Two Wine Industries
We often say that there are two wine industries because the way the small wineries operate is so different than how the large wineries operate. Let’s just look at the numbers
According to Wine Business Monthly (February 2023) the top 50 wineries produce 273,200 cases of wine which is more than 90% of the wine sold in the US. The Very Small and Limited Production together sell 5% This chart shows the how many total cases the Large, Medium, Small, Very Small, and Limited Production wineires sell.:
There are now a little over 12,000 Thus, these 50 wineries make up less than 1/2 percent of all wineries. The blue line shows the number of wineries in each size group.(Per Wines & Vines Analytics Feb 2023)
These charts demonstrate the economic power of the large wineries, even though they represent a miniscule portion of all wineries.
I think the “small” category should be split, because I don’t think that a 5,000 case winery acts at all like a 50,000 case winery, but we are stuck with this definition…. however, I digress …
The Small, Very Small, and Limited Production wineries sell less than 10% of all wine. Thus, their economic impact is very tiny. Dilute that impact by 11,500 wineries and it’s easy to see that a small winery is not likely to garner headlines. This is why most news articles focus on the Medium and Large wineries: the big wineries have big megaphones. However, their results have no relevance to the small wineries.
What if the small wineries banded together. Our sheer number means that we could have a loud voice. Hit reply and share your thoughts.
Wines & Vines Analytics - Statistics
