Turrentine Brokerage Helps Guide the Wine Industry Into the Future

Turrentine Brokerage - Booth #128

Nearly every person involved in the production side of the wine business would like to look into the future to glimpse the value of next year’s harvest. Grape Growers want to know how much fruit will be on the vine, and wineries want to know what price they’ll have to pay for grapes.

For nearly 50 years, Turrentine Brokerage has been predicting wine industry cycles with a high degree of accuracy, using their understanding of the market’s history, tons and bulk wine available for sale, total wine grapes acres planted in California and consumer purchasing.

“We’re able to predict whether we’re going to go into a long or a short market,” says Christian Klier, North Coast Grape Broker for Turrentine Brokerage. “Historically, the wine market has operated on approximately seven-year cycles of upward consumption followed by 7-10 years of downward consumption. But the pandemic upset all expectations and plans, and everyone is recalibrating. We moved from heading into a down market three years ago to consumers drinking more wine during the pandemic.”

The Turrentine Brokerage team believes the market may be returning to its pre-pandemic position. Although alcohol consumption has declined from the pandemic high, three years of short crops have kept the market strong. Klier points out that the wine business is also in transition as Baby Boomers age out and Millennials have not yet taken to wine.

The grape brokers at Turrentine are university-trained in grape growing, and Klier himself is well-versed in farming practices and helping growers improve the quality of their grapes. He worked his way up at Welch Vineyard Management in Mendocino County to lead vineyard operations for 1500 acres and then rose to VP of farming operations at Shannon Ranches, Inc., covering 4500 acres in Northern California.

“The North Coast market has continued to be active in 2022, with two short crops in a row, wineries have continued contracting grapes. We anticipate this activity to continue into the first quarter of 2023.” Klier explains.

Turrentine is the Top bulk wine and grape broker in California and understands the market better than anyone else because they’re involved daily in buy/sell discussions with clients and have strong relationships with buyers and sellers. Bulk Wine Broker/Partner Marc Cuneo also considers market analytics a critical element in meeting customers’ needs and keeps a close eye on the findings from the team dedicated to staying on top of market data.

Stop by the Turrentine Brokerage booth #128 at WIN Expo to find out where the market’s going, who has the grapes and who needs them. Christian Klier and Marc Cuneo will be presenting at WIN Expo, be sure to register for their session, ‘State of the North Coast Wine Industry and Bulk Markets’.