The U S Wine Market

The U.S. wine industry is growing rapidly and wine consumption is an increasingly important part of American culture. American Wine Economics is intended for students of economics, wine professionals, and general readers who seek to gain a unified and systematic understanding of the economic organization of the wine trade. The wine industry possesses unique characteristics that make it interesting to study from an economic perspective. This volume delivers up-to-date information about complex attributes of wine; grape growing, wine production, and wine distribution activities; wine firms and consumers; grape and wine markets; and wine globalization. Thornton employs economic principles to explain how grape growers, wine producers, distributors, retailers, and consumers interact and influence the wine market. The volume includes a summary of findings and presents insights from the growing body of studies related to wine economics. Economic concepts, supplemented by numerous examples and anecdotes, are used to gain insight into wine firm behavior and the importance of contractual arrangements in the industry. Thornton also provides a detailed analysis of wine consumer behavior and what studies reveal about the factors that dictate wine-buying decisions.

The world of wine encompasses endless variety. Consumers want to understand what makes one bottle of wine different from another; vintners need to know how to communicate what makes their product distinctive. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork in Italy and France as well as interviews with critics and analysis of market data, Giacomo Negro, Michael T. Hannan, and Susan Olzak provide an unprecedented sociological account of the dynamics of wine markets. They demonstrate how the concepts of genre and collective identity illuminate producers’ choices, whether they are selling traditional or nonconventional wines. Winemakers face a fundamental choice: produce an existing style and develop an identity as a proponent of tradition or embrace foreign, new, or emerging categories and be seen as an innovator. To explain this dilemma, Negro, Hannan, and Olzak develop the notion of wine genres, or shared understandings among producers and the public. Genres emerge through the social structure of production, including factors such as group solidarity, social cohesion, and collective action, and become key reference points for critics and consumers. Wine Markets features case studies of the creation of a modern wine genre and a countermovement against modernism in Piedmont, the failure of producers of Brunello di Montalcino in Tuscany to define a clear collective identity, and the emergence of the biodynamic wine movement in Alsace. This book not only offers keen sociological insight into the wine world but also sheds new light on the logic of markets and organizations more broadly.

Attempting to export wine to the U.S. has long been fraught with difficulty, especially for the smaller producers. The U.S. wine industry, complicated by confusing regulations and intense internal brand competition, is also the land of opportunity and home to an adventurous and egalitarian wine consuming population. But without an understanding of how to effectively enter this complex market, the exporter often founders and retreats in frustration. This book provides a guide to approaching and attracting an importer, differentiating terms and regulations which must be understood to prosper, and avenues to achieving and sustaining attainable sales and distribution goals.

Over long, hard decades, American winemakers have won the respect of connoisseurs everywhere. Many of the world's most cherished, and expensive, wines come fro the United States.. But today, the unique and eccentric wine industry faces agrim set of challenges that could transform it forever: oversupply in the face of flat consumption, devastating vineyard diseases, an antiquated distribution system, fierce competition from abroad, attacks from anti-alcohol forces, and an inability to capitalize on wine's proven health benefits.But for you, these woes cn be an opportunity, as wine journalist Lewis Perdue explains in this fascinating book. Clearly and crisply, forsaking the snobbish winespeak that helps keep wine mysterious and is itself one of the industry's problems. Perdue takes you behind the scenes to show you why a shakeout is imminent and unstoppable, and how you can benefit from understanding the situation-from drinking better wine less expensively to investing in a business where the perqs can be decanted from a bottle. Pullin no punches, naming names, this is an invaluable glimpse into a colorful, competitive, cantankerous world whose current troubles can actually add immeasurable pleasure to your life.

How can a small winery possibly compete with the marketing of massive wine companies? How can it hope to capture the over-stimulated mindshare of the modern consumer? By being strategic. This revised and updated edition to the bestselling book puts the vast bank of wine marketing knowledge within reach of industry novices, and fresh, practical, and powerful strategies into the hands of veteran brand managers and marketing professionals. With 100 pages of new and expanded material, this book addresses such topics as importing and exporting; logistical management; marketing your tasting room and wine region as a prime tourist destination; how to generate greater retail sales; and how to grab the benefits, while avoiding the dangers, of social networking and viral marketing.

Here’s the inside scoop on the wine world. Globalization has pushed back the borders of the wine world, creating a complex, interconnected market where Old World and New World wines and producers compete head to head. Writing with wit and verve, Mike Veseth (a.k.a. the Wine Economist) tells the compelling story of the war between the market forces that are redrawing the world wine map and the terroirists who resist them. This is the battle for the future of wine—and for its soul. The fight isn't just over bottles bought and sold, however; power and taste are also at stake. Who will call the shots in the wine market of the future? Who will set the price? Whose palate will prevail? Veseth masterfully brings all of these questions together in the only book on the wine business written for all lovers of wine. Wine Wars II begins by exploring wine globalization, where readers follow “Missionaries, Migrants, and Market Reforms” to faraway New Zealand and learn how to unlock the secrets of their local retail “Wine Wall” by mastering the “DaVino Code.” Globalization brings a world of wine to our doorsteps. Commodification helps us make sense of the resulting embarrassment of riches, but at a cost. Readers must decide if they are Martians or Wagnerians, consider why “They Always Buy the Ten Cent Wine,” and then probe the puzzle of “Outlaws, Prisoners, and the Great Escape.” Who stands in the way of the global wine market's assault on wine's very soul? The“Revenge of the Terroirists!” Resistance is not futile, because 'We Are All Terroirists Now,” but that doesn't mean the future of wine is secure. A final section explores “Wine's Triple Crisis,” environmental crisis plus economic crisis, plus identity crisis. Taken together these crises pose the most serious threat to wine as we know and love it. Each section of Wine Wars II ends with a suggested wine tasting that invites readers to experience the book's ideas and arguments with all their senses by sampling a few carefully chosen wines. Can the soul of wine survive – and thrive – in this unfriendly environment? You'll have to read Wine Wars II to find out!