With wine consumption declining in most markets (domestic and export) while the global surplus rises despite 2023’s global production falling to a 60-year low (think: weird weather and climate change), one doesn’t need to look far to find gloomy analyses and prognostications for most countries.
Just the other day I saw a report on the head of an association representing some 500 growers in California calling for 30,000 vineyard acres to be uprooted there in order to balance the market. That’s 12 000 hectares of vineyard, about as much as South Africa has lost in the past dozen years or so (to some people’s laments – not mine).
Another example: Mid last year Robert Joseph wrote in Meininger’s International that “Australian wine is in crisis”, noting, amongst other things, falling volumes in many markets, value per litre sold falling faster still, with more wine shipped in bulk at lower prices. Familiar sort of stuff. Crisis is a word much in use in the global wine industry.
The latest ProWein Business Report, Ways out of the crisis, considered the results of a survey of “2,000 members of the wine industry, from producers to retailers, conducted by Geisenheim University”, as reported by The Drinks Business. Major threats identified by the respondents included cost increases, global economic downturn, decreasing wine consumption, and climate change. (As an interesting aside, it seems that not only are people drinking less, they’re also not drinking better, so there’s no real comfort for South Africa’s smarter producers there – except, perhaps for the few who might be the beneficiaries of quite rich people drinking less burgundy and Napa cab.)
The ProWein report also noted that many potential wine-drinkers are turning to both beer and spirits, and in fact a crucial factors in the alcohol world’s woe is the consumer move to low- or non-alcoholic drinks. Health concerns are central here, with increasingly vehement arguments made against alcohol consumption. A year ago, the World Health Organization stated firmly, on the basis of research, that “when it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health”.
To read the full article, click HERE.