By Jim Trezise
Romance vs. Reality
It’s not surprising that people dream of getting into the wine business. Just think of it:
Sunrise caressing the vines. Perfect weather again. A leisurely coffee while surveying the pristine landscape. A morning stroll through exquisitely manicured vineyards. A smoothly functioning wine cellar. A traffic jam of consumers eager to visit the tasting room. Multiple FedEx trucks waiting for wine club shipments. Ending each day counting the hefty stash. Celebrating with a dinner pairing your world-class wines with world-class food on your terrace overlooking paradise. Sleeping like a baby.
Yeah, right!
After spending their life savings and taking out a massive loan, new winery owners often discover a very different reality.
Clouds mean rain when the grapes need to stay dry. Coffee comes from a drive-thru. License applications and tax forms cover the desk. Labor shortages mean critical vineyard work falls behind. The bottling line breaks down, and replacement parts are in Italy. The tasting room manager quits without notice. The parking lot is empty. The wine club is shrinking. The red ink increases. The banker grows impatient. Fast-food dinner. No sleep. Nightmares.
So why do perfectly intelligent people jump in?
Passion.
“Wine to me is passion. It’s family and friends. It’s warmth of heart and generosity of spirit. Wine is art. It’s culture. It’s the essence of civilization and the art of living.”
— Robert Mondavi
A Conscious Choice
Wine people are smart people.
Winegrape growers could earn much more if they chose to grow heavily subsidized corn, wheat, or soybeans. Winery owners could excel as highly paid CEOs of major companies. Winemakers could multiply their salaries working for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
So why wine?
Especially now.
“Wine is passion—to those who grow it, make it, and drink it.”
— Jon McPherson, Winemaker, South Coast Winery, Temecula
In the 44 years I’ve been in the wine business, I have seen many challenges, cyclical roller coasters, and even crises. But today we face a perfect storm of climate disasters, neo-Prohibitionism, generational change, intense competition, and damaging government policies like tariffs that hurt wine producers, both foreign and domestic.
It’s tough out there.
Survival of the Smartest
Since crisis breeds opportunity, we have a great opportunity—to listen, learn, and change.
Some wineries are doing just that, and they are the ones already succeeding. A recent survey on DtC shipping results by Rob McMillan, EVP and founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s Wine Division, revealed three tiers: wineries that grew by 22%, those that declined by 13%, and the median winery with flat results.
In other words, there is not one wine industry—there are three.
The major difference is that those succeeding look outward, while those declining look inward. As Rob put it:
“You can’t cut your way to growth. Brand-building is what makes people desire your wine.”
— Rob McMillan
It’s clear that in wine, as in life, those who embrace change will succeed. Those who also embrace collaboration will rise to the top.
The Art of Science, and the Science of Art
“Grapes are the most noble and challenging of fruits.”
— Malcolm Dunn
Grape growers choose to risk the weather and the market to carefully cultivate the best possible grapes, preserving and regenerating the land in the process.
“Wine is a chemical symphony.”
— Maynard Amerine
“Wine is bottled poetry.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson
Winemakers combine sophisticated oenological science with artistic decisions about how each wine should look, smell, taste, and linger.
“Wine, land, agricultural skills, and entrepreneurialism are gifts from God—the Creator has entrusted them to us because, with our sensitivity and honesty, we make them a true source of joy.”
— Pope Francis
Winery owners trade the financial certainty of other careers for the personal satisfaction of offering a sustainable, life-enhancing, community-building cultural product that has existed for more than 6,000 years, evolves with every vintage, and will continue enriching lives for thousands of years to come.
Problems will always arise.
Passion will always prevail.
Two years from now, there will be a very different wine industry than there was two years before. It will be smarter, stronger, and smaller—forging a brighter future rather than bemoaning an unsustainable past.
That’s something to celebrate.
Cheers! À votre santé! Prost! Skål! Ganbei! L’chaim! Cin cin! ¡Salud! Saúde!
Jim Trezise has been in the American wine industry for 44 years. He has been President of WineAmerica since 2017, and prior to that served on its Board for 20 years. He created and ran the New York Wine & Grape Foundation for 32 years, has served on Boards of several national and international organizations, judges in wine competitions, and has received several national awards and accolades for his contributions to the American wine industry. He lives and works on Keuka Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes wine region.
