Is the glass of wine half full or half empty?

As doom and gloom hangs over the market through a relentless thrashing from the media one thing is consistently overlooked, quality. We've said it before and we'll say it again quality is king. In our latest report you will see how each wine growing region stacks up and why we believe your dollars are best spent on premium wine growing regions.

By John Bergman & David Ashcraft, January 2003

This is an exerpt from an article. The full article is available here: http://www.bergmanvineyards.com/halffull/halffull.html">http://www.bergmanvineyards.com/halffull/halffull.html

I am sick and tired of hearing from the news media and self pro-claimed experts how bad the California wine and vineyard market is. They paint the entire California canvas with one broad stroke of their brush creating a muddy portrait without analyzing each distinct winegrowing region. This is like comparing a brand new sleek S500 Mercedes Benz with a Chevrolet. While the Chevy has provided a trusted workhorse the Mercedes is known for top quality and outstanding performance.

To answer the question Is the glass of wine half full or half empty?" one must consider each wine growing region in California. In the Central Valley and Central Coast as well as other regions of California the glass of wine is Half empty". However, in Napa and Sonoma Counties the glass of wine is Half full".

To allow you to see actual facts, lets look at the grape prices in all 17 districts of California. The California Department of Food and Agriculture," publishes the annual Grape Crush Report" that spells out actual grape prices from the least price per ton to the highest price paid per ton. They also place the weighted average sales price per ton by varietal in each District. These undisputable statistics plainly explain what each district is doing on an annual basis.

The way to tell what the grape prices will be for the following years harvest is to look at statistics from the previous year. With this in mind we have prepared a number of graphs with actual data from the California Department of Food and Agriculture Grape Crush Reports for the years 1999 -- 2001 to illustrate who has the Half Empty and Half Full Glass of Wine in the State of California". The following is an actual comparison of each district in California that will allow you to see just how the various districts have faired in the last few years.

District 1 -- Mendocino County
District 2 -- Lake County
District 3 -- Sonoma & Marin Counties
District 4 -- Napa County
District 5 -- Solano County
District 6 - Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz Mountains
District 7- Monterey & San Benito Counties
District 8 - San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara & Ventura Counties
District 9 - Yolo County north of I80 to junction of I80 and US50 and north of US50: Sacramento Co. north of US50; Del Norte, Siskiyou, Modoc, Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama, Plumas, Glenn, Butte, Colusa, Sutter, Yuba and Sierra Counties
District 10 - Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne & Miraposa Counties
District 11 - San Joaquin County north of State Hwy 4; and Sacramento County south of US50 and east of I5
District 12 - San Joaquin County south of State Hwy 4; and Stanislaus and Merced Counties
District 13 - Madera, Fresno, Alpine, Mono, Inyo Counties; and Kings and Tulare Counties north of Nevada Ave.
District 14 - Kings and Tulare Counties south of Nevada Ave.
District 15 - Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties
District 16 - Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial Counties
District 17 - Yolo county south of I80 from the Solano County line to the junction of I80 and US50 and southUS50 and Sacramento County south of US50 and west of I5