2014 Trends: Demand for vineyards to push values, import share

(NBBJ) - The most significant trend in the North Coast wine business this year and continuing into 2014 is the ongoing, pressing need for more vineyards.

Related to that, a large number of serious buyers are chasing a small number of coveted wine properties, and that activity is putting pressure on values. Rising values can make wine on the shelf a more expensive proposition, opening the way for even more imported wine.

Demand for vineyards is ” illustrated particularly by what is happening with wine companies looking outside California for vineyards,” Robert Nicholson, president of Healdsburg-based wine industry mergers and acquisitions specialists International Wine Associates.

In the first half of this year Santa Rosa-based Jackson Family Wines purchased about 1,100 acres of plantable land and vineyards in the 150-mile-long Willamette Valley appellation of western Oregon. The company bought the 250-acre Zena Crown vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills subappellation, 200-acre Gran Moraine hillside vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton subappellation and 350 plantable acres in the 655-acre Maple Grove Vineyard property at the southern end of the valley.

In late summer, Jackson Family Wines purchased the 15,000-case-a-year Soléna Estate winery also in Yamhill-Carlton.

Earlier this month, St. Helena-based Duckhorn Wine Co. said it purchased a 20-acre vineyard site in the Red Mountain appellation in Washington state. Once developed, it will provide estate fruit for Canvasback, a new Red Mountain cabernet sauvignon. Planting is set to begin in spring. The 2012 vintage Canvasback is set for release in 2014 at a retail price of $40.