Wine Business

Wine Business

Chapter 1

Introduction

As Benjamin Franklin observed wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy ' Keeping this idea Americans have developed several wine regions in the US with their own flavor and style of wine As it is the usual American way , the USA has taken a wide range of grape varieties from the Continental Europe and gave them new taste typical of American creation . Quite a lot of experiments and technological developments have made American wine compete with the European specials

The major wine producing regions in the USA are California , New York Oregon , Texas and Washington . Of these California wines are considered to be superior from others with the wines from Napa Valley and Sonoma ranging high in the opinion of wine lovers . Geographically located in the warmer West Coast of the United States , the California region comprises of Napa Valley , Sonoma County , Mendocino County , Monterey County , San Luis Obispo , Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz among others There are different varieties of Red and White grapes being grown in the California region that are being used for making tastier wines . Of these areas the grapes from Napa Valley are of superior quality . Because of the poorer soil the vines have to struggle to grow and hence all the nutrient values go to the grapes instead of the leaves . While Napa Valley is area-wise small , Sonoma Valley consists of 160 square miles and because the area is receiving substantial amount of fog the climatic conditions favor the growth of good quality grapes in the Sonoma Valley .According to the Wine Institute due to the overall demand growth for wine all over the US , the California wine sales has achieved new heights with a value in real terms of US 16 .5 billion in the year 2005 . The quantity of wine sold stood at 441 million gallons for the same year . This volume constitutes 63 percent of the wines which stood at 26 billion and a quantity of 703 million gallons On the Export front the percent in value and 16 percent in volume during the year 2005 , reports the Wine Institute . The changes in European sales volume due to high dollar value against Euro and the exports of bulk wine instead of bottled wine have been identified as the reason for the decline in the exports . The for 95 percent amounted to 658 million with 101 million gallons

However the US wine consumption has shown a steady growth since the year 1991 and this reflected in the growth of the wine sector contributing to the growth of the US economy . Exciting brands , innovative packaging critically-acclaimed California vintages and a good economy helped the strong growth of ' the premium wine segment , says the Wine Institute (2006

The growth potential for the wine market in the US is showing a steady growth due to the following factors

Changing demographic trends

Changes in consumer values towards wine consumption

Promotional measures undertaken by the retail...