Afternoon Brief

Thanksgiving ‘Biggest Opportunity’ for Wine in US On-Trade Nielsen Shows: According to the Nielsen CGA Channel Strategy Report 2019 and Nielsen CGA On-Premise User Survey (OPUS) 2019, wine sales outperforms spirits, beer, cocktails and soft drinks during the week of Thanksgiving, with 39% of US consumers choosing to drink wine when out-of-home during the November holiday ...

The Ups and Downs of the 2019 Global Bulk Wine Market: In anticipation of the World Bulk Wine Exhibition (WBWE) in Amsterdam this coming December 2-3, the California-based global wine and grape broker, Ciatti, released its 2019 harvest and bulk wine report...

A Historic Harvest and a Changing Market: Napa's Growers Navigate Grape Glut: They're the classic drivers of any market: supply and demand. Experts say that unfavorable conditions in both have presented the region's wine industry with a grape glut - a challenge in the form of oversupply...

In Napa Valley, Winemakers Fight Climate Change on All Fronts: Every wine region has had to deal with some manifestation of climate change, but few have had to deal with as many devastating consequences as Napa Valley. On Labor Day 2017, as the weeks-long harvest was getting underway, the temperature reached 43 deg C here in the heart of cabernet sauvignon country ...

Three Perspectives on the Challenges of the North Coast Wine Industry: Dire warnings, cautions, and stories winegrowers beginning to feel the pinch of a stagnating wine market have emerged through the harvest season. It's clear, growers and winemakers may have to make hard adjustments for the 2020 market conditions ...

The Vineyard House Asks Court for an Injunction to Prevent Constellation Brands from Misleading Consumers with To Kalon Labeled Wines: The Vineyard House, LLC (TVH) filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to enjoin Constellation Brands U.S. Operations, Inc. from selling wines labeled under the brand name To Kalon Vineyard Company, alleging that Constellation was misleading consumers ...

E. & J. Gallo Winery Purchases Napa's Pahlmeyer Winery: E. & J. Gallo, the Modesto-based wine giant, has purchased yet another Napa Valley brand: Pahlmeyer Winery. The acquisition is the latest for Gallo, already the world's largest winery...

Wine Moguls Destroy Land and Pay Small Fines as Cost of Business, Say Activists: After California wine industry mogul Hugh Reimers illegally destroyed at least 140 acres of forest, meadow and stream in part to make way for new vineyards sometime last winter, according to a report from state investigators, state officials ordered the former executive of Jackson Family Wines to repair and mitigate the damage where possible ...

Wildfires Make Winery Coverage Too Hot for Some Insurers to Handle: The North Bay wine industry is feeling the heat from recent wildfires, but not how you might think. Insurance experts say that as part of a wider company review the international insurance house Lloyds of London stopped underwriting what are known as stock-throughput policies for larger, premier wineries in the region because of the seemingly annual risk to wine production and storage caused by wildfires...

Five Award Winning Innovations for the Wine Industry: Innovation often happens when a new or growing problem needs to be addressed, but sometimes it happens just because someone brings a new perspective and imagination to the industry...

Wine Industry Award Winners Announced - Winners of the 7th Annual Wine, Spirits and Beer Industry Awards have been announced by the North Bay Business Journal. The awards recognize individuals, as well as suppliers, for their contributions to the industry. They will be honored at a Business Journal event later this month ...

Missing: 6 Million Female Premium Wine Drinkers: Women are significantly under-represented among US wine drinkers who spend $15 or more on a bottle. Could they be the next growth opportunity?

Sonoma County Studies Take Issue with Wine Industry’s Expansion, Scrutinizing Traffic, Events: Sonoma County wineries should bear the bulk of the responsibility for improving relations with rural neighbors, according to a pair of recently released county studies calling for fewer events, more coordination and a higher standard of review for new or expanding wineries...

Oregon Wine's Civil Civil War: Oregon has always been one of the chummiest wine-producing states in the US and one of the leaders of a new breakaway trade group says that is still the goal ...

Is Wine Premiumisation a Doom Loop?: Wine sales figures for the first half of 2019 show that the premiumisation trend in the US has begun to head south. The question every wine producer should be asking themselves is: So what do we do now? ...