Resilience! Changing Times Test Oregon Wine

“Oregon Wine Industry Shows Signs of Contraction” was the headline that caught my eye on the YourOregonNews.com website. The signs were clear enough and familiar to anyone following the wine industry just about anywhere in the world. The surprise was that it was Oregon.

Oregon has seemed like an unstoppable wine force in recent years. The industry rode the general wine boom starting in the 1970s (when Sue and I made our first visits), and accelerated rapidly in the Sideways era, with its focus on Pinot Noir, Oregon’s signature grape variety.

New wineries opened their doors and new vineyards put down roots. Significantly, wine producers in California, Washington, France, Italy, and elsewhere got into the market. Oregon seemed like the right place at the right time with the right wines. What could go wrong?

Changing Times.

But times have changed and Oregon’s winning streak looks to be over for now. The news article reports that

Oregon’s 2025 winegrape production dropped 25% and acreage harvested dipped 12% from the previous year due to declining sales and exports, particularly to Canada.

Signs of contraction were anticipated as the state adjusted from record years of the early 2020s to more sobering market conditions, according to the 2025 Oregon Vineyard and Winery Census Report.

A survey of winegrape growers found: “About 48% of growers sold grapes below the cost of production, 35% cut yield via farming practice changes and 23% removed vines.”

“Fruit was available and high-quality, but buyers were often hard to find. Growers adapted by selling below costs, cutting yields deliberately, dropping fruit on the ground, and in some cases pulling vines or planning to exit,” stated a report supplement.

Declining U.S. domestic sales and rising production costs were the main source of economic distress, but the collapse of export sales to Canada hit hard, too. Provincial boycotts of U.S. beverage alcohol products caused Canadian exports to fall by 83 percent, according to the report.

No Silver Linings?

“Difficult to find any silver linings in the ‘dark cloud’ news about the Oregon wine industry.” That’s what I wrote when I first posted the news story on social media and the situation sure looks bleak.

Pinot Noir seemed like Oregon’s magic pass for a while, but sales have declined along with almost every other wine category (New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is the exception). Things are so bad (and wine enthusiast budgets so stretched) that the famous International Pinot Noir Celebration was forced to hit the pause button after a successful 35-year run.

So what’s the story? Wine is a risky business and this is the sort of thing that happens when your luck runs out. That’s true enough, but it isn’t why I’ve brought you here today. I want to talk about something that hasn’t changed with the times: Oregon’s strong resilience.

New Directions

No sense sugar-coating the bad news, but it is fair to draw attention to the many efforts that Oregon wine is making to bounce back. White wine sales are holding up better than purchases of reds, for example, and Oregon is best known for its Pinot Noir. What to do? Well, as we learned a couple of years ago when we met with a group of Willamette Valley winemakers, the resilient pivot is obvious: white Pinot Noir. It was delicious. There’s no reason that “blanc de noir” should only apply to sparkling wine. I’ll bet white Pinot sells very well in tasting rooms.

Speaking of sparkling wine, Oregon produces some great examples. Why not draw attention to these wines now? Well, of course, that’s just what resilient Oregon producers of traditional method sparkling wines are doing, banding together under the “Method Oregon” banner. In fact they are hosting an ambitious Method Oregon Grand Tasting Weekend on July 24-26, 2026. More than 50 wineries are working together to connect with thirsty consumers and promote their wines.

Beyond the ABCs

Chardonnay is another Oregon pivot worth noting. Pinot Gris has long been Oregon’s best-known white wine, not Chardonnay as you might expect. Why? Part of the answer is that Oregon Pinot Gris can be really good. Another answer, a wine critic friend suggests, is that the wrong Chardonnay clones were planted in the early days and it has taken a long time to change the vineyards, the wines, and the reputation.

I think the ABC effect is also important. Oregon’s rise overlapped to some extent with the Anything But Chardonnay reaction to a certain buttery style. Many people (Sue and me included) sort of lost interest in Chardonnay.

The current crisis has motivated Oregon producers to focus more intently on their Chardonnay wines and to confront the ABC curse. Sue and I have enjoyed a number of Willamette Valley Chardonnay wines recently and we can see the appeal. The Seven Soils Chardonnay from Rex Hill, for example, was delightful. Sue said that she would be happy to drink it anytime!

We recently received a sample of the Domaine Roy & Fils Iron Filbert Dundee Hills Chardonnay, which forced us to rethink what we thought we knew about Chardonnay in Oregon. This wine, more than most we have sampled, is about place, in this case the Iron Filbert Vineyard. It is a unique expression. Much to think about here. (Domaine Roy & Fils is now owned by Italy’s Frescobaldi family, who seem determined to advance the winery’s vision of Oregon wine.)

Origins of Resilience

The Iron Filbert Vineyard’s name triggered a memory of Oregon resilience. It is possible to argue that the Oregon wine industry owes its early growth in part to a natural disaster. As Benjamin Lewin MW explains in his 2011 book “In Search of Pinot Noir,” Western Oregon was better known for hazelnuts (filberts) than wine grapes until the famous Columbus Day storm of 1962. The storm tore through the fruit and nut orchards, a disaster for the local industry.

Some of the orchards were brought back into production, but many never recovered because the costs were just too high. Some of these distressed orchards were eventually reborn as the early vineyards on which Oregon’s wine industry was built.

A new industry rose out of the wreckage of the old. Oregon wine, it seems is resilient from the ground up.

Simply Irresistable? Sicilia DOC Wines

July 14, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets Leave a comment

Sicily isn’t Italy (you can ask anyone), and Sicilian wine isn’t Italian wine either.

