Interesting, since a lot of stories I’ve seen were pointing to a net increase in wine sales.
“The surge in sales of wine at retailers…will not offset lost wine sales via on-premise channels and direct from wineries to consumers through wine clubs and tasting rooms…”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industry-news/coronavirus-2018-record-crop-to-cut-california-wine-grape-grower-revenue/amp/
There’s a huge amount of disruption. Restaurants are purging their inventory for cash flow. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some retailers who’ve lost sales, and therefore wouldn’t be buying for that same reason. More often, I’d expect sales to have shifted, so a retailer doing fine sales-wise would only be restocking what is selling.
As the article notes, there is excess wine from 2018 in the channel, plus a downward trend in consumption. A lot of growers and wineries are going to be hurt. To some degree they can reformulate their business models. The best we can do as consumers is support the wineries we like. As we’ve seen in the past, this does present an opportunity for producers to begin new relationships with growers. That is not by swooping in for prime grapes at a discount. That is coming in with cash to pay full price to take over contracts from great sources. (“I love your site, I respect your farming, I’d like to make this an ongoing relationship, and I intend to sell these wines for full price, so I think you deserve what the grapes are worth.”)