The mojo question was at the front of our minds because earlier that day the speakers at the State of the Industry session had painted a complicated picture of American wine’s prospects. There are still opportunties in the U.S. market (the rumors of wine’s death are exaggerated, I said in my presentaiton, paraphrasing Mark Twain), but there are undeniable problems, too.
The best guess is that 200,000 tons of wine grapes were left on the vines in California in 2019 for lack of buyers. Perhaps 30,000 acres of wine grapes need to be taken out of production to balance demand and supply. So it is no surprise that our discussion centered on ways to boost demand and therefore lesson the supply-side pain.
The podcast is fast-paced and raises interesting points about the potential for wine exports (my contribution to the discussion), the need for increased attention to e-commerce sales (Bourcard’s point) and Stephen’s analysis of the challenges of building brands for a changing market environment.
Interested? Follow this link to “Can U.S. Wine Win Back Its Mojo?”