Mercury News Story Bullish on Wine
Posted by Ben Chinn on October 20th, 2008
Last week the San Jose Mercury News reported optimistically on the state of the wine industry in these economically troubled times. With the not so original title “Wine Industry See The Glass Half Full” the Mercury News presents the conventional wisdom that people are continuing to buy wine, though may be looking for more value at lower prices. I have to wonder: is there anybody who turns down a good wine value at any time?
The article uses mostly anecdotal evidence: quoted sources offer such gems as “I think I’d rather cut down on cable TV before I cut down on wine” and “Let’s not forget, wine’s been rocking”. But also quoted is a recent study by Nielsen that shows wine sales for the month of September 2008 up 3 percent from the previous year. That’s a year over year increase in sales during the month when the financial crisis exploded.
As Paul Mabray stated in a post when recession was looming in June and the Mercury News now backs up, this is no time for wineries to slow down – naturally Paul offers a great analysis of why this is a good time to expand direct sales. I’m sure we’ll be hearing plenty of voices echoing that kind of optimism in the coming months.
