California Grape Acreage Underreported

The annual 2013 Vineyard Economics Seminar held yesterday in Napa attracted 200 members of the wine industry and its suppliers, investors and lenders interested in learning where the industry is headed. Among the many topics covered, the question of balance in winegrape supply and demand seemed to dominate. The president of Allied Grape Growers pointed to incomplete data from official sources as a major factor in the industry’s difficulty in analyzing the supply-demand situation. The seminar started, as usual, with a summary of the findings of the 2013 Vineyard Economics Survey conducted by David Freed, creator of the seminar and chairman of Silverado Premium Properties. Wines & Vines provided a preview of those findings and Freed’s concerns May 6 (see "New Chapter for Vineyard Business"). Freed did present some new information, however, including that 88% of respondents to his survey this year said they were more profitable than the previous year, down from 98% in the 2012 survey, which came after a very weak year.

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