Are Grape Prices Rising Unsustainably?
I've been hearing a lot of talk about grape prices rising too fast and squeezing wineries' margins too much. I decided to investigate whether or not this is true. The claim, it turns out, does not line up 100% with the salient facts, which follow and are derived from Wine Institute, Bureau of Labor Statistics and USDA-NASS data. The data are all summarized in a jpeg at the end of this article. It's in .jpg format to make it easy to copy and send around. Since 1999, Califo
District-by-District Review of the Crush Report, Part 3: California Interior
Check out my review of the 2014 harvest for California's interior regions in the Wine Industry Advisor.
Average Global Tartaric Add = 1.6g
If I could remember the name of any science teacher I ever had I would dedicate this post to him/her. I guess memories of school don't come easily to someone who started making wine under his bed at the age of 15. This morning while opening up News Fetch, I saw two articles almost right next to each other. One gave total global wine production. The other gave total global tartaric acid usage and indicated how much of that tartaric went into wine production. Due to some w
Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Prices and Yields for All-North Coast
Sometimes we need prices that don't line up with the USDA-NASS Pricing districts. In fact, I often do. Usually that means we need sub-appellations. I don't ever publish those, because I can sell those. But sometimes we need macro-appellations, like North Coast the North Coast AVA. While I use these in products I sell, I don't sell them on their own, since anybody can aggregate the NASS data. So, I may as well make these public to see if I can save any of my readers who
Napa Merlot Update
Napa County Merlot Update In 2013, Napa County Merlot sold for an average of $2791.97 per ton. I had predicted that average price per ton would rise to $2812.71 in 2014. In fact, it rose quite a bit higher, to $2977.06, which is an increase of $185.09 or about 6.6%. Supply was down over 9% from 2013 to 18,923 tons. So, how did my price prediction fare? How Close Was the Prediction? Actual average price was 5.8% higher than VFA’s predicted price. The prediction was unequi
District-by-District Review of the Crush Report, Part 2: Central Coast and Southern California
Second part of this series, over at Wine Industry Advisor: http://www.wineindustryadvisor.com/2015/03/18/crush-report-central-coast-southern-california/ In an earlier post, back in January, I hinted that the Santa Lucia Highlands and, more broadly, the Central Coast, are seeing their scores rise beyond the top AVAs, while their bottle prices lag behind those AVAs. I hinted that the market will likely coorect for this and trickle-up to growers. Looks like that happened. #cru
District-by-District Review of the Crush Report
This was posted recently in the Wine Industry Advisor. It is the first part of a three-part review of the crush report by district. District 1: Mendocino County, Average Price Per Ton: $1,493.10 Overall Price Shift: +3.26%, Overall Change in Yield: -20.27% Mendocino County saw healthy price growth and reasonable yields, though crop volumes were down 20% from 2013’s large harvest. Most of the price gains accrued to reds, although Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer s
Lake County Cabernet Update
District 2 Cabernet Sauvignon Update Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon saw an enormous price increase of about 17% this past year, while yields and Brix levels held steady. With very little opportunity to increase vineyard acreage in Napa, many are turning to Lake County for wine to blend into Napa SKUs. For this reason, Cabernet Sauvignon leads Lake County in terms of both pricing and total yields. It accounts for over one-third of all winegrapes grown in Lake County. In 20
Sonoma County Chardonnay Update
District 3 Chardonnay Update For someone in Sonoma County and/or the wine industry, Sonoma County means Dry Creek Zinfandel, Alexander Valley Cab and great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley and the Sonoma Coast. But to most of the country, Sonoma County means Chardonnay. Chardonnay accounts for three-quarters of the county’s white winegrapes and one-third of all the county's winegrapes. In 2013, District 3 (Sonomarin) Chardonnay sold for an average of
Crush Report Review
As previously seen on Wine Industry Advisor, my review of the Crush Report: For some of us in the wine business, the release of the Crush Report is one of the most exciting events of the year. It means that the time has come to browse, analyze, cut up, re-arrange and make sense of winegrape prices to look for trends, find opportunities and verify or improve our own pricing models. For the vast majority of the wine industry, however, it just means that they can take a look a
