There are five stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. So far with the wine business facing a downturn I've seen action, panic, and marketing.
Action is ripping out vineyards and lay-offs. That is, cutting product and people -- the usual corporate steps. Panic is the fear you can sense in writing and speech from some in the industry. Marketing is what I see now as people are trying to get more time and money spent on reminding people to buy wine, sometimes in weird ways. One is a tasting room tax on sales with the money going to some as yet undetermined group to do some sort of marketing.
Whatever the next phase is, I hope we get there soon because this marketing phase seems wrong.
I vote for giving the people what they want. That would be things like fun, unpretentious wine in cans, or at least something beside a 750ml glass bottle. Get rid of the corks, add ingredient labeling. I don't know which phase this is, but I hope it's one of them. Innovation, baby!
Thanks for your attention to this matter.
