Some wine drinkers likely feel ready for New Year?s celebrations now that a glut of grapes on the market has sent wine prices plummeting.
An unprecedented glut of wine grapes, the result of years of aggressive planting in many of the world?s top grape-producing areas, is to thank for this bounty.
“There hasn?t been a bad vintage in a major wine region for a long time,” said James Laube, senior editor, Wine Spectator magazine. “The market thins itself when areas have bad vintages but that just hasn?t happened.”
The result is a crush of wine distributors desperate to unload wines for pennies on the dollar to retailers, some of which have made extra room in their inventory to take on the excess inventory.
Maryland has some of the nation?s stricter buying laws, but that doesn?t bother many retailers, including Mitchell Pressman, owner of Chesapeake Wine Co. in Baltimore.
“There is certainly a glut of wine out there and big brands are struggling to sell what they have,” Pressman said. “I tend to buy from small estate wineries. It sounds trite, but I only buy what I can recommend to my customers.”
Other area retailers, including Peter Finkelstein, general manager of Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits in Annapolis said he would take advantage of the prices if wholesalers followed the price filing regulations, which require them to file price changes with the state 25 days before they take effect.
“We have every bit as much available to us as Applejack,” said Finkelstein. “But the wholesalers have to work with us a bit.”
So what?s a consumer to do?
“If I were a wine consumer in Maryland, I would make retailer work for me,” said Laube.
“Tell them what type of wines you would like to try, what your budget is and ask them to buy them for you.”
