Wine Exports Surge Export Volume Rose 22 Percent Last Year

U.S. wine exports - 90 percent of them from California - soared last year, continuing a surge that has seen the value of sales to other nations leap by 437 percent in the last decade.

The value of exports in 1996 jumped 35 percent, to $327 million, from the 1995 level, and export volume rose 22 percent, to 47.5 million gallons, according to the Wine Institute, a San Francisco-based trade group that released the export numbers last week.

California vintners said the figures would have been even more robust if wineries were not hampered by short supplies of the most popular grape varieties, including Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

A shortage of high-quality juice in the last few years has forced many wineries to buy bulk juice and to limit shipments to some U.S. supermarket chains and wine shops, as well as to postpone filling orders from new overseas customers.

Voracious demand and grape shortages have combined to push premium wine prices higher in recent years. Last year, for instance, prices rose 8 percent.

The trade figures demonstrate a growing understanding among U.S. vintners that global competition requires a long-term strategy, said Eileen Fredrikson, a partner in Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, a San Francisco-based wine industry research and consulting firm.

In the past, she said, U.S. wineries exported at their convenience, whenever they needed another outlet to make up for flagging domestic demand. But in recent years vintners have gotten more serious about nurturing relationships with overseas distributors - even if that means limiting U.S. sales.

As Americans increasingly travel abroad, American wineries consider it important to have their labels featured in fine hotels and restaurants in cities such as Bangkok, Hong Kong and London.

“Now they’re in for the long haul,” Fredrikson said, “and it’s (often) at a sacrifice because domestic demand is so strong.” She noted that, because of shipping costs and tariffs, it is often less profitable to sell wine in, say, England than in Colorado. Yet if U.S. wineries are to compete overseas with wines from South America, Europe and elsewhere, they usually cannot pass on such costs.

At Ferrari-Carano Vineyards & Winery in Healdsburg, “demand far exceeds supply,” said Steve Meisner, director of marketing and sales.

“If there’s a good crush in 1997 and ‘98, we’ll see a major surge,” said Joseph Rollo, director of the Wine Institute’s international department.

A plentiful supply could help bring needed stability to prices, Fredrikson said.