on the market by those who no longer need it; these wines are sometimes picked up quickly by an alternative buyer, sometimes not. The reappearance of inventory is potentially symptomatic of a range of factors – problematic shipping; dry goods such as bottles being in short supply and/or high in price; a real or projected slowdown in consumer sales as annual inflation rates remain high.  The inflation rate in the US fell in July, from 9.1% to 8.5%, as a decline in fuel prices offset a continued rise in grocery prices. Hopefully this a sign of inflation starting to cool, but in many other markets fuel prices and energy bills are projected to continue rising for the rest of the year. In the UK, the Bank of England expects inflati

Nenow Family Wines Earns Best New Winery Distinction on USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice List

PASO ROBLES, CA, (July 29, 2022) – Family-owned and operated, Nenow Family Wines has earned recognition as a Top 10 Best New Winery by the 2022 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. […]

January 25, 2022 - January 27, 2022  Developing the Unified’s program, which drew on the expertise of the 30-plus program committee members, are co-chairs Mike Boer from Grow West and Leticia Chacón-Rodríguez from the University of California, Davis. In addition to Unified hallmark events like Tuesday’s keynote luncheon and Wednesday’s State of the Industry panel discussion, the 2022 program includes a general session on Thursday focusing on strategies and sustainable solutions for living with climate change. For a detailed list and a breakdown of the sessions, visit unifiedsymposium/program. One of the most celebrated aspects of the Unified Symposium, the two-day trade show, is back showcasing essential industry products, equipment and services. Following two years of renovations, the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center has an entirely new look and feel, including a significantly larger exhibit hall, which will allow for the largest number of bo

ConeTech’s efforts to create a smoke taint removal process that could remove both free and bound compounds began in 2016. In 2018 after 2 years of research, a commercial solution was offered to winemakers throughout California.   Utilizing a combination of technologies and new methodology, ConeTech developed a process to remove smoke compounds while preserving over 95% of desirable flavor and aroma compounds.   Using expertise from outside the wine industry ConeTech  identified an out-of-state sprits lab to create a standardized ConeTech panel used for testing smoke tainted wines.  In 2019 alone ConeTech successfully removed smoke taint in over 1 million gallons of affected wine. ConeTech's proprietary smoke taint removal process was awarded the WINnovations Award in 2019 for excellence in wine industry innovation. About the Analytics Key to ConeTech’s breakthrough in removing smoke taint is an analytical rigor that previously was not standard for co