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8 WINES&VINES December 2015 A member of Wine Communications Group Inc. President & Publisher Chet Klingensmith Chairman Hugh Tietjen Publishing Consultant Ken Koppel Associate Publisher Tina Vierra Publishing Assistant Maria Brunn EDITORIAL Editor Jim Gordon Managing Editor Kate Lavin Associate Editor Andrew Adams Senior Correspondent Paul Franson Contributing Editor Jane Firstenfeld Northwest Correspondent Peter Mitham Columnists Grapegrowing: Cliff Ohmart and Glenn T. McGourty Contributing Writers Laurie Daniel, Richard Smart, Richard Carey, Chris Stamp, Andrew Reynolds, Craig Root Practical Winery & Vineyard (PWV) Editor Don Neel Wine East Editor Linda Jones McKee DESIGN & PRODUCTION Art Director Barbara Gelfand Summer Designer Bridget Williams DATABASE DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Vice President—Data Management Lynne Skinner Project Manager Liesl Stevenson Database & Web Development James Rust, Peter Scarborough EDITOR'S LETTER IN THIS SPACE one year ago I wrote about the two biggest issues facing the North American wine industry, in my estimation: immigration and the West Coast drought. The drought in Cali- fornia was finishing its third year, and immigration was a hot topic in Washington, D.C., as president Barack Obama anticipated the arrival of a Republican-controlled Congress. Let's take a brief look at where those two issues stand now, and take a look at comparably big topics as 2015 rushes to a close. The immigration and drought problems definitely did not go away. The drought continued and caused more and more expense and stress for grapegrowers and their crops. The immigration issue was not resolved either, but I don't think it stayed in the daily thoughts of most winery and vineyard owners and managers. The big difference was that people could do something about the drought, but there was little they could do about immigration. It's ironic because the drought is a fact of nature, and grapegrowers couldn't do anything to make it rain, but they could and did do many things to adapt and prevent it from damaging their businesses. Immigration, on the other hand, is a totally human-made dilemma and would seem to be open to human solutions. Yet from our point of view, people made little progress toward preventing or reversing illegal immigration, or toward finding a way for undocumented farm workers already here to earn legal status. Any major national policy change will now probably have to wait until a new president takes office in January 2017. Now for the unadulterated good news. Off-premise wine sales went up in 2015. High-end wine sales and direct-to-consumer shipments went up in 2015. Winery hiring went up in 2015. Entrepreneurial people started many new U.S. wineries in 2015, so that the winery total grew from 8,114 in October 2014 to 8,550 this October, according to Wines Vines Analytics, our company's data-gathering and analysis team. Take a closer look at these trends in the Metrics section of the magazine, starting on page 10. Then be sure to read "The Best of 2015" report beginning on page 37. It also reflects on the posi- tive business trends, plus it identifies the most-read news stories of the year and many more highlights. The issues to watch in 2016 will include: • A transition toward a lower supply of grapes and bulk wine and higher prices for these. Data about the evidently smaller 2015 California harvest will become more concrete, but reports such as the one by senior correspondent Paul Franson on page 17 indicate drastic crop reductions in some regions and for some grape varieties. • Related to the above is the question of how far wineries can raise their prices to accommodate higher grape/bulk costs without turning off consumers and knocking down sales. Wine volume growth has been tepid, so the growth in value has come from higher prices and consumers switching to higher priced wines. • Consolidation will continue to alter the wine business landscape. Mergers of distributors, retailers and wineries, as documented (also by Paul Franson) on page 15 in the Top Story of the month, will keep wineries and grapegrowers on alert to protect their access to consumers. Here at Wines & Vines we look forward to covering the wine industry news as it happens in 2016, and bringing you good advice and information to help your business grow. —Jim Gordon Industry Wraps a Good Year; Shorter Supply Looms for 2016 Reports so far indicate drastic crop reductions for some regions and grape varieties. CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS Email: subs@winesandvines.com Online: winesandvines.com/subscribe Phone: (866) 453-9701 EDITORIAL Email: edit@winesandvines.com MAIL 65 Mitchell Blvd., Suite A San Rafael, CA 94903 CONNECT WITH US facebook.com/WinesandVines twitter.com/WinesandVines youtube.com/WinesandVines1919