This year’s Southern Arizona wine grape harvest has been pretty exceptional, but Mark Beres and his Flying Leap Vineyards partners plan to leave as much as 30% of the fruit to die on the vine.
While the Southern Arizona wine industry is experiencing what could be a record harvest this year, few wineries are celebrating. Arizona is not alone; nationwide, wine producers are sitting on extraordinary inventories that they can’t sell, particularly in the low- and mid-priced market, said Michael Kaiser, executive vice president for government affairs at the Washington, D.C.-based WineAmerica.
“People are unfortunately choosing to drink those White Claws and hard seltzers instead,” said Callaghan, who has been making wine since 1991. “It’s kind of a dumbing down, but it’s something we have to take seriously this year.” Beres said he and his partners started recognizing a change in the market late last year when sales dropped off in the fourth quarter.
California industry leaders at that January meeting concluded one of the solutions to the glut in inventory and drop in demand would be to cut back on the vineyard acreage and bring production more in line with demand. “There is a market-wide, complete decline and the cost to make wine has gone up and the margins have eroded,” he added. “The margins are the real problem. People might still be buying the $50 wine, but the cost to make that wine has gone up. When you have strained margins and the demand collapses, you have a problem.”
Vino Stache’s Ide has been making wine for six years and has seen the industry ebbs and flows. But nothing like this, she said. Beres said he is hoping to see an uptick in sales in the coming months, which could indicate that “we went through the bottom this summer.”