Afternoon Brief, February 8th
Southern Glazer’s Signs Agreement to Acquire Epic Wines & Spirits: Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (Southern Glazer’s)—the world’s preeminent distributor of beverage alcohol—today announced that it has signed a national distribution agreement with Foley Family Wines (FFW), a family-owned and operated producer and marketer of luxury wines...
Afternoon Brief, February 5th
Online Boom Behind Uber's Drinks Push: The implications of Uber's takeover of Drizly could be huge for retailers – and consumers...
Afternoon Brief, February 4th
Vintage Wine Estates, One of the Fastest Growing U.S. Wine Producers, to Become a Public Company: Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp., a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, and Vintage Wine Estates, one of the fastest growing U.S. wine producers with an industry leading direct-to-customer platform, announced today a definitive agreement for a business combination that would result in VWE becoming a publicly traded company...
Afternoon Brief, February 3rd
Big Names, Big Bottles for Napa Auction: With its main fundraiser postponed by the pandemic, Napa Valley Vintners is running an online library auction starting next week that includes one of the most impressive group of Napa auction wines ever assembled...
Afternoon Brief, February 2nd
Uber to Buy Alcohol Delivery Start-up Drizly for $1.1 Billion: Uber has made a major move in the growing market for on-demand delivery of wines, beer and spirits by agreeing to buy start-up firm Drizly in the US in a deal worth $1.1 Billion...
Afternoon Brief, February 1st
Direct Shipping from Wineries to US Homes Hit New Highs in 2020, but Restrictive State Law Limits New Jersey to Nation’s Lowest Growth: No doubt spurred by pandemic-induced limits on travel, dining and shopping, shipments of wine direct from U.S. wineries to consumers in 2020 experienced the largest recorded single year growth ever — but New Jersey consumers barely participated, due to a needlessly restrictive state law...
Afternoon Brief, January 29th
Bad Year Turns Good for California: It's been a year to forget, but the future looks brighter for grapegrowers...
Afternoon Brief, January 28th
California Wine Business Faces New, Ongoing Challenges as It Adjusts to Pandemic, Wildfires: The U.S. wine business eked out slim volume growth overall last year, even as the coronavirus has upended how consumers bought such beverages, yet challenges in demand and supply that predate the pandemic remain, according to experts at a major industry conference Wednesday...
Afternoon Brief, January 27th
Experts Say Robust Ecommerce Programs Are Key to Wine Industry Survival in Foreseeable Future: While fourth quarter numbers are still being crunched and the gains and losses of 2020 have yet to be fully tabulated, one thing is crystal clear: online sales of wine and other alcoholic beverages made a huge difference in a year wreaked by the havoc of Covid and a wildly unpredictable economy...
Afternoon Brief, January 26th
As California Returns to Reopening, Some in Wine Country Wonder if It’s Too Soon In Pandemic: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Monday that he’s ended the regional stay-at-home order and returned the majority of the state, including the six North Bay counties, back to the purple tier is welcome news to affected businesses. But business leaders are concerned the shutdowns aren’t over...
Afternoon Brief, January 25th
Wine Shipments to Consumers Soar to Record $3.7 Billion in 2020: Despite a nationwide pandemic that closed tasting rooms and restricted in-person sales for much of the past year, U.S. wineries shipped more than $3.7 billion worth of wine directly to consumers in 2020, according to the latest Direct-to-Consumer (DtC) Wine Shipping Report from Sovos ShipCompliant and Wines Vines Analytics...
Afternoon Brief, January 22nd
The 2020 Wildfires Could Cost California’s Wine Industry $3.7 Billion — but It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way: An early estimate of what last year’s disasters may have cost, in this week’s Drinking with Esther newsletter...
Afternoon Brief, January 21st
North Coast Wine Business Will Feel Effect of the Pandemic for Some Time, Expert Says: While the second half of this year is expected to much better for the North Coast wine business as restaurants and tasting rooms reopen with greater vaccine distribution, the coronavirus pandemic is going to have longer-term impacts on the industry than economic and natural disasters in the past three decades, a key industry analyst said this week...
Afternoon Brief, January 20th
Coalition of Bay Area Restaurants and Wineries Files Lawsuit Against Governor Newsom for Harmful "Arbitrary and Irrational" Outdoor Dining Ban: The Wine Country Coalition for Safe Reopening (the "Coalition") announced today its filing of a lawsuit against Governor Gavin Newsom and California State Public Health Officer Tomás J. Aragón alleging that the state's ban on outdoor dining and wine tasting is arbitrary, irrational, and unfair...
Afternoon Brief, January 19th
Predicting Higher Demand for Wine in 2021: At the end of Prohibition in the U.S. the consumption of wine as measured, slowly grew until war was declared in 1941 and rationing took over everyday lives...