Many Sicilian producers have embraced the Sicilia DOC designation as a simple but effective identity. It’s the kind of idea that other wine regions might consider in today’s crowded marketplace. Here is our report.

Einstein’s Law

Everything should be as simple as possible, Albert Einstein said. But no simpler.

I think Einstein was talking about scientific theories, of course, but the idea applies to wine, too. If you make wine too complicated, it is hard to understand (and harder to sell). But make it too simple and it really isn’t wine anymore. It’s just … what? Alcohol, I guess.

I see Einstein’s Law everywhere in wine these days. On one hand, some wine brands push simplification to the point where it is hard to know what’s in the bottle, where it came from, or even who made it. Consumers buy the brand as much as the wine (maybe more).

On the other hand, many wine regions work to needlessly complicate life. Regional indicators (AVAs in the United States, appellations in Europe) are a sort of collective brand that gives the producers in a region an identity. The problem is that, once an AVA brand is established, we often see pressure for sub-AVAs that might benefit particular producers and sub-regions, but risk undermining the whole by diluting the regional brand.

I authored a tongue-in-cheek “Modest Proposal” for U.S. AVA reform a few years ago, but I don’t think anyone got the message. But some regions in Italy have been working to find the right balance between complication and simplicity. Both the Abruzzo DOC (2010)and Sicilia DOC (2011) appellations were established in an attempt to strengthen the broad regional brand, to simplify choice for consumers without going too far.

Simply Sicilia DOC

It is not easy to get producers to invest in a broad regional designation (Sicilia DOC) when they see their particular interest more closely tied to their own sub-regional brand (Etna DOC, for example). And of course getting consensus on technical and financial issues is harder the larger the group involved.

Maybe this is why the Sicilia DOC took a while to gather speed. My 1999 copy of a Touring Club of Italy wine guide notes that, after several years of negotiation, the much-anticipated Sicilia DOC designation was just about ready. The 2004 edition of the same guide said the same thing. The DOC finally appeared in 2011 and is now an important force.

Sicilia DOC has ridden the ups and downs of the wine market in general, of course, but it benefits now from Sicily’s rising profile, which has spawned a couple of interesting initiatives. Taormina, Sicily, is the recent home of The White Lotus television series, creating what is called The White Lotus Effect for Sicilian wine. Sicilia DOC has worked to take advantage of this association, which has drawn both international visitors and international interest more generally.

Sicily has also benefitted from the post-COVID international travel boom. As a press release explains:

It’s no secret that Sicily has become the “it” destination for American travelers, but that cultural obsession is now officially moving from the suitcase to the wine cellar.

We’re seeing a fascinating “Souvenir Effect” take hold: as Americans return from the island, they aren’t just looking for “Italian wine,” they are hunting for the specific indigenous grapes they discovered on the coast, like Grillo, Lucido, and Nero d’Avola.

Sicily enjoys an embarrassment of riches in terms of regions, grape varieties, and styles of wine. Some producers focus on a particular region or style, but others draw broadly on the resources available. Donnafugata, for example, offers a range of wines ranging the rich Ben Ryé dessert wine from the wind-blown island of Pantelleria in the south-east to the complex minerality of Sul Vulcano Bianco from the slopes of Mount Etna in the north-east. Completely different. Totally Sicilian.

T is for Tasca

Sue and I learned a lot about the diversity of Sicilian wine during our recent trip by enjoying Sicilia DOC wines from Tasca d’Almerita.

In Palermo we discovered Tasca d’Almerita Fondazione Whitaker Mozia, which is made from Grillo grapes grown in a historic vineyard on the low-lying island of Mozia near Trapani on the island’s west coast. We later visited Mozia and its salt flats and recognized how much the unique terroir is reflected in the wine.

We enjoyed a completely different Tasca d’Almerita wine over dinner in Catania. Tasca d’Almerita Nozze d’Oro is made from Inzolia and Sauvignon grape varieties and commemorates a special wedding anniversary (like the one Sue and I are celebrating this month). Memorable wines.

Back home in the U.S. we were pleased to see that Tasca d’Almerita wines are available here, imported by Heritage Collection, part of Trinchero Family Estates. We are currently sampling several of them, including Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali Regaleali Bianco Sicilia DOC 2023, Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali Lamuri Sicilia DOC 2022, and Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali Rosso del Conte Sicilia Contea di Sclafani DOC 2018.

The bargain-priced Regaleali Bianco really caught our attention. A blend of native grapes from the west coast of Sicily (plus a little Chardonnay), it is both interesting and delicious. A perfect “souvenir” wine? Of course. Simply irresistable.

Lenz Moser’s Mad Mád Mád Mad Wine World

July 7, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Flying Winemakers, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

A winemaker from Austria making white Cabernet Sauvignon wines in China. It seemed like a crazy idea. But, as we reported here in The Wine Economist a couple of months ago, it really worked. Crazy, but true.

World Wine Ambitions

The winemaker is Lenz Moser and his Chateau Changyu Moser XV wines made us believers. We had to find out more.

Moser is the 15th generation of his family (hence Moser XV above) to make wines in Austria, but he obviously has world wine ambitions. He spent a decade working for Robert Mondavi, for example, and brought what he learned home in terms of making wines to appeal to international markets. He identifies as a consumer and seeks to craft wines that people will enjoy.

One problem with the Chateau Changyu Moser wines is that they are not currently available in the U.S. market (it’s complicated, but I assume that U.S.-China trade issues are part of the story). So we have been focusing on Moser wines in U.S. distribution.

Gruner Pastures?

