We can definitively say that 2021 was a good year for the US wine industry — not a great year or a bad year, but a good year. Reopening tasting rooms, hotels and restaurants, along with thawing travel, rejuvenated sales opportunities in those venues
Looking at a single good year doesn’t define the industry as successful any more than looking at 2020 defines the business as a failure. We must consider long-term trends to get a true accounting of industry health, and doing so this year reveals issues with consumer demand that may portend serious conditions for the industry for years to come.
That last point is a big deal. In prior reports, we noted that the falling interest in wine among younger consumers, coupled with the encroaching retirement and decreasing wine consumption of baby boomers, poses a primary threat to the business.4 That issue has yet to be addressed or solved, and the negative consequences are increasingly evident.