Estado de la Cooperación

A raíz de la disminución de la demanda de uva por parte de las grandes bodegas del estado de Washington, existe una necesidad inmediata de resolver el impacto que esto ha tenido en el suministro de vino a granel. El impacto es doble en el mercado de uvas para vinificación debido a la disminución de la demanda y al hecho de que el vino a granel almacenado se está convirtiendo en un factor limitante para el almacenamiento de acero inoxidable y barriles en el estado de Washington. Las tendencias actuales en el mercado global indican que es poco probable que un productor trascendente venga y rescate el mercado de vino y uva a granel del estado de Washington de este excedente a cualquier precio.

Se ha barajado la idea de que los productores de uvas para vinificación y los productores de vino a granel de Washington están colaborando para formar una cooperativa de destilación para convertir los vinos excedentes en material de destilación. Generar productos cultivados en el estado de Washington, como RTD, bebidas espirituosas claras como vodka y ginebra, así como proyectos a más largo plazo como whiskies y brandys. Lo que se ha convertido en un bien oneroso podría revisarse como una oportunidad para abrir nuevos mercados y encontrar nuevas soluciones a los problemas de exceso de oferta.

La conciencia social se ha convertido en un indicador del interés de los consumidores jóvenes por los productos de consumo. Apoyar a los agricultores que trabajan en torno a la sostenibilidad empresarial y ecológica podría resultar atractivo para estos grupos demográficos menores de 40 años, y no carece de precedentes.

Treetop y Welch han demostrado que las cooperativas dirigidas por agricultores pueden ser modelos exitosos para convertir un excedente en valor agregado. La cooperativa Produttori de Barbaresco se ha convertido en una marca global, aportando un gran reconocimiento a los vinos de esta región en modelos de viñedo único y colectivo.

Cuando ha quedado claro que no hay una figura redentora de la industria del vino que proporcione una solución a los problemas de exceso de oferta del estado de Washington, entonces la solución debe venir desde adentro. La idea de que la diversificada comunidad agrícola de Washington ha estado infrarrepresentada en nuestro marketing y narración colectiva ha sido discutida en círculos agrarios, pero aún no se ha actuado en consecuencia en esfuerzos concertados. Ha llegado la oportunidad de tomar un megáfono global y contar la hermosa historia agrícola de Washington.

State of Cooperation

In the wake of decreasing grape demands from large wineries in Washington State there is an immediate need to resolve the impact that this has had on bulk wine supply. The impact is dual on the wine grape market due to decreased demand and bulk wine in storage becoming a limiting factor on stainless and barrel storage in Washington State. Current trends in the global market indicate that it is unlikely that a transcendant producer will come and rescue Washington State’s bulk wine and grape market from this surplus at any price.

The idea has been bandied about regarding Washington’s wine grape growers and bulk wine producers coolaborating to form a distillation cooperative to convert surplus wines into distillation material. Generating Washington State grown products such as RTDs, clear spirits like vodka and gin, as well as longer term projects like whiskeys and brandys. What has become a burdensome commodity could be re-viewed as an opportunity to breach new markets and find new solutions to the oversupply issues.

Social consciousness has become a bellwether of young consumer’s interest in consumable products. Supporting farmers doing work around business and ecological sustainability could be compelling to these sub 40 demographics, and it isn’t without precedent.

Treetop and Welch’s have proven that farmer led cooperatives can be successful models for turning a surplus into a value add. Barbaresco’s Produttori cooperative has become a global brand, bringing great acclaim to the wines of this region in single vineyard and collective models.

When it has become clear that there is no redeeming figure from the wine industry providing a solution to Washington State’s over supply woes, then the solution must come from within. The idea that Washington’s diversified agricultural community has been under represented in our collective marketing and storytelling has been discussed in agrarian circles, but not yet acted upon in concerted efforts. The opportunity has arrived to grab a global megaphone and tell Washington’s beautiful agricultural story.

What can the Wine Industry Learn from the Food Network?

What pairs better together than the magical combination of food and wine? The combining of these things has inspired historical events, countless romances, and even more life long memories. Something magical happens when foods and wines we love combine harmoniously.