It is not surprising that an Austrian winemaker would make wine from Austria’s signature grape variety: Gruner Veltliner. Less probable, I suppose, is that Moser would seek to reimagine the wine as he has done with his New Chapter wines. New Chapter aims to leapfrog evolution, producing “tomorrow’s Gruner today,” by which I think is meant to make Gruner more consumer-friendly without sacrificing its essence.

I admit that I don’t drink Gruner often enough to evaluate the “to the future … and beyond” claim, but I can verify that the wine quickly disappeared over lunch with our friend Mary. A good start to our investigation.

Mád Mad Moser

Our friends Lisa and John recently returned from a trip to Budapest, so they were logical guests to help us get to know Lenz Moser’s line of Hungarian wines, three variations on Furmint from the Tokaj region. How much more Hungarian can you get?

The wines are called Mad Moser (or sometimes Mád Moser) because they are made in partnership with the Mad Wine company located in the city of Mád. Mád Mad Moser for sure.

The first wine we sampled was a dry Furmint (labeled Mád Moser) made in a modern style (think stainless steel). It was distinctive and made us think a bit about where Furmint fits into the Central European wine matrix that includes Gruner and Riesling along with other white wines.

The second wine (labeled Mad Moser) was also a dry Furmint, but quite different from the first, having spent eight months in Hungarian oak casks and barrels. It was more complex, nuanced, drinkable. And it paired really well with our dinner of orecchiette with speck and peas.

The contrast between the two dry Furmint wines was striking and I’d enjoy repeating the experiment. I wish the wine labels provided more information to help consumers know what to expect (not everyone is going to be able to open the two wines side-by-side like we did). I admit that there was a lot of information on the back label, but it was in such tiny print as to be useless even in bright light (I can’t imagine trying to read it in a dimly lit restaurant). I guess I will have to try to remember how Mád differs from Mad and which one we preferred (Mad, I think).

We finished with an elegant Mad Moser Tokaji Aszu 2013, a real treat. It was well balanced and paired perfectly with Sue’s Sicilian almond cookies. A great way to end the meal. John and Lisa commented that the wine was much drier than they expected (a good feature, they said).

Tokaji was once celebrated as the King of Wines and the Wine of Kings, but it is under-appreciated today. Maybe Lenz Moser is a bit mad to try to draw our attention to it and its dry Furmint cousins, but we hope he succeeds.

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The title of today’s column was inspired by Stanley Kramer’s 1963 film, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

The Trouble with Gewürztraminer

June 16, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

The trouble with Tribles, as Star Trek fans all know, is that everyone falls in love with them at first sight. The trouble with Gewürztraminer is very different!

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Sue and I were fortunate to attend a big dinner at Cantina Tramin‘s strikingly beautiful winery a few years ago. Although I can’t really remember what we ate or who we sat with, I know for sure which wine we most enjoyed: Gewürztraminer!

The town of Tramin, in Italy’s Alto Adige region, is thought by many to be the birthplace of the Gewürztraminer grape variety, which is Cantina Tramin’s most-planted grape. The Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer is their signature wine and the wine we returned to again and again at dinner that night.

Cooperative Economics

We’ve written about Cantina Tramin before because it makes such a good wine economics story. Cantina Tramin is a cooperative winery and, like every cooperative I know of, it started life as a defensive effort. Faced with a soft market and low grape prices, growers banded together to make and to sell their own wines and share in the profits (if any). The initial focus was on bulk wine production, but about 50 years ago the bold decision was made to shift from quantity to quality, building a strong brand and earning higher margins. There was no guarantee that this would work and some other cooperatives that have tried it have not succeeded.

Cantina Tramin today is a noteworthy success story. Its 160 grower families farm about 280 hectares of grapes, producing 150,000 cases of wine. If you do the math you will quickly realize that the individual vineyards are tiny, so cooperation mobilizes strength in numbers. The small scale of individual holdings is exploited to highlight terroir. Higher quality grapes are rewarded with higher prices. Although it produces both red and white wines, Cantina Tramin is best known for its white wines, especially Gewürztraminer, for which it is famous in Italy.

The White Shift in Action

As most Wine Economist readers know, wine consumers today seem to be shifting from red wines to white wines, much to the benefit of Alto Adige producers and those in other regions of the Italian northeast such as Friuli and the Veneto. The white shift is especially important to the degree that it compensates somewhat for the general decline in wine consumption. White wines have a larger share of the smaller market pie, so to speak. Smaller share, smaller pie for red wine producers overall.

So this is good news for Cantina Tramin because their Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon, and white blend wines are all very popular. But the situation is more complicated for Gewürztraminer. Or at least that’s the case here in the U.S. market.

Gewürztraminer is well-known in Italy and nearby Austria, for example, and the Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer has a stellar reputation. But Gewürztraminer seems to be a hard sell here in the U.S., even though excellent Gewürztraminer wines are made here (think Anderson Valley, for example). The story is told that the famous Napa winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff endorsed Washington State’s potential as a quality wine producer upon tasting a glass of excellent local Gewürztraminer.

Gewürztraminer & the Riesling Curse

Gewürztraminer has the qualities that wine drinkers today look for. It is crisp, aromatic, delicious. It might not be the next “boom variety,” but it should be more popular than it is, don’t you think? What’s the problem?

I hate to put it this way, but maybe Gewürztraminer has the Riesling Curse. Like Riesling, Gewürztraminer has a name that some people are afraid of getting wrong (Jancis Robinson has written that some people are uncertain if it is Rice-ling or Rees-ling or something else). Gewürztraminer is kind of a long word (see Mark Twain’s essay “The Awful German Language” in this regard) and cautious people are sometimes afraid to try to sound it out, I guess.

