Wine Business Consulting, Forecasting and Analysis Services

So, as I have mentioned before, my worst forecast ever was a massive failure to predict the 16% jump in price for Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon between 2013 and 2014. I'm still working on stronger and stronger models for Lake County - and, for that matter, everywhere else - and have a new one to try out. Now, I know, this information isn't so useful for you now. After all, we're about to harvest and anyone on the frontlines has a pretty good idea of where prices are at -

Are grape prices too high? I have heard many producers claiming that they are. Vineyard guys tend to think they aren't. In the end, the answer is, of course, "depends." Depends on where you are and what you're growing. But we can take a broad-market look at this issue, too, and that is something I do every year or two. The chart below shows some relevant stats. First, take a look at Grape Cost as a % of Retail Price. This is only an estimate, using USDA and Wine Instit

Those of you who use my Grape Data Tool know how it allows you to bring up data on the wine grape industry in the blink of an eye. It saves me tons of time. But I still had to calculate percentile prices manually in Excel. If I wanted to know the 80th percentile prices for, say, Sonoma County Pinot Noir, I had to open up Table 8, find the data and calculate the price myself. This summer, my intern, Jacob Tehrani, put an end to this time sink. With a combination of creativ