The Food Network has led a cultural revolution in the kitchen. World famous chefs’ tutorial teaching have made American cooks at home believe they can create complex dishes at home that would be the envy of their friends and neighbors. The Food Netwrok and their roster of chefs cultivate a belief in their viewers that what they’re creating in the kitchen is easy to understand, simple to do, and fosters a wide sense of community surrounding what they’re cooking in their studio kitchens.

Every wine industry trade show on the West Coast this winter sang a similar song about the difficulty engaging younger audiences. What if I told you this road map has already been created?

There are myriad online platforms of evangelism from YouTube to Instagram to TikTok. What if winemakers explain the elegant simplicity of wine in a fun way to viewers new and yet to be engaged? Instead of selling wine like an academic lecture, winemakers could create video symposiums drawing their audience to them. It could be simple videos talking about why Chardonnay and Sea Bass or Crab love to hang out together on a starry Friday night or a yarn about the clandestine romance between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc that led to a beautiful baby named Cabernet Sauvignon. We all know the stories and they are so fun to tell.

The message needs to be simple, fun, and inviting. The romance of the experience of a glass of wine turning a meal from Manudo into Mozart is one that drew every winemaker and wine drinker to this beautiful art form. Selling wine needs to be a folksy invitation to a joyful experience. The dwindling academic approach that may have worked well in the past may need to head for a dusty corner of a library or history museum as a relic of the past.

The Curious Case of Willamette Valley Chardonnay

Once upon a time, I had a job selling barrels in Willamette Valley. Some of the most thrilling wines I saw in the United States were these energizing and singular Chardonnays from this eponymous region. These wines are alive with minerality, fruit, and electricity!

If we were to judge a wine category’s weight by what is published by wine writers and whose virtues are extolled by somms, then Willamette Valley Chardonnay would be near the top of Wine Mountain.

There appears to be a disconnection between the market at large and the hurricane gale forced buzz surrounding Willamette Valley Chardonnay. The interest is there in pockets, but it hasn’t begun to approach the chorus of buyers seeking to find ways to fill out and increase their Willamette Valley Pinot Noir offerings.

Is it simply a matter of the American consumer identifying Chardonnay as the butter and oak monolith and passing by other wines that don’t identify as such in the Chardonnay category? Perhaps. However, there are dynamic wines across price points in this category, fresh with vibrant acidity, a friend of many types of cuisine, and showing the elegant, flinty reduction that make Burgundian Chardonnays world famous.

Perhaps Willamette Valley Chardonnay represents a great opportunity to reach younger drinkers, turned off by wines carrying high alcohol percentages and lacking freshness. These novel consumers may turn to these wonderful wines if we are able to frame it to them as somewhat undiscovered territory worthy of exploration.

Winter's Kiss

If farming were a novel, the antagonist in the story would be in the form of Mother Nature. The risk of frost, hail, whipping winds, and unforseen events are always in the minds’ eye of every farmer. So many decisions are guided by pre-empting the unpredictable and keeping watch against an undefeatable foe.

It is rarely said that Old Man Winter or Mother Nature are in the business of doleling out favors, but the Washington Wine Industry may well have found themselves in receipt of one of these rare events.

It can be said in a wine industry reeling from downward sales trends and a shrinking market that none have suffered as greatly as grape growers and bulk wine producers in Washington State. Washington State may be carrying more bulk wine than the State of California. This number is shocking because California grows enough grapes to produce 15 times the wine that the state of Washington does.

Nothing was less needed than a bumper crop in Washington in 2024. Enter Old Man Winter.

Negative 15 degrees was experienced in Walla Walla Valley and sustained damaging temperatures were experienced throughout most growing regions in Eastern Washington last weekend.

Although this wasn’t an ideal scenario for growers, it should place an impetus on the buying of 2023 vintage bulk wines to make up for the impending inventory shortfall on 2024 wines. With local demand increasing, and a gap year on 2024 production gives the Washington wine industry the potential to right size bulk wine inventories, create tank space for 2025 wines and realign with a market on the climb 2-3 years hence.