A second problem is that, again like Riesling, Gewürztraminer can be made in different styles and consumers may be afraid to make a mistake. Is it sweet or is it dry? How can I tell? Gewürztraminer can even fool you a bit because a sweet aroma can disguise a dry finish. Gewürztraminer is what is sometimes called an “experience good.” You won’t know if you like it until you try it. But it can be hard to get to that first sip.

Maybe Catina Tramin’s stellar line-up of Alto Adige white wines can be an onramp for Gewürztraminer. All the wines we’ve tried have been great. A glass of the Troy Chardonnay might lead to a bottle of the Stoan white blend, which includes a touch of Gewürztraminer along with Chardonnay and other grape varieties. Then, maybe, who knows? Gewürztraminer isn’t that hard to say once you’ve tasted it!

Message in a Wine Glass: How Does That Wine Make You Feel?

June 9, 2026 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 5 Comments

Why do so many people love Champagne (and other sparkling wines, too)? Is it the way they taste? Or is it the way they make you feel? Here are a few thoughts inspired by a message in a wine glass.

Not Necessarily Clear as Glass

As regular Wine Economist readers know, Sue and I have this thing about specialized wine glasses and wine paraphernalia generally. Wine is an everyday drink for us and we try not to take it (and ourselves) too seriously. The purpose of wine is to make life better. Why complicate that?

But it is important to have an open mind, so we experimented for a while with specialized tasting glasses designed by Raj Parr and manufactured by Glasvin. As reported on The Wine Economist, we found them pretty, but a bit awkward. They didn’t really improve our wine experience very much, although, to be fair, they always seemed to delight guests. Maybe it was just us?

Then, a couple of months ago, we started experimenting with a Glasvin product called The Universal , and we surprised ourselves. We really enjoy using it. It’s a drinking glass rather than a tasting glass, of course, which suits our preference. It is super lightweight and pretty to look at. They have become our first-choice glassware for everyday enjoyment (we still rely on our OG INAO tasting glasses for analytical work.)

Hold Me, Touch Me, Taste Me, Feel Me

So here’s the thing. Does the wine taste better in nicer glasses than it does in regular wine glasses? I know that the type and shape of a wine glass is supposed to affect perception, but I have never paid too much attention to that side. I know that the Raj Parr tasting glasses had some effect just because they were designed for you to focus on particular elements rather than just enjoying the wine.

After some thought (and a few more glasses of wine), I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter to me if the glass makes the wine taste better. The point is that using these nicer glasses makes drinking the wine feel better. It elevates our experience (your mileage may vary).

This is not a very important observation on its own, but the idea of tasting versus feeling might be worth considering in a broader context. Wine descriptions often tell consumers how the wine tastes, sometimes in intimidating detail. This is useful information, but is it what buyers want to know? Or would it be better to suggest how the wine might make you feel?

Think about the last time you entered a friend’s home or attended an event where a glass of sparkling wine was quickly put in your hand. How did that make you feel? I’m pretty sure it felt good. How did it taste? You might not be able to remember because the feelings of welcome and relaxation were so strong.

I wonder if the feeling effect explains the success of some celebrity wines? Do you think it just feels good to connect through wine to someone you know, like or admire? Sue and I often remark that we especially enjoy wines with a personal connection, usually to the winemaking family.

Don’t Jump the Shark

If this is true, then I wonder why so many wine producers go out of their way to ignore the feeling effect? Some labels feature tasting notes or technical data suitable for a WSET study guide. Not a lot of feeling there. Now I don’t think you should tell people how they should feel when they drink your wine. But the right language can set an emotional framework that consumers can fill in themselves when they lift the glass.

I think emotion is an obvious part of the wine experience and it seems to me that wine producers don’t always pay enough attention to this in telling their stories. That said, I don’t want to push too hard on this point or some desperate winemaker might start crafting products for specific emotions. Moody Malbec. Silly Sauvignon. Passionate Pinot. Who knows where that might lead?

That’s the message I found in our new wine glasses. I wonder what the corkscrew has to say?

The Battle of Land versus Brand

June 2, 2026 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 4 Comments

In the wine market’s continuing battle of land versus brand, brand has several built-in advantages. Brands are often backed by big business marketing and distribution muscle, for example, and brands are scalable in ways that vineyard- and region-specific wines never can be.

My first wine book, Wine Wars, charted the path of several famous brands, including Blue Nun and Two Buck Chuck. Wine Wars II went deeper into brand land, searching for the keys to brand success. We are living in the Age of Identity and brands offer wine companies the opportunity to craft identities to fit specific market segments (think 19 Crimes, for example).

So brand trumps land, right? Not so fast. Here are three brief reports from the battlefront.

Noble Nobile

Sometimes land trumps brand or maybe it is that land reinforces the brand. The point is illustrated by two Italian wines Sue and I had the pleasure to sample.

Avignonesi Poggetto di Sopra is a relatively rare thing: A vineyard-designated Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The map on the label shows the particular vineyard rows that were used along with the precise latitude and longitude of the block. The goal, we are told, is to let this particular place tell its story through the wine with as little intervention as possible.

The result is a rather elegant wine that changes and shifts in the glass as you drink and consider it. Sue was impressed, saying that it is just the kind of wine she most enjoys drinking. It paired very well with our homemade prosciutto and arugula pizza (the sauce was made with tomatoes from Sue’s garden).

The Avignonesi brand is famous, of course, but the wine is about the land and I think this elevates the brand rather than competing with it.

