It was a real eye-opener to travel to Vancouver, BC and see the Washington wine there at 100%+ markup. About two hours from Seattle, it would cost you over twenty Canadian dollars to buy a bottle of Red Diamond Merlot that would cost me $8-10. As a result, Canadians don’t really see our wines up there even though they are relatively close. Similarly, we don’t see BC wines much here in Washington. What a pity.

The problem here is because prohibition didn’t ‘end’, the feds just gave the states the right to regulate it. So we have 50 totally different laws. Amazon or someone could sell a lot of wine, but dealing with 50 states, taxes, regulations etc. make it impossible to manage. And it’s illegal in some states.

I think the problem is our love/hate relationship with alcohol.

Most of these people are crazy busy, especially given the state of the economy since late 07, early 08 (coincidentally, the distributor opened its doors in spring of 08; in retrospect, not the best time to open a new business based on “discretionary spending”), as most of them (those who survived layoffs, firings, downsizings and closures) are doing double- and triple-duty.

Now ask them to take a chance on a completely new (to them) winery, with little or no recognition outside of the Pacific Northwest. Now put that up against the “big boys” from around the world having to dump product that hasn’t moved in 18 months and are resorting to huge discounts, multiple “buy one, get three” offers, gifts, etc.

Factor in the decline of consumer spending in the on-premise (restaurant) segments of the marketplace and you begin to see how it’s not a friendly climate for risk, monetary or palate-wise. With all of that, the number of distributors has declined precipitously, the big distributors have pared their books to those lines that sell effortlessly and in large amounts; in the end, the small wine maker and the consumer have less choices available.

And all of this is just in the U.S., let alone how many other hoops must be jumped through (with attendant costs to every hoop) to get the vino across an ocean or two.

Oh, and the distributor who took a chance and tried to bring artisanal and small-production to a marketplace that had little experience with them? Sadly, they closed the doors in August, 2009, along with 5 other small- and medium-sized distributors in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area of Arizona.

Re: janice — most of the OR and WA producers that I know of (outside of the “big labels”) have pulled back and are trying to sell their wines through tasting rooms, member’s clubs and mailing lists. They would love to have other markets open to them and actually sell some wine, but don’t have the distribution to do so.

Of course Berry Bros stocks some bottles from Andrew Will, but £35 for a bottle is more than I typically spend. There are a couple of smaller online merchants that have the odd bottle, but nothing seemed that inspiring. I’ve resulted to bringing a case back with me each time I visit.

Harpers recently published a supplement on Washington Wine and their conclusion was that as Washington growers managed to sell all of their wine within in the US, they had no need to market it abroad. Do wish they’d change their minds!

It seems things are going to be worse before they get better.