Low Hanging Fruit

Much has been made in the wine industry about the World Health Organization’s decree that no amount of alcohol is healthy for us. I believe it is time for wine to go on the offensive in this discussion. While it is true that wine contains alcohol, it is easy to make the argument that wine is a healthy alternative to many of America’s legal forms of addiction.

Calories/Serving Sugar g/L Sugar/Cal Fat g/L Alcohol kCal

Beverage A 159 1 3 0 7.1

Beverage B 368 49 147 9 0

If I were to tell you that one of these beverages is a glass of wine and the other is one of the top 5 most consumed drinks at Starbucks which would you guess is which?

Beverage A is a 6 oz glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and Beverage B is a 20 oz. Starbucks Caramel Macchiato. These are frequently consumed serving sizes for both of these beverages, respectively.

We reach for our vices for numerous reasons including stress/anxiety, mood alteration, habit patterns, and cravings, to name some. Alcohol and the caffeine/sugar addictions are foremost in American cultural patterns.

This is a single example of a beverage choice. There are thousands of lifestyle choices that we make every week. Can the argument be made that a glass of red wine as a substitution for a caramel macchiato would be a quantifiably healthier decision? It’s safe to say that the answer is yes.

There’s a simple tactic taught in sales training, and that is to attack the low hanging fruit. If wine is competing in the beverage industry, why not make the argument against some of the most abundantly consumed beverages in the United States to which wine is a healthier alternative?

It’s time for the wine industry to go on the offensive.

Savvy?!?

Few things have experienced anti-gravitational success recently in the wine industry like that of Sauvignon Blanc. The Sauvignon Blanc variety is receiving plenty of interest in the grape and bulk wine market in Washington State and Oregon. Scores, sales, and recognition among retailers are all hallmarks of this variety’s growing success trends. Washington State Sauvignon Blancs offer ripe tropical fruit profiles with ample acidity. Willamette Valley’s less planted, put widely sought after editions offer taut acidity backed by heady aromas.

A winemaker’s dream in terms of its stylistic diversity, Sauvignon Blanc is finding broad reception in the wine audience ranging from newly curious to long tenured consumers. In a Washington grape market that is mostly oversupplied, there is plenty of pre-harvest action on wine grapes, juice for shipping, and bulk wine production contracts. There is tangible interest in planting and development in this space for Sauvignon Blanc and its complimentary blending partner, Semillon. The demand for this variety in Oregon at least doubles the planted acreage.

The most important group of wine consumers to the future health of the wine industry is in the 25-40 age range. Capturing the interest of drinkers in this age range creates future potential commercial development for the wine industry. As these drinkers are captured by food friendly, easy to comprehend wines like Sauvignon Blanc, their interest about wine is captivated and their experience broadens. Some creative producers have even floated or initiated the concept of lower calorie Sauvignon Blanc to caper on with broader drinks business trends for lower alcohol/lower calorie consumables.

Sauvignon Blanc checks so many boxes for wine consumers in terms of its versatility, food friendliness, established brand recognition, and durable, growing market presence that the excitement with industry executives surrounding this varietal is palpable.

As Johnny Depp asked us in his Keith Richards-inspired performance in Pirates of the Caribbean, “Ya savvy?!?”

Brave New Washington

Brave New Washington

It has been questioned throughout the wine industry what might the new Washington Industry most greatly resemble? There have been major shifts in the industrial landscape and the future is unknown. The landscape is rapidly changing underneath our feet.

With an eye towards recent actions in the mergers and acquisition market, it appears that luxury and prestige brands hold a strong value. The sales of low priced bottles are reaching double digit monthly and yearly figures across the West Coast. White wine and rosé have now eclipsed red wine in terms of consumption.

Washington made its reputation nationally by making a great bottle of wine for the money. WA’s growth on the national wine scene was in a golden heyday where sub $15/bottle and sub $10/bottle experienced searing, nearly 20 year growth. Washington held itself as a forerunner of over delivery for the price point. In a competitive market, Washington acquitted itself above its fighting weight and clawed out shelf space.

