The Washington Wine Industry Update

The March edition of Vintage Economics' free quarterly Washington wine industry newsletter is now available. Click here to download a copy. The March issue discusses trends in wine shipments and inventory as well as developments in the Washington grape market.

A few highlights:

• Washington wineries shipped a total of 12.6 million cases in 2019 - an increase of just 25,000 cases relative to 2018.
• The industry’s performance continues to be bifurcated – “small” wine outperformed “big” wine by a wide margin again in 2019.
• Following a strong expansion during the first half of the decade, there has been essentially no growth in wine shipments over the past four years.
• Washington has also experienced a massive build in bonded inventory – it swelled from 14 million cases in 2012 to 31 million in 2019.
• The 2019 grape crush totaled 200,100 tons – the smallest since 2012 and a drop of more than 60,000 tons relative to 2018.
• Despite the diminutive crush, the grape market was severely oversupplied in 2019.
• The problem is structural – substantial vineyard removals will be required to close the gap between supply and demand in Washington State.