Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/131907
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS REPORT • In 2012, the volume of wine shipped from wineries increased 7.7% over 2011 to 3.18 million 9-liter cases. That is an 18% increase over 2010. The value of these shipments, $1.46 billion, represents a 10% increase over 2011 and a 24% increase over 2010 • Pinot Noir shipments from Sonoma County boomed in 2012. • The total value of direct-to-consumer shipments was greater than the value of wine exported from the United States. • The report shows a continued migration of shipments occurring toward the last third of the year. • Though underperforming the overall winery-to-consumer shipping channel in 2012, wines shipped from Napa still represent 49% of the value of all wines shipped due in large part to their average bottle price of $56.87, far more than all other regions. • Wineries of all sizes continue to increase the volume and value of shipments, though larger wineries increased their shipments at a greater rate than smaller wineries. • Washington State saw a robust increase in cases shipped and a 40% increase in value of Washington wines on a 19% increase in average bottle price. • Three wine types—Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Blends and Pinot Noir—dominate winery-to-consumer shipments and represent 51.8% of the volume of wines shipped. • As a destination for wine shipments, California dominates with 32% of all shipments, while the top 5 states as destinations for shipments (CA, NY, TX, IL, FL) represent over 60% of all shipments. • Among all varietals shipped, Rosé, Sparkling Wine and Pinot Noir saw the greatest increases in volume and value of shipments over 2011. • As they have in the general wine retail sector, Rosé wines saw significant increase in direct shipments from wineries. HOW THE 2013 DIRECT SHIPPING REPORT WAS CREATED: SCOPE AND METHOD The 2013 "Direct Shipping Report" is a collaboration between ShipCompliant and Wines & Vines Magazine. The scope of this report concerns wines shipped directly from wineries to consumers. It is important to note that wines shipped from retailers to consumers and wines sold at a winery and carried out of the winery at the time of purchase are not taken account of in this report. Rather, this report is concerned solely with winery-to-consumer shipments originating in all 50 states. As a result, this report does not attempt to portray the outlines of the entire "Direct-to-Consumer" sales channel. The report is based on millions of anonymized transactions that ultimately led to direct shipments from January 2012 through December 2012. Using the comprehensive Wines & Vines database of all 7,400+ wineries across the United States, the ShipCompliant transactions are the basis to project shipments from all United States wineries using multiple stratifications including location of winery, annual production of winery and destination of shipment. The model, built to project the totality of winery directto-consumer shipments, provides a vivid picture of this important distribution channel. In the course of retrieving and processing the data model, the wineries and purchasers of wines are kept entirely anonymous. The 2013 Direct Shipping report is the fourth such examination of this important sales channel by ShipCompliant and Wines & Vines. This and all subsequent reports will examine a 12-month calendar period from January 1st through December 31st. Additionally, this is the first report that has broken out "Red Blends" and "White Blends" in examining which varietal wines have been shipped by wineries. These new varietal categories, significant ones in the world of direct shipping, were called out as a result of more detailed documentation of the transactions run through the ShipCompliant Direct platform during 2012. shipcompliant.com • winesandvines.com • 3