Growth in price points $15-$25/bottle and $50+/bottle show a continued climb in growth. In a market where the pie is shrinking, differentiating a region based on its excellence at higher price points and its gravity as a destination (Hello, Walla Walla) are the points on which Washington could hang its hat into the future. Wineries with hero scores are prominent in Washington and they have been since the 1980s.

The grape market in Washington will surely shrink in the coming years, and it may need to do so to be able to grow again.

The new focus from outside investment eyes are upscale boutique labels that over deliver from exclusive AVAs at high price points. The new reality for Washington could involve an industry similar in size to that of Oregon, with mid sized wineries holding a balanced proportion of the grape marketplace. Washington’s rightful presence on the global marketplace may be better landed in the guise of luxury production, breathtaking destinations, and its natural sustainability with an eye towards the future.

Post Harvest Oregon Report

The Willamette Valley saw an above average production that combined with wines of excellent quality across targeted price points. Harvest came earlier than average, marked by a warm, dry summer. Yields in both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were above average. There appears to be a bit more surplus on the bulk wine market than in past years in Oregon, which indicates there is opportunity for buyers that have intended to enter this market over the past few years to seize their opportunity.

Yields on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley were below average, but also represented very high quality. For the first time in several years, there will be some small lot bulk wine availability from the Rocks District and from the Walla Walla Valley AVA, and opportunities for producers within and without Oregon to access wines and 2024 grapes from this sought after AVA.

Yields and quality in the Rogue, Illinois, and Appleagate Valley appear to be above and average and quality appears to be good. This market has provided access especially to producers intending to bottle Oregon appellated wines for $30/bottle and under. A great number of California and Oregon based entities have benefited from the excellent quality to price ratios available in this segment of the Oregon bulk wine and grape market.

Early Harvest Report from the Pacific Northwest

2023 Harvest is showing signs of low yields and high quality in Washington State. Many wineries have already finished picking white grapes and red grape harvests are in full swing. Yields are 10-20% below yearly averages. One highly decorated Washington winemaker is already certain that these are the best wines he’s ever made in his 20+ year career. Slow brix advancement and ideal hang time weather in the long term forecast make a great harvest very likely to persist.

Willamette Valley wineries are showing some Pinot Noir already in cellar doors with sparkling harvest mostly finished. Several different long tenured winemakers in Willamette Valley are giddy about wine quality. In an area usually battling October rain forecasts, it looks like the majority of this harvest will be brought in under ideal conditions in Willamette Valley.

Oregon Pinot Noir statewide appears to show a mix of yields from quite large in some areas to under average in others. We’ll gather more data as harvest nears its close to give better crop estimates in both states as to overall production

Trending Now in Pacific Northwest Bulk Wine Sales

The bulk wine market in the Pacific Northwest is ever changing. Perhaps never moreso than in 2023.

The changes within Ste Michelle Wine Estates have been widely publicized. These reductions in anticipated wine grape production in Washington State will have a range of impacts. Many of these reductions were made after most of the farming inputs had been implemented. These sunken costs will lead to large volumes of fruit being for sale at attractive prices as well as bulk wines being broadly available for sale from both the 2022 and 2023 vintages. On the horizon, the number of planted acres will inevitably be reduced to cope with smaller production from the State of Washington’s leading producer. This activity dovetails with some new and significant plantings in Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley. This activity will create new and dynamic opportunities later this decade in one of Washington’s most coveted and recognized sub appellation as well as niche varietals from the heart of Washington State’s white wine producing appellation.

There are many mid sized and growing producers within and outside of the State of Washington having a great deal of success in National sales categories. The $15-$25 price point per bottle is achieving strong growth for some Washington brands in both the on and the off premise categories. There has been significant demand from value tier brands largely being sold through national retail chains. There has also been white hot success in alternative packaging formats growing their audiences in the 30-45 demographic, selling wine directly to consumers nationwide. These fast growing, creatively marketed, young minded companies are showing us what the future of the wine industry will look like.

