A Lot of Ways to Get a Wine

I notice numerous ads appearing in wine industry newsletters that advertise bulk wines for sale and often wondered why there is this classification of wine for sale and who buys such wine. I see ads for a lot of California bulk wines as well as some of these wine sales from Oregon, Washington, and from East Coast wineries and vineyards. And with some frequency it is not unusual to see ads for wines sales coming from many international wine regions.

Bulk wine is another facet of the wine industry that is not understood by the casual wine consumer, but it is a major contributor to the growth of the wine industry. What is bulk wine and grapes? This wine comes from surplus production at a winery that has not yet made it into the bottle and labeled. There is also a segment of the market where wineries and vineyards produce wine only for the bulk market. There are also brands that have no winery and rely on the bulk market to create their brand. Bulk grapes, like wine, come from a winery's vineyard or an independent vineyard. These grapes are sold by the ton at time of harvest; often a year in advance.

Bulk wine is of a known quality that is tasted by a buyer prior to the purchase. Brokers that sell wines without a home never take possession of the wine, but still have licensing requirement from the Tax and Trade Bureau of the Department of the Treasury. Point being, bulk wine is a high-quality wine that has a pedigree-it has a known producer, known quality, historic characteristics and is easily sampled/tasted by the buyer.

With year over year growth in U.S. 2016 wine sales of 2.8%, it would be easy to assume that all the wine produced would have a market based upon demand. Vineyard planted acreage in California is expected to be flat in 2017 versus 2016, with 15,000 new acres being planted; mostly in San Lois Obispo Coastal area. (Planted vineyard acreage numbers are misleading as there is acreage removed when vines are removed for replanting.) Even with changes in the wine market worldwide, the market for bulk wine and grapes continue growing and the reasons for the growth are complex and numerous. So, the question that begs clarification/amplification is: What happens to surplus wine and grapes?

Surplus wine can basically be bought by anyone. There are many wine labels on the market that comes from surplus wines or even bulk grapes. For example, someone could buy the wine, have it delivered to a winery, work their blending magic on that wine, do the bottling and ship to a distributor.