Thanks for your comment (and I am glad you enjoyed Wine Wars).

U.S. exports have actually increased significantly in recent years, although as you suggest from a low base. For most wineries, the U.S. market is more profitable than foreign sales, so there is limited incentive for export.

The wines that make it abroad have tended to be concentrated in the lower and higher price points with a large “missing middle” of the wines that you and I probably drink.

I’ve always been curious about the export potential of American wine. What do you think? Do they have any penetration into Europe or Asia? I have a hard time imagining restaurants in France or Italy including a lot of Napa cab on their wine lists. And when I visit my family in Hong Kong, it’s pretty rare for me to even see any California (let alone Oregon or Washington state) wine on the store shelves or in a restaurant.

Fi

Having just finished “Wine Wars” which I couldn’t put down, I was particularly interested to see your email pop into my inbox today!

We operate out of Cape Town, focussing on exports of South African wine, and your article, whist being pragmatic about the huge uncertainties surrounding us all in the current global economy, gives us some green shoots to hope for this year in this fascinating world of wine! Thank you for that. I guess tightening margins will necessarily lead to the development of more efficiencies in the global supply chain.

Curious, though, why your session on Leveraging the Supply Side of the Global Wine Market refers to supply to the BRIC countries and not the new BRICS countries? South Africa became part of the BRIC nations in 2010, turning BRIC into BRICS

Cheers from the Cape Winelands, as we start our 2012 harvest!

Fiona

Europe has also experienced large scale grubbing up. The reports I read indicate that the market is close to equilibrium if we look at wine that meets global market standards. There is still a (shrinking) surplus of wine unsellable wine.