The meteoric rise of Oregon and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir categories over the past decades appears to have somewhat cooled. Demand has been steady, but due to national wine sales realities, the slowing trend of wine sales across categories has finally landed in Oregon. This dynamic creates opportunities for companies that were being priced out of these categories with bulk wine and grape pricing and availablity from the past several vintages. The grape and bulk wine markets leave opportunity space for brands with their eye on nationally marketed Oregon and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

Incredible Bulk Wine Company remains your leading resource for Pacific Northwest bulk wines, wine grapes, and production contract opportunities across all categories. We look forward to discussing how your company may take advantage of current and future opportunities in the Washington and Oregon markets.

The Value of a Relationship

What myriad changes we have seen in the Pacific Northwest wine industry over the past decade.  We have seen vigorous growth, a much broader reception of Pacific Northwest wines in the national market, a swell of outside interest looking to capitalize on what they see as vast growth to come.

At Incredible Bulk Wine Company, we have been fostering and building relationships with our sellers to understand their winemaking style, sales results versus their production loads, and assisting them to meet their business demand horizons.  Every buyer, too, has their own style.  Sending limitless samples and forcing our buyers to weed out volumes of unwanted wines, hoping something sticks, was never our intent.  We understand there is a synergy between some of our buyers and sellers that we work to protect and ensure.  We value the time, energy, and effort of all of our working partners, and look to add more value this year.

With a vast expanding network in the Californian and International bulk wine markets, we can deliver a multitude of new and diverse opportunities.  We are selling wines in much larger volumes than ever before to aid in the bumper crops of 2016 in Washington and 2017 in Oregon.  The salubrity of all of our clients are at the core of our belief system. 

Defining Washington

Washington State may be the greatest enigma in the American wine industry.

What Washington does better than anyone is make every varietal at a level that is world class.  Nowhere else in the world would a winery grow Cabernet and Riesling in adjoining rows, and make top notch wine from each varietal.  The list of high performing is as long as your arm, and across borders of standard expectations. 

Alsatian whites

Rhone reds

Bordelais red and white varietals

Burgundian whites

In this list of things done impressively well lies the aforementioned enigma.  Upon what does Washington hang its hat?  Quality:Price Ratio to be sure, in every varietal and price point, but is that sufficiently capturing the attention of the domestic wine buyer.

In Bordeaux, the European wine growing region with whom Washington most closely aligns itself, the Estates define themselves by the confines of what is planted on their property.  The Estate never mentions varietals, only the assumed expectation that they have planted what grows best on their properties, and are offering you the first and second wines that have long resulted from these efforts.  

In the bulk wine market, Washington seems best represented behind red blends.  It is not a category where California exceeds, as in Cabernet and Chardonnay, and offers a Northwestern alternative to the clearly defined Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

In a landscape of increasing opportunities on the national and global scale, it appears to be in Washington's best interest to define itself to the evolving Milennial demographic that is open to new adventures, so far as they understand the brand and type that is sizzlingly on the upswing.

How Deep is the Ocean? How high is the sky?

Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest American chanteuse, asked this question 75 years ago.

Now, the global wine industry is beginning to ask this question about the Pacific Northwest.

If you follow the wine industry, it is clear to all that of the Mergers and Acquisitions taking place in the United States wine industry, more than half took place in Washington or Oregon last year.  Buyers from France, Spain, Italy, Canda, and the Napa cognoscenti are swarming this region.  New references pop up monthly for the newest acquisitions set to take place.

The increasing levels of investment in this region prove how undervalued, underplanted, and underdeveloped these regions are.  Buyers are encouraged by the idea that the ceiling for this market may be unreachable in the current generation's professional career duration.  Some say the greatest plantings of this region aren't yet in the ground, or may be going in the ground now.

In terms of bulk wine feasibility, there couldn't have been better, or larger opportunities than what now exists in red wines from Washington from 2016 and Oregon in 2017.  With a shrinking demand from the region's largest producer, the tidal wave of opportunity is at a trough with an impending crest that is unknown in shape or dimension, but what is known is that it will be tremendous.

Worst Kept Secret

There was a time when writers, critics, and business people alike, when discussing the wine industry, only discussed California.  Why wouldn't they?  4 Million tons of grapes for an average annual harvest dwarfs the rest of the country's production combined.