Vermentino and Not Vermentino

Tenuta Argenteria is a well-known producer in the Bolgheri region, best known for Bordeaux-blend red wines. They produce a white wine called Scenario, which is both a Vermentino and not a Vermentino.

How is this possible? Is it another “American wine” naming trick? No, the answer is that Scenario is made from 100% Vermentino grapes and if you put that on the label, then customers naturally define it in those terms (grape varieties are a sort of brand in this regard) and set expectations accordingly. They will evaluate the wine from the perspective of their Vermentino experience.

Argentiera wants to have the land be the defining factor, so Scenario is identified only as Bolgheri Bianco DOC (no grape variety is listed). I don’t know about you, but we haven’t tasted a ton of Bolgheri Bianco wines, sowe had to take the wine on its own terms. Isn’t that refreshing?

How did it taste? Savory not fruity, with nice minerality. We usually drink white wines warmer than our friends do, but this one wanted a little more chill. Did it remind us of Vermentino wines like the ones we discovered in Sardinia a few years ago? No, not really. But why should it? After all, only the grape variety is the same. Land, climate, people — all different. Do the red Bolgheri wines, blends of Bordeaux varieties, taste like Napa Cab?

What is American Wine?

An interesting example is the current debate about American appellation wines. This very broad designation was created to allow the blending of wines from different geographical designations. Some wines from New Mexico, for example, carry the American appellation for the very good reason that they include grapes from California and Washington State. Not really New Mexico, but not allowed to use California or Washington designations, either, because they are made outside those states. American wine? OK.

The VARA Zero Dosage American sparkling wine, for example, is made in New Mexico with Chardonnay grapes from Lodi and Arroyo Secco AVAs in California. It’s a fine wine and good value.

Now, however, we learn that the American appellation rules permit wineries to include imported wine in the blend. So they are “American” but not entirely American either. It is an obvious cost-saving and margin-protecting strategy because the world is awash in inexpensive bulk wine.

The California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) is working to try to correct this situation. It is obviously in the interest of CAWG members to keep imported grapes and bulk wine out of “American” wine boxes and bottles (just as it is in the interest of big producers to keep the rules as they are). But there are more than competing interests at stake. It is hard to take wine regulations seriously if “American” means “not necessarily” or “not entirely” American. If that’s the case, why have an American appellation at all?

Affordabiity and Eric Asimov’s Search for Great Wine Values

April 13, 2026 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 7 Comments

Value and affordability are hot-button terms in today’s economy. It seems like the cost of just about everything is going up, including especially the price of gasoline. No wonder consumers are looking for relief, searching for value.

This is not a new phenomenon, either in the wine world or in the economy more generally. The Wine Economist asked the question Is Wine a Good Value? back in 2024 because affordability was so much in the news then. (You may recall that “affordability” was a political campaign issue then as it is likely to be again this fall.)

The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing

“Is Wine a Good Value?” noted that many consumer goods markets were suffering from a value deficit and wondered if wine might have the same problem. Are consumers buying less wine because they don’t think it’s worth it, given the economic circumstances and likely future prospects?

Some people, according to Oscar Wilde, know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Are wine drinkers like that? If wine costs too much, some argued, consumers can always trade down to cheaper brands. Yes, but there is evidence that many people have learned that lower price is not necessarily better value. We noted that McDonald’s introduction of cheaper menu items in 2024 had backfired. Customers didn’t want to pay less and get less. They wanted better value. (And McDonald’s, having changed its strategy, seems to be experiencing success giving it to them.)

Zoom ahead from 2024 to 2026 and the affordability issue is even more severe. Tariff effects, higher interest rates and loan repayments, rising fuel prices, and other factors squeeze budgets for consumers and squeeze margins for businesses up and down the supply chain. Wine isn’t the only or even the main victim of affordability stress, but it sure has had an impact. I don’t know how much affordability is to blame for poor wine sales, but I am sure it is a factor (especially in the on-trade).

Asimov and Wine’s Sweet Spot

Enter New York Times wine columnist Eric Asimov who, like many critics, has responded over the years to reader requests for help finding wines that are both good to drink and good value for money. Asimov’s latest advice appeared recently in a column titled “How to Find Great Values in Wine.” Good value doesn’t mean simply looking for the lowest price (or even the second lowest price). Asimov writes that,

For years, I have argued that, to spend the least amount of money, the greatest proportion of good values in wine were in the range of $15 to $20 a bottle. For less than $15, it’s difficult to find bottles that are exciting and emotionally engaging, qualities I want in every bottle I drink. Less expensive bottles are almost always sound, but most are boring and one-dimensional. For a little more money, up to $20, I’ve believed, the range of exciting wines increases exponentially.

Wine prices have risen in recent years, both because of the “premiumization” phenomenon and due to other factors such as rising costs and tariffs on imported wine and winemaking inputs. Is the sweet spot still there? Yes, Asimov says, but it has changed.

This has been true for a long time, but in the nearly 15 years since my first list of $20 bottles, the cast of wines has changed drastically. The bottle of Chablis from Domaine Picq that cost $20 in 2012 now costs $35 to $40, while the Langhe freisa from G.B. Burlotto now runs $45 to $50.

At the same time, however, new wines from new producers in new places have entered the market to fill gaps in the affordability matrix.But value is getting harder and harder to achieve.

How long will $15 to $20 remain the sweet spot for these sorts of wine values? It’s a lot harder to find them today. While I will continue to take on this particular challenge, it’s fairer to say $20 to $30 today is what $15 to $20 used to be.

The Value is Out There

“Value is out there. It requires being open to new grapes, different regions and unknown producers but the rewards are worth it,” Asimov says, and I think he is right. But that’s still a problem. Sue and I are willing to take a chance on unfamiliar wines, trusting that the pleasure we get from the successes will more than offset the disappointment we experience from wines that miss the mark.

