I’ve heard this from two sources: Frey Winery the largest organic winery in Mendocino, has cancelled all of their contracts for outside fruit. I’m told they are a big producer for Whole Foods. It’s estimated that’s 1000 tons being dropped in the middle of summer. Just more signs of the apocalypse.
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Same here. A lot of unsold grapes and a lot of emails. I feel for them.
I was even offered a small amount from a SB vineyard that has multiple $100/btl creddy, waitlist-y wineries producing from it. 2 years ago they’d told me to pound sand.
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I seem to recall your season ending in the first round against a divisional rival while my season ended on a controversial but correct call in the Super Bowl. I’d much rather drink to that than smoke tainted Pinot. The future is bright in Philly but the FedEx Field house Pinot? Not so much
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Ouch. In the PNW, Ste. Michelle announced a 40% reduction in Washington. That is estimated to affect 10,000 acres (!) according to OSU analysis (click here to read it). We should see a lot of desperate and low offers for Columbia Valley fruit… sad.
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Sorry for those affected. But most of those grapes aren’t worth making wine with. Those who produce top end grapes will continue to have no issues selling their fruit.
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Here are a few slides from a presentation on sales trends (curtesy Oregon Wine Board). We were all hoping to hold on to the pandemic bump, but alas wine sales across the board are down (slide 1). But still we are above 2019 (pre-COVID) and Oregon does better than the Cali or national trends (slide2). But keep in mind that SipSource, SVB (etc) are tracking major bar code scan data, and only certain (small) DTC data sets (for example, they don’t track the 3000 wineries using VinoShipper, and on-premise sales are from small voluntary surveys)— and 60% of what what is sold in these data sets is wine under $8 (slide 3)!!! So I take all of this with a jaundiced eye (wait, is that eye caused by the daily wine? Haha) but all the other posts here point to some real issues….
Apparently the line between opinionated and obnoxious is getting thinner. Not to pry, but do you still have your original front teeth?
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Do you need front teeth to enjoy Tâche?
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Apparently not?
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Let me know someday?
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This is simply untrue.
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How’s that? We’re talking about Château Ste Michelle and Whole Foods wines? 
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Never mind, princess.
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Worth is a relative term. I think we’ve been down this road before in the “bad wine” discussion. They definitely are worth it, to some. Let’s call them value conscious consumers. If you have bad taste, does that make somewhat less than mediocre wine taste good?
Anyway, what to do with the glut of grapes? Seriously, should there be a buyout program so farmers don’t go broke over the next 2-3 years and help them transition to another agricultural crop where they can make $$. Or just let them rot on the vines?
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Injuries suck. So does smoke.
I am just finding it interesting how smoke tainted wine is being passed off as fun in this thread. Would be savaged in other Wine Talk threads.
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Agree they both suck
Sports and talking about them are fun. So is wine. Talking about them both together is fun
It’s crazy to me an NFL organization would buy smoke tainted wine and dump it on the fans. You know it’s gonna be sold as a premium product in suites. They would get savaged for that if it came out.
If it came out? It’s out!
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What are you referring to? The comments about unsold grapes are about the current harvest, no?
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Ever seen/tasted the wines sold at most stadiums? Assuming it’s marginal smoke here, I’d say this is a smart buy and a vast upgrade on the usual product sold. I’m actually rather impressed to see a buyer seek this out and put in some effort vs buying bulk wine that’s even lower quality in every vintage.
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Yes the wine sold at concession stands is usually bulk keg wine. This type of wine won’t be sold that way. It will go into suites and club level facilities. It will be served as a premium product at likely over $100/bottle
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