DAN'S WINE BLOG- A COUPLE OF CHANGES

Friday, March 17, 2023

?Wow, we do live in a constantly changing world!?This week, here are a couple of changes currently happening in the wine industry.

?GLOBAL WARMING:?The good folks on the Mediterranean coast of the South of France can assure you that global warming is definitely a “thing” given that this year they experienced budburst on January 9 (mid-winter) in their warmest vineyards – in some cases before they had even finished doing the winter pruning of their vines. Wow!

?Despite the anomaly of this year, one has to wonder how long it will be before our warmest climate regions start harvesting in December? Won’t that cause confusion with two vintages in the one year!!

?DOWNWARD SPIRAL:?California is known for its flash wineries and expensively priced wines, with people paying up to US$75 for a structured tasting.

?Well, all is not well for the California wine industry according to the Silicon Valley bank’s wine division, annual State of the Industry report, Americans for the first time in decades bought less wine last year than the previous year, whilst at the same time wine sales for the lesser/newer wine producing states were growing.

?While most Californian wineries selling their wine for up to US$150 a bottle are doing okay at the moment as premium wines continue to sell well, the sales are predominantly to baby boomers, who are just starting to reduce their wine intake or die off.

?California wine will soon face a demographic challenge in that the young people are not choosing wine. Given that the oldest of the Millennials are nudging 40, they still have not taken to wine as was always assumed that they would. Even less so with Gen Z who focus on boutique spirits and cocktails.

Additionally, many younger people who do adopt wine drinking, are doing so with wines from non-traditional states and/or non-traditional grape varieties, i.e. something “different to what mum and dad drink”.

So unless Californian wine finds a way to woo youngsters the industry will spiral downwards quite severely as their existing customer base starts to fade away, because in general terms their wines are too expensive for most potential export markets, so that is not a viable option.

This “different to what mum and dad drink” is an age old phenomena which is being experienced in most wine producing countries and which led to the demise of Sherry and fortified wines here in Australia from the 1970s onwards. It could well, in the longer-term lead to a significant contraction in the Australian wine industry unless we “lift our game” and engage much more proactively with younger Australians and entice them to become wine drinkers instead of boutique beers and spirits.

As China has proven, export is no panacea for our industry, especially with consumption declining in most of our competitor countries, especially in Europe.

Added to this situation is the fact that low/no alcohol wines are finally starting to be drinkable and some, are even tasty, so that people can “enjoy” wine without drinking wine. Whilst this will probably only have a marginal impact on wine sales in the short-term, it will have an increasing impact over the next decade and probably add to the industry’s longer-term viability challenges.

Well, on that cheery note I will sign off for this week and wish you a great week. Make sure you #chooseaustralianwine and when possible try #emergingvarieties.?Cheers, Dan T.