But how many people, especially rookie wine drinkers, are willing to take that chance? Wine’s value proposition needs to be good enough so that the delight is worth the disappointment at every price point, don’t you think?

New Jersey’s “Open Source” Cabernet Franc Project

March 24, 2026 By Mike Veseth in emerging wine regions, wine, wine markets Leave a comment

Recently, Sue and I had a virtual meet-up with a group of winemakers who want to raise New Jersey’s profile on the U.S. wine industry scene and are working together to make that goal happen. Winemakers tend to be very competitive, so finding a group of them who want to play the team game is noteworthy.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that New Jersey has an active wine industry with 76 wineries in 2026 according to Wine Business Monthly. After all, New Jersey sits comfortably between the well-respected wine regions of New York (450 wineries in 2026) and Virginia (395 wineries) with Pennsylvania (401) and Maryland (105) next door.

The Rodney Dangerfield Problem

New Jersey wine suffers from the Rodney Dangerfield “respect” problem. Grapes have been grown and wine made in New Jersey since colonial times, but the shift towards quality wine is relatively recent. New Jersey’s wineries have big ambitions in terms of quality, but small scale in terms of production as is often the case in states where a farm winery act shapes distribution channels. You might think of them as the Garden State’s hidden germs.

A small group of these wineries formed the Winemakers Co-Op in 2015 aiming to both improve the quality of New Jersey wines and to further its reputation. The member wineries are

According to their website their goals are:

Member wineries aim to produce benchmark dry wines from estate‑grown vinifera (European) varieties that illuminate the differences in soil and climate that exist throughout the Garden State. Through a series of intimate tasting events, industry outreach and communication with the press, these wineries have established themselves as leaders of fine wine production on the East Coast. By spearheading essential industry research and development, Co-Op members are striving to push the boundaries of quality with each new vintage.

Sue and I got involved when we were invited to sample the Winemakers Co-Op “Open Source” wines. The Open Source project is such an original idea that we just had to say yes. Here’s how it works.

Common Base, Individual Vision

Each year since 2016 the Co-Op members have chosen a winegrape variety that they all produced as the object of a project to showcase the group’s work. Each winery contributes half a ton of grapes, which are combined and redistributed, providing the “open source” or common base of the wines that each individual member makes.

The source material is the same, but of course each winery chooses what to do with it and so a variety of types and styles of wines result. Most winemakers are a bit competitive in my experience, so I imagine there is some effort to make wines that are distinctive while advancing the collective goal.

Certainly that is the case with the current release, which is made from Cabernet Franc grapes harvested in 2022. This is the first time for Cabernet Franc in the Open Source program. Chardonnay was the focus of the early years of the program. Bordeaux and Pinot Noir blends appeared in 2023 and 2024.

It is interesting to see how different winemakers have responded to the Open Source Cabernet Franc challenge. William Heritage Winery, for example, made a white wine by gently pressing whole clusters and fermenting and ageing in stainless steel with six months of lees contact. Unexpected!

Vive la Difference?

The other wines are red, as you would expect, but differ in all sorts of other ways. Variations on a theme and an opportunity for each winery to experiment and explore. But, since we have no previous experience with New Jersey wines, we were sometimes left scratching our heads. The first wine we tasted, for example, reminded us a little of a Napa Cab Franc we tried recently while the second was closer to a Loire style of wine. Are these wines typical of Cab Franc from this region? Or are they more about exploring differentiation?

I’m not sure we’ve seen a project like this before although it reminds me a bit of the Coro Mendocino project. The Coro Mendocino wineries make distinctive wines from a common blend, but not from the same actual grapes.

Production of the Open Source is obviously limited. Each winery makes only about 23 cases of Open Source wine each year. The wines wear special Open Source labels and this year’s Cab Franc wines sell for $45 per bottle. Sue and I were fortunate to be invited to taste through the Cabernet Franc lineup.

You probably want to know which wine we like best. Too soon to tell, because we haven’t tasted them all yet, and in any case taste is very personal. But the most important thing about the Open Source project is something bigger than the individual wines. The most important thing is that the members of the Winemakers Co-op are working together to take their wines and their reputations to the next level.

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About William Heritage Winery
A fifth-generation family-owned and operated estate vineyard and winery located in Mullica Hill, in the heart of the Outer Coastal Plain American Viticultural Area. Bill & Penni Heritage began cultivating grapes on their 150 acres of apple and peach orchards in 1999, realizing the potential of the Garden State wine industry and starting a new chapter for the next generation.

About Beneduce Vineyards
Founded in 2012 in Pittstown, NJ, Beneduce Vineyards is a sustainably-minded, 4th-generation farm on a mission to prove the potential for world-class wines exists in the soils of Hunterdon County. Focusing on small lot production, creating unique wines from 100% estate grown grapes.

About Hawk Haven Vineyard & Winery
Established in 2008 on land in Cape May that has been in the Wuerker family since the 1940s; Hawk Haven is owned and operated by husband and wife team Todd & Kenna Wuerker. Todd is a self-taught winemaker, crafting a diverse set of wines from 16 acres of estate-grown grapes. He has his sights set on becoming the first Garden State sparkling specialist.

About Unionville Vineyards
Set on 89 acres of preserved farmland in Hunterdon County, Unionville Vineyards comprises five estate vineyards spread over three counties, allowing for unique, expressive wines to be crafted from fruit grown in the varying terroirs of central and northern New Jersey.

