Who Drinks Organic Wine?

Organic wines have received a lot of media attention. But who is drinking organic wine? The previous blog post defines what organic wine is.

Tasting Fees: Many Wineries Are Getting It

Tasting room fees have doubled since 2012. Tasting room traffic is way down. Coincidence?

Premium Canned Wine

Wine in cans started with a sweet, fruity, fizzy beverage in a can with a cute, colorful label on the outside. It's growing up and becoming a beverage for adults rather than for college kids at the beach or maybe sneaking them into movie theaters and concerts.

Is Overripe Over?

By overripe, I mean the soft, lush, blockbuster fruity wines of California. By questioning if they are finished as a style, I mean they aren't going away anytime soon, but are they losing popularity. We are seeing a return by some winemakers to what I consider more balanced and structured wines.

The Wine Sub-Culture

Wine same customs have been around for many generations, and it seems almost impossible to change any of them. It's not all necessarily bad, but some things make you wonder.

If We Lose Wineries During the Downturn

California's wine industry experienced explosive growth in the 2010-2020 timeframe, adding roughly 1,500 wineries between 2010 and 2020 alone. Since the mid-1990s the number of wineries in America has been on a steep climb.

The Coming of Enhanced Wine Tourism

Wine tourism has always meant visiting wineries, tasting wines, maybe buying, and moving on. Sometimes there might be a look at the wine production facility. This is changing.

The Growth of White Wine

White wines are in the midst of a boom cycle as U.S.sales surpassed red wines in 2024. That same year global white wine sales were up 3% while red wines were down 3%. Why is this and what might red wine producers learn?

A Visual Look at the Wine Market

A look at the wine market in a few graphs.
Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It? Rod Stewart, 1971.

Could This Be a Big Reason Why Wine Sales are Down?

You've heard that wine sales are looking gloomy, and you've probably heard different reasons why.

Younger consumers don't think it's cool because their parents drink it. There's too much competition from newer beverages like RTDs (ready-to-drink alcoholic drinks in cans), seltzers, ciders, and craft beer.  There are health concerns. Another contributing factor is a post-pandemic let-down after huge sales just after businesses reopened in 2021. These all contribute, but price may be key.

The Phases of Wine Sales Going in the Crapper

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.  

Helping the Wine Industry

  Wine consumption is down, and most are citing the cause is the belief that alcohol is bad for you in any quantity. The wine industry is shrinking. What could help right the ship? 

Another Reason the Wine Industry is in Trouble

There are fewer people drinking, people drinking less, mostly for health reasons. Consumers have other options like craft beer and hard seltzer. There are other reasons for the decline in sales.

Is Wine Uncool?

  There's plenty of talk as to why wine sales and wine consumption have tanked. U.S. drinking is way down, with a record low percentage of Americans saying they don't drink alcohol. That number appears to still be dropping. Health concerns, especially among the younger folks, is the biggest reason given. There are other reasons.

Unsold Grapes, Vines Pulled Out

It was a tough year for grape growers. Not just a cyclical "normal" tough year, but really tough. The following is taken from an 11/12/25 article by Sarah Doyle in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that is only available to subscribers. I'll hit a few highlights while trying not to plagiarize.   :)

Wine Trends By Decade

There have been many American wine trends over the years. It's not as though wine fashion was invented with that organic non-alcoholic natty orange wine you're drinking. 

The seminal event that kicked-started American wine was the 1976 Judgment of Paris. We'll start from there.

The Good Old Days of Wineries' Worries

Wineries and the grape growers are worried. Yes, many small businesses have things to worry about. Grape growers are farmers so are always worried and the weather, government policies, and almost everything else.

Interesting Wine Trends

 Below are a few graphs on trends in wine. The first three are from the American Assoc. of Wine Economists, a world-wide organization based in New York. The last one from Gomberg-Fredrikson, of Sonoma, CA.

The Great Grape Migration

As temperatures warm, vineyards will have to move. Premium grapes are very susceptible to temperature changes, as each variety operates in a small window of temperatures.

The Small 2024 Calif Grape Crush

Per the U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA), the 2024 California wine grape crush was the smallest in 25 years. Total crush size was 2.844 million tons, a 23% decline for 2023's 3.7 million tons. Average grape prices fell 5%, but the previous year was the highest ever, so not really a meaningful decline. 

These numbers are state-wide. Three-fourths of California's wine grapes come from the Central Valley. Napa and Sonoma Counties are each about 4% of the state's total.