DtC Bottle Price Soars 13% as Shipments Ease 2%

There's a Wall Street adage vintners might want to remember: "Bulls make money, bears make money and hogs get slaughtered."

What brings this to mind is the latest direct-to-consumer shipment statistics reported by WineBusiness Analytics and SovosShipComplaint, which reports a 2% decline in DtC shipments over the last year. That's hardly a surprise. After all, NIQ has been reporting consistently gloomy numbers for wine for months, and there's little to suggest a turnaround. There's still an ocean of wine out there.

What is surprising – and what suggests at least some in the wine business have gotten greedy – is the 13% increase in average bottle price – to $65.55, a new record high for April. That was matched by a 13% drop in volume.

A Tale of Two Counties: The report also finds that total shipment volume by Napa County wineries rose nearly 1% in the four months through April while shipments from Sonoma wineries fell 16%.

And a Tale of Two Economies: The Wine Business Analytics report also notes that "the growth of higher-priced bottles is directly linked to increased sales of Napa's most sought-after, and most expensive, bottles." And where were those bottles headed? To Florida, which The Wall Street Journal has previously identified as a major destination from billionaires fleeing New York City's Socialist mayor and California's left-leaning governor.

We think this is simply a demonstration of the so-called K-shaped economy in the U.S. – a super-significant amount of wealth flowing to a relative handful of people while increasingly middle-income Americans feel squeezed financially.