About Working Dog Winery
Established in 2001 by a group of friends with a shared passion for winemaking, Working Dog Winery has grown into a nearly 20-acre vineyard producing over a dozen vinifera varietals. After 23 years of dedication, the founding members entrusted the winery’s future to Carlee Ludwig, Sharon Kyle, and Kevin Kyle as they entered retirement in December 2024.

About Auburn Road Vineyard & Winery
Founded in 2003 by former Philadelphia-based lawyers Scott & Julianne Donnini, who left the corporate world and never looked back. Jules is a self-taught winemaker, and Scott runs the marketing and operations – together they create old-world style wines with a keen sense of balance that frames the beauty of the fruit.

U.S. Wine Industry by the Numbers

March 10, 2026 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 1 Comment

I am always excited to receive the annual “Review of the Industry” issue of Wine Business Monthly because it is so jam-packed with data and analysis. The 2026 issue (which was distributed at the Unified Symposium’s State of the Industry Session) is especially welcome because it effectively captures major shifts in the U.S. wine industry today. Here are some key takeaways of the WBM report.

Disappearing Wineries

Winery openings often get a lot of attention. Winery closings, not so much. Doors close, equipment is sold off, inventory is quietly liquidated, and memories fade.

If it seems like the number of wines and wineries is always growing it is due in part to the fact that openings are so much more visible than closings. But new wineries enter the market and existing ones exit every year.

Winery closings were impossible to ignore in 2026, according to WBM. The total number of wineries in the U.S. declined by 3% from 11,450 in 2025 to 11,107 at the start of 2026. That’s a decrease in the net number since there are always some openings to offset closings. The winery count has fallen by 512 since the 2024 data were released according to WBM.

The drop in winery count is widespread. There are wineries in every U.S. state and there were winery closings in every state but one: Missouri (253 wineries). Among the states experiencing losses, California (which has the most wineries) experienced the largest drop in winery count, Pennsylvania had the lowest, with the number falling from 402 to 401 according to the WBM data.

Overall, about one winery closed its doors each day of the year in 2025. That’s a lot of wineries, but not necessarily a lot of wine simply because most wine is made by a few large wineries (see below) but most wineries are relatively small.

WBM also provides data for Canadian wineries. Canada can count 831 wineries in 2026, according to the WBM data, down from 860 in 2025. Wine is made in every region except the Yukon Territories. The largest number of producers are located in British Columbia (317 wineries down from 329 in 2025), Ontario (284 down from 292), and Quebec (163 down from 170).

Clash of the Titans

The largest U.S. wineries are very large indeed and many of them are privately owned and do not release production figures. WBM profiles the top 50 wineries and estimates production when published data are not available. I thought it would be interesting to compare 2026 data for the top five wineries with the numbers from 2025 and 2016. Here’s what I found.

Gallo is #1 in 2026. It is the largest wine company in the U.S. and in the world by volume. Gallo produced an estimated 90 million cases of wine in 2026, down from 94 million in 2025 but higher than the 75 million it produced in 2016. Gallo’s portfolio grew when it acquired a host of wine brands from Constellation a few years ago. It has retrenched more recently and pivoted to other beverages such as the hot-selling High Noon vodka-based RTD brand.
The Wine Group: 43 million cases in 2026, 40 million in 2025, but 57.5 million in 2016.
Trinchero Family Estates: 17 million in 2026, 19 million in 2025. It was #5 with 18.5 million in 2016.
Delicato Family Wines: 16 million cases in 2026, 16.3 million cases in 2025. It was #8 with 8 million cases in 2016.
Deutsche Family Wine & Spirits: 12 million cases in 2026, #7 with 13 million cases in 2025. Not listed in the top 30 wineries in 2016.

The rest of the top ten for 2026: Jackson Family Wines (6), Treasury Wine Estates (7), Ste Michelle Wine Estates (8), Bronco Wine Company (9), WX Brands (100).

Constellation Brands, once the largest wine producer in the world, ranks #28 with 750,000 cases of wine produced. It was #3 with 50 million cases in 2016. Although it has retained a number of prestige wine brands such as Robert Mondavi, Constellation is now much more focused on its Mexican beer portfolio.

Bottom Line: The largest wineries are very large indeed, sell wines at many price points, and have considerable resources to deal with the current down market. But even they are not immune to the problems that plague the industry today. The fact that Gallo is down “only” 4 million cases in the last year sort of takes my breath away.

Distribution Bottleneck

It makes sense that WBM’s Review of the Industry issue includes an analysis of wine distributors. In my studies of different industries I have observed that there tends to be one or two major inefficiencies (I call them bottlenecks) in the value chain. Successful firms and even whole industries organize themselves around the problem of breaking through the bottleneck problem.

What’s the bottleneck in U.S. wine? It isn’t growing grapes or actually making the wine. It is getting it through the three-tier system into the hands of those who can sell it.

The two critical features of U.S. wine noted in the WBM report are, first, distribution remains highly concentrated in a few large firms and there is little top line change to report. Even though Republic National pulled out of California last year, for example, it still ranks as the #2 national wine distributor after Southern Glazer’s.

WBM reports that the distribution bottleneck is getting even narrower, driven by declining demand and narrowing margins. Retailers increasingly focus on a smaller number of SKUs that can generate reliable cash flow, which means that distributors must do the same.

As WBM reports, “… there are 1,061 unique wine distributors that operate across the United States. That’s slightly fewer than this time last year and roughly one-third of the number of wine distributors in business a few decades ago. … “It’s not a time for great variety, not a time to drive a thousand different things,” said Southern Glazer’s chief marketing and sales officer Gene Sullivan. “Customers are saying ‘Give me that stuff that matters.'”

