Additional thoughts on Filtration & Yields

     Yesterday I wrote a little on different filtration systems and I forgot to mention that depending on how many filters you use you will alter the taste of a wine. If too many proteins, terpenes or sugars are displaced then that will differ vastly from a wine only filtered once or none at all. I wonder if you had enough wine where you could go through each of the filtration methods differently, one over there with DE or the other with cross filtration. The additional costs would be prohibitive but if you were talking an initial setup for vast quantities of wine then this finding the optimal system or systems would be best.
     The other thing I was thinking about was yields. There was a local vineyard I visited this summer and inquired about their yields and remembered that they got about five tons per acre. These are also grapes that are new to the wine world and in a climate that is mostly untested in winemaking. But who knows what will happen in a few seasons?
     In Napa according the 2018 California Wine Harvest Report things went well with what growers called "beautiful, shady conditions" for the summer. There was plenty of rain early in February, the very consistent sunshine helped with emerging buds with uniform flowering. Mid August saw first pickings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. In October the red grapes are picked. This season will yield strong ways so they say.
     Paso Robles on the other hand had a challenging season with less rainfall than expected during the winter which made for a later bud break plus cooler weather when flowering occurred. This combo lengthened the blood period and experienced some shatter. Forty days of heat above ninety degrees (almost three weeks of one hundred degrees).  This made for a harvest that was around two weeks later than normal. While this combination of weather led to smaller cluster and berries this should produce some dense wines.
     And in Sonoma vintners are expecting a great 2018 vintage. There was more rain than usual in the spring with some spikes in heat in June. Harvest was about two weeks later than usual and there was a significant yield increase in comparison to previous years. Wine makers are expecting a high quality of wine with intensity from this season.
     Now the question of the day. "What have been the most important changes in global wine supply and demand in the last three years and what are their implications?"

     During the past few years I believe that one of the major changes is the yields because of certain destruction caused by fire or drought. According to Wine Australia, South Africa is down some 15% in harvest weight after one of the worst droughts in nearly one hundred years. While the US produced roughly the same amount of grapes during wild fires and extreme heat. But the global production is up 2% from last year's vintage and should change very little as far as the quantity of wine available.
     The Unified Wine & Grape Symposium found in the 2017 growing season that their numbers were similar to the Wine Australia numbers. They also found that the United States wine market grew an additional 2.9% while the global market shrank. Americans spent $62.7 billion on wine. Sixty sis percent from the US and one third from international wines. Wineries outside the US should take note and concentrate on getting more accounts in North America. 
     Numbers quoted from the International Organization of Vine and Wine documented that wine production in 2017 dropped to lowest in eighteen years. Is this production because of practices that control yield to concentrate flavor or is this lowered production a sign of changing wine buying practices? In old world there has been a drop since the 1990s in wine consumption because of other alcoholic options, was this happening because Europeans were drinking less wine and more beer and spirits?
     Increasing also is the rapid and current rise of wine consumption in Asian countries. Even to the point that wine is being produced in China and India. While China lies in between the 30 and 50 degrees that most wine is grow, the same cannot be said of India. This additional exporting of wines from old world  countries also makes these places more dependent on foreign purchase and trade.
     Three countries via for major destinations of wine, these are Germany, United Kingdom and United States. And this list of countries importing wine is growing to include Hong Kong, Indonesia, Guatemala, Kenya, Latvia, Mexico, Philippines, russia, Singapore, South Korea, Ukraine to the United Arab Emirates.
     The increased flow of wine to new destinations brings increased need for better distribution networks and best practices for vertical integration. The need for professionals that can maneuver through trade barriers is also a need that must be addressed. Exports have doubled from Spain, Italy and France for the last 2 decades accounting for 58% of Europes production. NZ, Chile and Australia have greatly increased wine production and the US is the largest consumer with almost 11 liters per person overtaking France. But Europe accounts for almost half of all global wine consumption so keeping tabs on wine sales in the old world is paramount.