As time has gone by, entrepreneurs and opportunists have sought growth behind new ideas.  With a fully built out industry in California, these bright minds were forced to look northward.  The land rush in Oregon and Washington is mirrored in the supernova of new brands being established in once provincial hamlets like McMinnville, Walla Walla, on the sunny slopes Red Mountain, and in the red clay of the Dundee Hills.

The quality-price ratio has become impossible to ignore.  The growth in the marketplace of Washington Cabernet and Oregon Pinot, coupled with scores and press that over deliver at each price category, make the Pacific Northwest the worst kept secret in the wine industry these days.

Contact us to help us direct you to the myriad opportunities that this dynamic market sector has to offer.

What a Difference a Year Makes

The 2016 vintage in Washington was the largest by record.  "King Kong" sized clusters surprised winemakers and vineyard managers alike, arriving at twice their suspected cluster weights.  Quality and volume corresponded to endow a vintage with as much volume with commensurate quality.

2017, in contrast, has picked out between 10-15% lighter than in years past. The wines are showing more delicacy and feminity in the early stages,  Qualitatively speaking, this may be the best Merlot and Syrah crop since the stellar 2012 vintage.

For producers looking to invest in Washington wine, the 2016 vintage provides ample opportunity.  It may be a good bet to invest in greater inventory from 2016 to supplant the shortfalls and higher pricing sure to come out of the 2017 vintage.

Merlove

Merlot got a bad rap in a wine movie.  If only Paul Giamatti's Sideways character would have told his audience that the '61 Cheval Blanc that he was saving for a rainy day was full of the goodness that is Merlot.

Outside of Pomerol, perhaps the world's greatest region for Merlot is Washington State.  This varietal ripens beautifully, and in cooler Septembers, like that of 2016, can hang long enough for the fruit to darken and phenolics to mature.  Primary-fruited Merlots of the West Coast, introduced before the emergence of Washington State as a global wine producer, left the American wine market feeling that Merlot was a pedestrian, entry level red wine, that would always play second fiddle to Cabernet, and maybe from off stage.

Wines from Pomerol like Petrus and Cheval Blanc demand some of the highest prices and greatest prestige in the world of wine.  What France has done better than any wine market, is market regions over varietals.  Bordeaux markets the house over variety, winemaker, above all else.  Burgundy markets from a row of a vineyard.  Champagne is Eponymous.  The place identifies the style, which is easily explained to consumers.

Washington Merlot, blended with Syrah, or Cabernet Franc, or Malbec, or the sum of all these parts, sell into Washington red blend projects that are some of the hottest selling SKUs in the US Market.  Perhaps the pendulum will swing back to an affinity to Merlot, and (dare to dream...) Rielsling, but as The Feller says, "If you can't beat em, join em", and pitch a Merlot driven red blend to your distributors, marketing, or sales people, and start your own Proprietary Washington red blend.

Bringing the Northwest to Texas!

Incredible Bulk Wine Company will be making our second annual trip to the Texas Wine Grape Growers Association show in San Marcos, TX February 17 and 18.

The Texas wine industry is working to become more self sufficient in terms of producing wines solely grown in their state.  Yet there remain several clients of ours in this industry, and that number continues to grow.

There is interest in the food friendly wines produced in the Pacific Northwest for these wineries that excel in direct sales, and can quickly outsell their inventory.

We hope to see a number of ya'll down there!

Bridges Being Built

This is not a new story.  As we are all aware, the interest in Washington and Oregon wine from California wine companies has been growing at an accelerated rate.  Kendall Jackson's recent purchases of eponymous Oregon brands, Willakenzie and Penner-Ash, are just one of the latest indicators of large California entities making sizeable commitments in the Pacific Northwest wine industry.

This is something we see in the number of sample requests that we are getting from California wineries for Washington Cab, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay.  Oregon, specifically Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris,  are in higher and higher demand as months pass by.

It is an exciting time to witness what appears to be another seismic growth in the Pacific Northwest wine industry.  Please contact us for samples and our hottest opportunities.