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Every year at this time the three-day Unified Wine & Grape Symposium takes place in Sacramento, by far the largest industry conference in the western hemisphere with more than 13,000 attendees from 31 countries, 668 trade show exhibitors, 18 trade associations pouring wine (including us!), and a total economic impact of $3.1 million, keeping Sacramento hotels, restaurants and bars overflowing.
The series of seminars covers viticulture, enology, and marketing, but the annual highlight is the State of the Industry session which gives a view from 37,000 feet on what's happening in the grape and wine industry worldwide and how it affects us. Nat DiBuduo of Allied Grape Growers and Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg Fredrikson are regulars, always with great presentations, and this year dthey were joined by moderator Francesca Schuler of BevMo (a major California retailer) and Mike Veseth, a well-known and highly entertaining wine economist from Washington State, both of whom added much to the discussion as well.
The overall message from their combined presentations was that in today's wine world things are good but not great, and that innovation by wineries is needed more than ever to meet the challenges of globalization, changes in customer bases, and competition from craft beers, spirits, and ciders.
Nat's discussion on grape supply (which is essentially in balance for the foreseeable future) had a couple interesting perspectives relative to size: California now has about 645,000 acres of vineyards, or more than 21 times the roughly 30,000 in New York; and last year alone some 30-40 thousand acres of new vineyards were planted in the Golden State. When people wonder why there are so many California wines on retail shelves compared with New York wines, well, there's a reason: production!
Jon provided some interesting insights, as always, including the status of the United States as the world's largest wine market for total consumption, but with a paltry 2.7 gallon per capita consumption rate (half of that in the United Kingdom), which on the bright side could mean more growth if we can ever overcome our Puritan heritage. Last year, the federal Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) approved about 100,000 brand labels, reflecting how cluttered and competitive the market is that we all must compete in. Another fascinating observation: The craft beer, spirits, and cider industries have all essentially copied much of the wine industry's marketing strategy in terms of emphasizing food pairings, having "beer sommeliers" and Rockstar Mixologists, and other techniques.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I guess we should feel flattered!
After all the day's seminars, we adjourned to the massive trade show floor for the Regional Wine Tasting where I, John Martini and two other folks from Anthony Road Winery poured some of New York's finest for a long line of consumers eager to taste the wines from the right coast. As always, we had Finger Lakes Rieslings and Long Island Merlots, along with a broad assortment of other wines from other regions, including some wonderful red and white "Minnesota" varietals like Marquette and Brianna from the Thousand Islands region. When we explained what they were, people almost invariably wanted to taste them--and really were impressed.
Coincidentally, on that same day wine writer Mike Dunne (who has judged at our New York Wine & Food Classic) had a huge article in the Sacramento Bee about Ravines Wine Cellars, and the fact that three of their Finger Lakes wines are now locally available at the unique Corti Brothers store which stocks unique food and beverage products from around the world. A California colleague was not at all amused that New York wines were being featured during a California conference, and I said, Hey, why not?
Another highlight of the day was...rain! As I mentioned last week, California is now suffering from the worst drought in over 100 years, the topic of so many conversations this week. At a luncheon on the 15th floor of a hotel overlooking the Capitol, the speaker--right in the middle of his talk--shouted, "Look, it's raining!!" And everybody applauded. He eventually regained his train of thought and finished the speech. Unfortunately, it was just a brief drizzle that did little to alleviate the drought emergency, but at least it provided a brief glimmer of hope.
Back east, it is still uncertain how much bud and vine damage will have been caused by the recent "polar vortex" events. Our friends in Ohio appear to have simply lost their entire crop, with parts of Michigan reporting a similar catastrophe. In New York, Cornell Cooperative Extension is working with growers to assess the damage, which at this point appears to vary by both location and grape variety, but we really won't know until later.
The California drought and eastern freezes are vivid reminders that, first and foremost, wine is farming. |
