Afternoon Brief, February 8th

Napa County Puts Hoopes Winery Leader in Witness Stand: Napa County's attorneys put Lindsay Hoopes of Hoopes Family Vineyard in the witness stand to question her about alleged winery rule violations...

20th annual report indicates changes to wine sales in a post-COVID world Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and their investors, today released its 2021 State of the Wine Industry Report. Now in its 20th year, this authoritative 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.  Highlights and predictions from the 2021 wine industry conditions survey and report: As the hospitality, travel and entertainment industries rebuild, there will be strong consumer demand and a bounce in overall sales that will gain momentum in 2021, but may not be sustainable into 2022. The wine sales growth rate across all price segments has been declining for many years. The wine industry will need a national marketing organization to deliver a unified consumer message. Price Overall bottle pricing should hold in both off- an

We're All Glad that Year is Over 2020 will go down as the year in which we answered the heretofore rhetorical question - What else can go wrong? That is the opening line from the 2021 SVB State of the Industry Report that will come out Wednesday the 13th.  Throughout 2020 many of us experienced the same run of emotions from disbelief, fear, acceptance, determination, and occasionally even a bit of joy through one of the most difficult times in history. As we went through the year, we would think to ourselves - this has to be the worst of it. It has to get better from here?  We all fought through a series of events, increasing our vocabulary along the way: Coronavirus, COVID, S.I.P. Orders, social distancing, Zoom meetings, herd immunity, PPE, and pandemic - which I thought only happened in bad science fiction movies before last March. Will 2021 Be Better than 2020? I can say with absolute confidence that 2021 will be better than 2020, but I can also say that &l

This is the opening photo from the 20th Annual SVB State of the Industry Report where we begin with a reflection; not on our industry, but on how we each as individuals adapted and prevailed during the most unique business conditions in our lifetimes.  It's important to celebrate this victory but now that vaccines are being given and we can see an end in sight, what's next? Will business conditions return to normal?  If we answer that question truthfully, the answer is no. That means doing nothing and hoping for a good year will produce poor outcomes. Change is needed and will require all wine businesses to apply the learnings from 2020 and evolve to find the unique prescription for your individual winey's success. This will be the first opportunity in 2021 to review the results from the Annual SVB Winery Conditions Survey in concert with the impact and magnitude of events that shaped 2020 and influenced the performance of our industry. During the videocast, we w

Annual report indicates oversupply and lower consumer demand will drive widespread discounting NAPA, Calif. – January 14, 2020 –– Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and their investors, released its 2020 State of the Wine Industry Report today. Now in its 19th year, this authoritative 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. Highlights and predictions from the 2020 survey and report: Acute oversupply will lead to widespread discounting and present the US wine consumer with the best wine retail values in 20 years. The 2019 harvest will likely produce normal to slightly-below-normal yields in California, and below-normal yields in Oregon and Washington. The lower yields won’t help with the oversupply, however. The large millennial population hasn’t yet begun to