An optimistic tone was offered at the annual Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento last week, with the announcement that more than 314 million cases of wine were sold in the U.S. last year, about 10 million cases more than a previous estimate.

The weakened dollar has aided the domestic wine industry because it has made imported wine more expensive, but several speakers cautioned that imports are here to stay, with imports reaching nearly 100 million cases in 2007.

Over the past several years thousands of acres of winegrapes have been removed, primarily in the Central Valley, and this has enabled demand to catch up with supply, erasing the glut that plagued the industry in recent years.

Nat DeBuduo, president of Allied Grape Growers, even encouraged some planting of new vines, but cautioned that they must be the right varietals in the places where those varietals will grow best. But he also warned growers to plant only if they have a contract so the grapes will have a home at the end of the season.

More than 10,000 people registered for the symposium, the largest wine trade show in the nation, and growers and vintners from throughout the U.S. attended. About 500 firms that supply products and services to the wine industry occupied the main ballroom area of the Sacramento Convention Center and overflowed to two rooms on an upstairs floor.

Whole Foods wine sales

With Whole Foods recently opening a store in Napa, it was especially interesting to hear Walter Robb, the company’s chief operating officer, talk about how wine impacts sales in Whole Foods stores. He said that “when wine is in the basket, the average sale goes from $38.73 to $68.52,” news that resonated positively with the audience.

Reuben Katz of the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, speaking on a panel about “major trends to factor in business decision-making,” said that there’s a growing trend toward smaller, bite-sized dishes, including desserts. “These represent opportunities to sell more wine by the glass,” he said. “House wines can be more food-focused rather than being a wine that goes with everything,” and he added that vintners can create new flavors to go with these foods, either by introducing new varietals or new winemaking techniques.

Discussing a list of topics on which chefs were surveyed, Katz said that organic wine was listed 19th, with 63 percent saying this would be a hot trend.

Also on the subject of trends, Barbara Insel, of Stonebridge Research in St. Helena, said there is a global movement toward major improvements in planting, viticulture and winemaking practices. “This is driven by entrepreneurs, growers and winemakers seeing opportunities or pursuing a passion for better wine.”

She said that lower land, labor and farming costs in Europe are permitting the sale of quality wine at lower prices, but said there’s a declining pattern of wine sales there. Consumption is dropping, and although people in Europe are drinking less, they are drinking better, pointing to the United Kingdom where wine sales are stagnant except in the above $20 category.

Insel said that wine sales in Russia, Asia and other emerging markets also involve better and more expensive wines.

‘Green’ trend

Clay Gregory, president of Jackson Family Estates, said a definite tendency toward “being green” is taking place. “Why? Because it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “In addition it can reduce expenses and is sustainable.”

He said a trend toward consolidation continues, with wineries continuing to be acquired, but despite that, new wineries keep springing up and there are more than 5,000 wineries existing in 2008, compared to about 1,800 in 1995.

But the consolidation among distributors has gone the opposite way — in 1995 there were about 3,000 distributors nationwide, today there are 700.

As attendees strolled the exhibit floor, many noticed that there were fewer booths where wine was being poured.

A notice was sent to exhibitors a few weeks prior to the symposium telling them of a “new direction from the state ABC (Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) that no alcoholic beverage can be brought into the trade show or any other location at the Sacramento Convention Center.” It said that the law pertains to bottles and containers of wine for booth displays or wine brought in to serve guests.

Wine was poured at various stations around the perimeter of the exhibit floor, but those wines presumably were sold to the holder of the ABC license — in this case the caterer — and were poured by members of the Convention Center catering staff, which is legal. Exhibitors could do the same, but the wines would have to be poured by an employee of the caterer.

Grower groups hit hard

Hardest hit were the regional winery and grower associations, which pour wine made from grapes grown in their areas.

Shannon Gunier, of Lake County Winegrape Growers, has been participating in the event and has poured her members’ wine for many years, and was disappointed that she could not do so this year. “People can show corks, they can show bottles — their products — but we can’t show our wine — our product,” she said.

Gunier added that the requirement that wine be poured by the caterer was not a  desirable one. “The person who serves hot dogs would also pour our wine, and that would be a very unprofessional way to show our wine,” she said.

The Clarksburg Wine Growers and Vintners was another group that formerly poured wine but didn’t this year. Dan Garcia said his group participated in the regional tastings that were sponsored by the symposium, but said he was limited to just four wines from among all his members. “It was very confusing, because no one seemed to know where the wines were from.”

Stuart Spencer, of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, said, “We have the largest gathering of wine people from all over, and we have a show about wine, but we can’t pour wine. It makes no sense.”

There’s hope, though. Karen Ross, who heads the California Association of Winegrape Growers, one of the sponsors of the symposium, said her organization already is conferring with legislators to plug the loophole in the law, and word came from a member of Assemblywoman Noreen Evans’s staff that Evans is working on legislation.

But even if the law isn’t changed, Gunier said the Lake County growers group will remain in the show. “We’ve seen a lot of east coast customers (for Lake County grapes),” she said. And there even was an upside — “I could spend more time talking with people I really wanted to see, rather than pouring for other exhibitors who came by,” she said.