GOLIATH GRAPE CRUSH

This year’s grape crush took the California wine world by surprise. What industry insiders originally thought would be a small harvest turned into the largest U.S. wine crush in history. Up 35% to 3.775 million tons from 2004’s 2.775 million, the enormous grape tonnage will likely continue the trend of lower wine prices and delay grape and bulk wine purchases. However, Mark Swartzberg of Stifel Nicolaus reports, “We believe that historically Constellation Brands has been a net beneficiary of grape excess, in terms of net profit impact, and believe that the company generally manages for a multi-year cycle while many others project historical trends well into the future.”

Overall, red wine fared the best with 3.75 million tons as compared to white wine that came in at 2.22 million. Chardonnay takes the number one spot with 740,000 tons, Cabernet Sauvignon came in second with 541,000, and Zinfandel was not far behind making up 447,000 tons.

Zinfandel may soon become the official grape of California if legislation proposed by State Senator Carole Migden is passed. The bill was introduced at the end of last week and now on its way to committee. It could be heard as early as next month. As quoted in Recordnet, Mark Chandler of the Winegrape Commission said, “Cabernet, chardonnay, Riesling, those are all European varieties. Zinfandel is uniquely Californian.”