"Why Are Those Grapes On the Vine?"—A PR Problem Waiting To Happen
Small family wineries will need a response.
My friend and sometimes partner in public and media relations projects Julie Ann Kodmur and I were discussing the coming quandary that some wineries and growers will have to face.
Around the end of November and into December, folks are going to be driving around Napa and Sonoma County and wondering, “What are all those grapes still doing on the vine?” The most generous among these people might think, “Oh, look, they are going to make late harvest wine.” Then they’ll start to think, “Wow….that’s a hell of a lot of late harvest wine everyone is making this year.
They will eventually realize what most people already knew: premium grape growers and estate wineries left some, if not a lot, of their crop on the vine this year; they chose simply not to pay the cost to pick it.
For the growers, this is a simple matter of economics. They either had no buyers for the grapes or the cost to hire a picking crew, to pick the grapes, and to deliver them to a buyer was more than the buyer was willing to pay for the grapes.
The situation for an estate winery that grows its own grapes isn’t too different. For many, it’s a matter of looking out two or three years and estimating that the wine market won’t be robust enough to justify paying the cost of harvesting the grapes, crushing them, turning them into wine, then aging and bottling it. It’s the same calculation made by those who decided not to buy the grape growers’ crop the way they did in earlier years.
HOW DO YOU RESPOND?
But here’s the question that arises for estate wineries: When the media calls or when customers ask, how do you explain that you are just leaving these beautiful grapes on the vine? Is there a way to explain this without somehow communicating your winery is in dire straits or that you don’t have the confidence that your wine will be in enough demand to justify bottling and offering the stuff?
There is an answer to that question, but first, it’s important to understand the problem that creates this whole situation. It’s a matter of demand. Whatever you think is the best explanation for why demand for wine is down, the fact is that it is indeed down. Personally, I believe we are looking at a systemic economic explanation. Whatever reason you land on, the fact is that there are grapes in Napa Valley that not too long ago commanded $7,000 per ton that can be purchased today for $1,000 per ton. Supply and demand. That’s where we are.