Lifting the Curtain on the Wine Market's Bottleneck
One factor in today's sluggish wine sales: unopened wines are clogging the system
Posted: Aug 18, 2010 5:03pm ET
In winebiz talk, the affable chairman of Beaulieu Vineyards elucidated, an official wine depletion comes after, and only after, a wine is opened and consumed and when the toilet is flushed.
That may sound a bit crude, but up until the point at which a wine is drunk, or at least opened, it is still in inventory somewhere.
It could be in a winery tasting room, or a warehouse or in someone's private collection. But so long as it's in inventory means it is in someway clogging the system. And that's one factor in today's sluggish wine economy. Those who have cellared wines, and built inventories, have eased off on buying and are drinking down their cellars. Until they start buying again in earnest, the wine logjam will persist.
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