Try the Red: Napa Learns to Sell
TOM DAVIES was driving last sink down Highway 29, the two-lane blacktop that serves as the Napa Valley’s fundamental drag, when he saw something that verbatim stopped him in his tracks. “There was a cue on the side of the road that said, ‘Cabernet Grapes for Rummage sale,’ ” he recalled, still unbelieving that economic sorrow had forced a Napa grower to hawk the dominion’s hallowed fruit like a squeeze weigh down of zucchini.
In the 30 years that Mr. Davies, the president of V. Sattui Winery and Vineyards, has worked in the Napa wine subject, he has never seen a distant quite so disturbing. “Grapes were Nautical port hanging on the vine last year,” he said.
This odd predicament is not handily remedied at a experience when vintners are awash in wine. Tremendously touted Napa releases in 2009 did not vend out, which means that inventory is endorsement up, which in turn means that much of the 2010 grape net will essentially have nowhere to go. Some winemakers have even debated skipping a choice, which would amount to wiping a year off the diary.
Not so long ago, it seemed a prearranged that Napa wines would forever be unsusceptible from oversupply.
But in 2009, sales of wines priced at $25 and above dropped 30 percent nationwide, according to Nielsen. While far-reaching wine sales increased, California wine shipments level for the first time in 16 years. Searching for a way out of the disaster, many Napa wineries are increasingly pinning their hopes on uninterrupted-to-consumer sales.