Comments on: Just how concentrated is the wine industry? [graphics]

By: Roy Tennant

Roy Tennant — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:56:09 +0000

The long tail is long indeed! We have many very small wineries in the Sonoma Valley that produce wines that consistently outperform the large conglomerates on the price/quality spectrum. Check us out!

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:22:59 +0000

One other point this chart drills home: wine writers and wine geeks tend to inhabit the bottom right part of the chart, so there’s an ocean of wine out there that is sold through ways other than critical write-ups, scores, sommeliers or hand-sells. It’s really a dual wine market in a lot of ways.

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:18:37 +0000

Robin – Total Wine likely sources wine from various distributors in your state. Distributors, in turn, source from importers and wineries. If you’re curious about the store inventory, I’m sure you could strike up a conversation with the store manager.

Jacques and Bill – perhaps, through things such as tied sales (where legal!). But distributors also probably aren’t wild about retailer consolidation. The Total Wines of Robin’s neighborhood can have greater buying heft. Sam’s Club and Costco account for a vast share of wine retail in the US.

Daniel – yes, that’s a big number!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:21:34 +0000

And yet, Bill, Southern Wines and Spirits is responsible for over 20% of all wines and spirits sales in the entire United States.

By: Bill Haydon

Bill Haydon — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:13:35 +0000

That’s a very good point, Jacques. As an importer, I’ve always had a rule of thumb that I never want a single supplier or customer to amount to more than 10% of my total revenue. It gives them too much control over your business.

By: RobinC

RobinC — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:24:35 +0000

We’re getting Total Wine in our city. I’d be interested in knowing their sources. I couldn’t find it on the web.

By: Jacques Herviou

Jacques Herviou — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:55:26 +0000

I think this is great information (although, I was also surprised that Cavit/Palm Bay and Yellow Tail/Deutsh/Duboeuf were listed separately). As for distributors, I don’t think they are thrilled with this concentration as they are increasingly micro-managed by Big wine.

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:41:38 +0000

Jon, I agree! As I mentioned in the posting, the consolidation of distributors is probably the most important aspect of consumer choice. Sadly, it is also the least known. So focusing Howard’s excellent graphical skills on it would be a real service to wine consumers!

By: Jon Bjork

Jon Bjork — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:19:49 +0000

I’d love to see the top 10 distributors depicted with “tenticles” reaching out to all those brands from the other chart!