Pareto and the 80/20 Rule

The great Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed the 80/20 phenomenon in 1896 and it has become a classic management principle reminding us to focus on what’s most important. The rule shows up in many ways. For example, according to my AI intern,

Business: 80% of sales often come from 20% of customers.
Productivity: 20% of your tasks produce 80% of your meaningful results.
Customer service: 20% of issues generate 80% of complaints.
Wealth distribution: Pareto originally observed that 20% of Italians owned 80% of the land.

The WBM report presents a variation on the 80/20 rule when it comes to distribution. Twenty percent of wines produce 80 percent of sales. The remaining 80 percent of wines face an uphill climb on their path to market. That’s not really new, to be honest (and maybe it is more like 90/10 in some cases) but it is maybe even more important now in a shrinking market.

Anatomy of Wine’s Triple Crisis

March 3, 2026 By Mike Veseth in economic crisis, Shameless Self-Promotion, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

Recently, I’ve noticed that Wine Economist posts and pages that reference my book Wine Wars II: The Global Battle for the Soul of Wine (2022) (such as “Countdown to Wine Wars II and Wine Wars II) are getting a lot of attention. I think I know why.

The biggest updates in Wine Wars II is a new closing section called Wine’s Triple Crisis. As I re-read this section (and reflect on current wine market conditions), I see why current readers might be especially interested. I’ve pasted below a very brief summary of this part of the book (clipped from the introductory chapter) so that you can see what it is about.

The environmental and economic crises are clear (and I hope I did them justice), so I want to draw your attention to the third issue, wine’s identity crisis. What is wine (is it just alcohol)? Who is it for (just for boomers or just for the wealthy or just for elites)? What does wine do to us (does it make us happy or does it make us sick)?

The identity of wine has changed dramatically in the last 100 years. No wonder the wine business has changed, too. Here’s that excerpt from Wine Wars II.

WINE’S TRIPLE CRISIS
The global wine industry is in the midst of a triple crisis, and I am not really sure how it will end. The climate change crisis comes first. It affects everything if we consider both direct and indirect effects, so it may seem odd to think of it as a wine crisis. Wine grapes generally can be made to grow under quite extreme conditions; in some colder regions, they actually bury the vines in the winter to protect them and unearth them each spring so that they can come back to life (you might call this Lazarus viticulture). But specific wine grape varieties thrive in only very narrow bands of average temperature, and wine regions defined by particular grapes or wine styles are threatened by relatively small changes in environmental conditions. Wine is, therefore, the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change. It will feel the impacts before many other industries, and so it is not a surprise, as I explain later, that wine businesses are among the strongest advocates for progressive environmental action.

The climate change crisis dwarfs everything else in the long run, but because the long run can seem far away and we often misjudge how fast it is approaching, climate concerns do not get the attention they deserve. Indeed, as the global reaction to the coronavirus pandemic crisis has demonstrated, climate change generally isn’t treated with the “drop everything” or “operation moonshot” urgency that real crises warrant. But even if the climate change threat were to disappear tomorrow, wine would still be in trouble.

The second crisis is economic. Wine is a magical beverage, but it is a crazy business. Wine’s economic environment is characterized by cyclical, structural, and “wild card” forces that make it difficult to prepare for or successfully execute a business plan.

Global wine consumption grew steadily for the twenty years that ended in about 2008, the date we associate with the global financial crisis. Rising wine sales were important because they slowly soaked up a surplus of wine. Too much wine? Well, for many years the European Union in effect subsidized wine
production to stabilize agricultural economies, especially in France, Italy, and Spain. Wine farmers were paid to grow grapes and to make wine that could not be sold, so some of it was distilled into industrial alcohol. Yuck! Those policies are history, and European winegrowers turned from government subsidy wine to wine aimed at global markets. This is a good thing, but it happened just as wine production increased in other parts of the world, too. The result: a lot of grapes, a lot of wine, and a lot of jobs and incomes at risk.

Rising global wine sales were most welcome in this context, and when sales dropped a bit in 2008, no one was very concerned. “It’s just the economy, dummy,” they said. “Wine will spring back when the economy improves.” But it didn’t, and the next ten years were what I have called “wine’s lost decade.” Why did wine lose its mojo? There are many possible reasons (I explain them later), but the sudden loss in momentum changes the nature of the game from a positive-sum fight, where a rising tide raises all ships, to a zero-sum fight for market share. And the battle isn’t just between Old World and New World or among the growers and producers in these regions; the opponents are now more diverse and unexpected than ever before.

The reason? Wine’s identity crisis. Wine has never been just one thing. It is, after all, both that fancy French Champagne at the top of the wine wall and that big box of Franzia at the bottom. Wine is healthful (think Mediterranean diet) and dangerous (read the government required warnings on wine labels in the United States). It is culture to some and just another commodity to others.

The cartoon character Pogo famously said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us,” and this is true in a way for wine. The biggest threat to wine’s identity is something inherent to wine’s existence: alcohol. You might think that wine is just grape juice with alcohol, but wine doesn’t taste much like the grapes it is made from except in a few specific cases. Fermentation doesn’t just add an alcoholic kick; it transforms the product in complex ways. It’s the same with the way that fermenting yeast makes bread different from flour and water. So wine as we know it is impossible without alcohol, but it may also be impossible with it if antialcohol forces have their way.

Wine’s identity crisis is significant because it seems like those who see wine as a social or health problem, not an essential element in our culture, have seized the momentum. If wine doesn’t know who it is and what it is and cannot tell its story to the world, then how can it survive?