Looking for (and finding!) some bright spots amid the wine gloom

Silicon Valley Bank’s Rob McMillan and Nielsen’s Danny Brager have laid a sobering dose of reality on the wine industry in the past month.

 

However, this sort of adverse warning of a storm ahead — delivered in a timely fashion — can help batten down hatches, reinforce the keep, offer a different compass heading, and give provide reasons for increasing speed toward the pockets of calm and prospects of growth.

 

Which is to say that all hope is not lost. Wine will not sink beneath the waves. But it’s time to shake off the same sort of Pollyanna echo-chamber complacency that led to the glut in the early 2000s

 

The industry needs to shake off the complacency, clear the “all’s fine” chant of the current echo chamber, and heed the data.

 

Herewith, 10 bright/hopeful spots from Danny Brager’s groundbreaking (and shaking) presentation at the 2019 Unified Symposium.

 

 

 

Other relevant links

• Wine and spirits — gaining at beer’s expense
• Boomer numbers are on the decline, but the survivors are stepping up their wine drinking hold up their #1 position
• Growth Opportunity: Americans spend about 1/5 of 1% of their annual gifting budgets on wine. Plenty of room to improve.