Green shoots: Is this a “transitional moment”?
With spring getting underway, this month’s California Report assesses vineyard conditions, grape demand, and whether the bulk wine and grape markets are seeing the first tentative green shoots of recovery: Is the industry in a “transitional moment” before growth returns later this year or next? We dive into recent reports that case-good sales declines in the US are slowing, using the latest SipSource US wholesale depletions data to pick out some sales trends.
The convergence of pricing toward California-appellation levels on all but a select handful of wines theoretically enables bulk wine buyers to make their decisions based purely on which samples best meet their quality/character specifications. This has opened up product development and scope for wine companies to attack potential retail opportunities. With wine aisles growing shorter, this is a challenging time to “buy the dip” with innovative SKUs, but we have seen it happening.
The state-wide convergence in bulk pricing is being assisted by a bifurcation of the supply-demand dynamics between the Coast and the Interior. The latter is a year or two more advanced in its supply-demand readjustment, and therefore a good barometer of what we might expect to see more generally later this year, or next. This month’s report continues to relay how these two regions, in differing stages of their adjustment, are affecting each other. It also extends last month’s deeper dive into the make-up of the bulk inventory currently listed with us, by analyzing Cabernet and Chardonnay specifically.
This month’s Saxco Update on beverage packaging details how recent developments in the Middle East are affecting logistics and the price of imported glass bottles, and provides the latest on US import tariffs: “In conversations with wineries over the past month, many teams are once again evaluating their packaging sourcing strategies as global logistics and trade policy continue to shift.”
Read the full Ciatti California Report for March
Keep an eye out for our 2025 Grape Crush Report release, landing in your email inbox after the CDFA’s Preliminary Grape Crush Report is published this Friday 13th.
Bulk wine suppliers are invited to list their 2025 wines with us and send in samples, and ensure they have their 2024 wines on our inventory list, so we are able to harness buyer interest as it arises.
Grape growers are recommended to inform us of the grapes they may have available next year, in 2026, so we can work to match-up suppliers with buyers.
Please contact Mark (+1 415 630 2548 / mark@ciatti.com), Michael (+1 415 630 2541 / michael@ciatti.com) or the Ciatti Customer Account Team (cargroup@ciatti.com).