Regional Shares of California's Wine Grape Market by Yields, Acreage and Grape Sales Revenue
My last blog post included a new tutorial video showing how to use the Grape Data Tool to create charts depicting the what share of the wine grape market different regions of California have, by yields, acreage and grape sales revenue. Here are the charts below, for anyone who wants it. Note that the region names also include a listing of what USDA-NASS grape pricing districts were included in each region. #winegrapes #wine #winebiz #vineyards #yields #acreage #grapedatatoo
Fully-Updated, Fully-Functional Version of the World's Best Grape Data Tool is Now Available
As many of you know, several years ago I built out a dashboard for accessing much of the Grape Crush Report and Grape Acreage Report data going back to 1991. Over time it evolved, presenting more details: percentile price levels, derivative data of many sorts and, eventually, I added macros that make it easy to pull large amounts of data all at once. Originally, this tool was just something I used to speed up my own work. At a certain point, I figured I would make it availa
Maybe Marijuana Legalization is a Real Threat to Wine Sales
I and Tom Wark, at fermentationwineblog.com have had an ongoing debate over whether or not marijuana legalization is a threat to wine sales. For a long time, my belief was that marijuana legalization will not lead to a detectable drop in wine sales, (see here, here, here and here.) Then, as I saw more and better quality evidence, I began to equivocate more, (see here and here.) Basically, I noted that the preponderance of evidence indicated that cannabis legalization likely
New Trade Environment Bad for US Wine Exporters
When it comes to policy changes emanating from Washington, the domestic wine industry's main worry is rightfully the constriction of our labor supply. In addition to renewed efforts to deport unauthorized immigrants and raid employers in our state, there has also been a push to limit the number of H-2A visas available to our farmers. But, if you're looking for more bad news, there's also trade policy. Today is a big day. For one, Mr. Trump is planning on instituting tariff
First Evidence We Should Worry About Marijuana Legalization
A recent study looked at how medical marijuana legalization has influenced alcohol consumption. The study is solid, with falsification and robustness check and consideration of covariants and confounders. According to the researchers, medical marijuana legalization reduces consumption by 15%. This is the first real evidence I have seen that marijuana is a threat to wine. At this point I would characterize the situation as 'a preponderance of evidence indicating that marij
The Greatest Threat to the Wine Industry in the Post-Firestorm World
Not that long ago, my main concern was whether Healdsburg and my home would be intact as I drove away and whether we could find clean air for my young children to breathe. In the end, we were incredibly lucky. My heart goes out to those who have lost everything. As everyone begins to turn toward a return to some form of normalcy, I keep getting questions as to what the effect will be on the wine industry. Of course, for wineries and vineyards that were damaged or destroyed
Recommended Prices for El Dorado Wine Grapes - 2017
I was recently asked by the El Dorado Wine Grape Growers Association to produce recommended prices. Not exactly forecasts, more of an assessment of fair prices, based on long-term trends and cost inflation. Below is a basic chart, an excerpt from the report. I would recommend that you read the report, which is linked to below, after the chart and the EDWGGA's press release. I also included download links to the original calculations and a chart, produced from my Grape Dat
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-
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
Grape Data Tool Tutorial
Lew Perdue has been kind enough to repeatedly remind me that, though my Grape Data Tool is both free and useful, that people in our industry may not be used to such things. He has convinced me to create video tutorials. There are two reasons I haven't been doing that. First, I don't have a lot of extra time laying around. Second, it seems like something I would be bad at. Well, I squeezed in the time, but I'm not sure online video presentations are my forte. That being s
