Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/138003
(Moving Annual Total, i.e. February 2012-February 2013) from the Association of Canadian Distillers. Overall, WI reported that U.S. wine exports totaled $1.43 billion in winery revenues last year. Volume was down slightly, at 112.2 million cases versus 118 million in 2011, but revenues were up 2.6% from the previous year. The European Union accounted for $485 million of that. Other big markets were Hong Kong, $115 million (down 30%); Japan, $111 million (up 6%); and China, $74 million (up 18%). What does it take to sell in Canada? Canada's retail market is almost exclusively controlled by provincial government liquor boards and innovation in retailing is limited, Klein pointed out. Canadians respond to discounting; however, it is not usually as steep as in the United States. Research indicates that Canadians like critics' scores and shelf talkers as a source of information, yet mostly rely on the recommendations of friends and word of mouth. Although reds are hot, the Great White North has room for some, well, great whites, as well. Pinot grigio is the largest white varietal wine, outselling chardonnay, Klein said. Cheers, eh? than $5,000 for its signature grape cabernet sauvignon. Sonoma came in second with average prices of There's good news for California $2,182 per ton. grapegrowers as the 2013 season The big increases were not in the heads toward harvest: Supply isn't Central Valley, historically the backscary anymore. bone of the California wine indusJust a few years ago, "supply" try, but in the Central Coast, Napa, was a bad word; it was fearful. Sonoma and Lodi regions. Nobody wanted to have too much of Bulk wine imports grew to anything, it seemed, because they approximately 40 million equivalent weren't sure where cases in 2012, an they were going to increase that was sell it. Now we're due to the recent seeing wineries grape price increaslook at long-term es and something grape contracts, that will continue to said Glenn Procaffect the demand tor, broker/partner for California at The Ciatti Co. grapes. The larger grape brokerage. crop and inventoTwo lean years ries should push and an improvbulk wine market ing economy have pricing down from eaten up the glut the highs of 2011, caused when a but may have less planting boom of an impact on ran into the Great grape pricing, with Glenn Proctor of The Ciatti Co. Recession. Even much of the pricing points out that "supply" is no though the 2012 changes dependlonger a scary word for Califorcrush was a whoping on case sales nia growers. Photo: George Rose per, checking in at growth over 2013. a record 4.4 million Emerging trends tons, that didn't depress prices. include the highest-yet pinot noir According to figures released by crop, which was 247,000 tons, up state agriculture officials, the 2012 45% from 2011. Pinot noir totals harvest was up 13% from 2011 and from Monterey and Sonoma coun1% over the previous record crop of ties were up even higher, 85%, 2005. Statewide, the average price compared to 2011, said Proctor. And per ton was more than $734, nearquality was expected to be good, ly one-fourth more than the year with veteran winemakers describing before. Honing in on top districts, 2012 as the best year for quality that perennial price leader Napa County they've seen. averaged $3,758 a ton – and more "I think that when you look at what is happening today, the signs are encouraging," Proctor said. "We had a big crop. We needed a big crop. We needed all the fruit that we got." In response to the balancing market, Proctor is seeing more negotiation over prices. The days when growers were putting hand-lettered "Grapes for Sale" signs out front are gone, as is the scramble to find fruit in the short years. The 2012 crop "just got everybody more on a normal framework," Proctor said. He expects pricing to stay relatively stable, at least until wineries can feel confident about raising prices that have been held down in the bad economy. Earlier this year, Proctor surveyed a dozen of the largest Sonoma County grape buyers and found they planned to buy about the same or more as in previous years and expected to pay the same or a little more. There are still a few clouds in the forecast. Costs have gone up in the past couple of years but it isn't yet clear whether wineries are going to be able to improve their margins by raising prices. There's also the question of what younger wine consumers are going to do. Will they buy the expensive trophy wines their elders coveted? What are the long-term effects of the recession on buying habits? And international competition hasn't gone away with Chile, Argentina and Australia bringing in good crops this year. "I think we're in a good place, but nothing's perfect," Proctor said. Still, he added, "I think we're about as good as we've been in a while." Top of the Crops w w w. v w m media.com J u l y - A u g 2 0 13 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 13