The sky is falling, the sky is falling! “Woooolllff!” Run, hide, take cover, the apocalypse is now! “The world is drowning in an ocean of cheap wine.” 2008 and 2009 have been very challenging years. Many of you reading this have had to change your spending habits as your income has been diminished or has vanished entirely. The Great Recession, as it will end up being played out in the history books, has changed the landscape of nearly every industry and left its mark on just about every person in the world. How has the wine industry faired? What is the forecast for the future?

About a month ago, I was presented with the opportunity to purchase a local winery. At that moment, I became VERY interested in the future of the wine business, direct to consumer marketing, inventory gluts, pricing discounts, data collection and marketing strategies. While the business opportunity recently fell through, I did learn an incredible amount during my research. After pouring through nearly 50 pages of information from Silicon Valley Bank’s “State of the Wine Industry” report, Vin65 blog posts, VinQuest Consumer Direct report and others, here is my take on the state of the wine industry. This is intended to be a Readers Digest synopsis – it is highly encouraged to read each of the three links above.

Continue reading the forecast at Cork’d. The synopsis includes Pricing, Distribution, Marketing, Consumers, Inventory, and the Forecast