TODAY'S TOP NEWS

• Tuscany’s Wine Harvest At Risk As Seasonal Workers Blocked By Italy’s Black List
• German 2020 vintage likely to be a week ahead of long term average
• Covid-19 Presses the Washington Wine Industry
• Turrentine Grape Market Update, Aug 2020 (video)
• Soaring Costs to Move Goods by Plane and Ship Set to Go Higher
• How To Really Send Your Samples To Prospective Distributors and Importers (Sponsored)

• Thankful for outdoor space, large new Sonoma winery opens
• Results Are Out For The First Edition Of Paris Wine Cup (Sponsored)

• Milan Wine Week – how will the world’s 1st post-Covid festival work?

• Italian sisters and brothers, you are my heroes! This is what a life in wine can be like in the time of the pandemic.

The top 15 growth brands for the latest 9 weeks are contributing more overall dollars to the wine category, compared to the top 15 growth brands last year during this same time period. According to Nielsen:

"With partial re-openings of on premise beginning in various parts of the country in late May, the summer months of June and July have represented the phase of the “next” normal for COVID and alcohol beverages. So we wanted to take a look at how brands are performing across table wine during this next normal. In the list below, the column on the left represents the top 15 growth brands in table wine for June and July of 2019 (9 weeks ending 8/03/19). The column on the right represents the top 15 growth brands for June and July of this year (9 weeks ending 8/01/20). Growth brands are ranked by actual dollar change in Nielsen off premise channels."

"This year’s growth brands account for 26% of table wine dollars, whereas last year’s 15 growth brands accounted for 10% of table wine dollars in off premise channels. More than half (8) of the growth brands for this year were not on the growth brand list last summer. These brands represent the shift to large sizes and boxed wine, as well as some large and iconic brands in wine. It also represents a shift away from private label, which was on the growth brand list for 2019, but not for latest 9 weeks."