More People Are Using Cannabis - Are Fewer People Drinking?
I've noticed that our industry loves to panic about outside forces coming to harm us. The latest panic is that marijuana legalization is going to reduce wine consumption. My line has been that I'm not worried at this point. Of course, there will be some effect, but at this point I see no reason to believe that that effect will be significant or even detectable. A million things can reduce wine consumption: more amusement parks, zoning law changes, etc., etc. All of those
Crush and Acreage Reports Behind the Scenes: How to Make this Great Data Even Better
Last week I drove to Sacramento to speak with the folks who put together the Crush Report and the Acreage Report. It’s so essential to the analysis I do for more work, I wanted to understand it better – to peek behind the curtain and to thank the folks who create it. I’m glad I did. For one, it increased my confidence in both reports. They do make significant efforts to verify data and to keep abreast of best practices. I also learned a great deal about how we, as an indu
Article in the Press Democrat
Bill Swindell quoted me in his article about cannabis and wine in the Press Democrat. It's a good article about a subject that's easy to write a bad article about: https://www.wix.com/my-account/sites/0a88a463-ee1b-4030-8f0b-15f6b0d59cf5 #cannabis #wine
Maybe Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Prices Aren't That High!
My two favorite people from Uppsala are both named David. The first is David the Gnome and the second is David Morrison at The Wine Gourd blog. I’ll refrain from extolling the virtues of David the Gnome for now and focus on David Morrison. Frankly, he does some of the best quantitative analysis of any wine blogger out there. If you would like to understand the economics of the wine industry, his blog is a must-read. His latest post, “Napa cabernet grapes are greatly over-
Silly Sensimilla Survey
A company I won't name in order to deny them the attention they do not deserve published a survey purporting to show that legalization will reduce wine consumption. It's sketchy. Lew Perdue did a good job of explaining why it's a trash survey. As far as I am understanding the results, they claim that every marijuana smoker surveyed feels the cannabis use has reduced or eliminated his alcohol consumption. I haven't seen a poll that decisive since Saddam Hussein was last re
NPR Article on Sideways
Kristen Hartke quoted me a bunch for a good article about the "Sideways Effect" for NPR's The Salt: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/07/05/535038513/the-sideways-effect-how-a-wine-obsessed-film-reshaped-the-industry. One note: I mis-spoke to the author. She quoted me as stating that total wine production in California has only increased by 7-8% in California, but 170% for Pinot Noir. Those numbers are for total wine GRAPE production. #Sideways #wine #Winebiz
