Yes, the economy is picking up, gas prices are down, unemployment is down. What about wine prices? Well, you knew it wouldn't be all good news.
Silicon Valley Bank has the West Coast wine industry as a primary client, along with high-tech, of course. A recent survey of hundreds of wineries leads them to believe premium wine prices will rise this year. Premium wine being wines over $20 a bottle.
Even though there is plenty of supply as California has had three large harvests in a row the demand is even higher. Plus there has been some pent-up desire on the part of the wineries that have held prices in check during the recession.
The one part of the market that's hurting is for the under $7 wines. This is the opposite of what happened several years ago at the start of the recession when cheap wines grew in sales and the premium wines dropped off. People are spending money on luxury goods again.
Article from the Press Democrat
Another tidbit from the bank's study is that Millennials have not yet taken over as the primary wine consumers despite all the hype. Check out the bank's full report and see the graph on page 31.
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