Why the SVB State of the Wine Industry Report is important to us

It was just last week —Wednesday, March 8 actually – that I downloaded the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Silicon Valley Bank State of the Wine Industry Reports, written by EVP and Founder Rob McMillan. Earlier this year, I had grabbed the 2023 report almost as soon as it was released in January. And if digital files could be worn out, my copy of the 2022 report – my first and the one with the rusty red grape leaves on the cover - would be dog-eared, coffee stained, and pencil marked to near illegibility.

Since Friday morning, I’ve been following news with an eye to any coverage of the Silicon Valley Bank’s role in the wine industry. In the afternoon, Esther Mobley was the first to highlight the scope of the bank’s crucial role, noting that “McMillan carved out a niche by establishing the bank as one of the few institutions that could cater to the nuanced needs of the wine industry. Wineries tend to make substantial investments in land, equipment and other assets years before they can sell a bottle of wine — a complex system that McMillan made a business of understanding.”

On Monday, Wine-Searcher's US Editor W. Blake Gray talked directly with McMillan in a frank and informative interview. This morning, a heartfelt blog to customers and colleagues in the industry from Ekos CEO said it best, SVB’s State of the Wine Industry Report is “the gold-standard of industry benchmarking.”

Wine Searcher’s interview with Rob, in particular, is a must-read. Here I learned a little more about that indispensable report is put together: “We have in the background two to four analysts who pull apart the survey data and put together the charts. And then we had marketing people, and it had to go through regulatory and compliance because we're a bank. And there was the video team. So I'd say there were 30 to 35 people who contributed something to it.”

“The State of the Wine Industry Report — and webinars! and key takeaway points! — is freely available for download for major winery corporations, wine journalists, smaller and budget-conscious wineries, and wine enthusiasts alike.”

Here’s the thing. Rob’s passionate and erudite advocacy and the hard work of the team behind the report isn’t behind a paywall. That’s astounding! This is an industry that routinely asks hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, for insider industry data and analysis. Expertise is hard-earned, I know, and wine’s thought leaders and industry analysts have every right to name their price points. But the State of the Wine Industry Report — and webinars! and key takeaway points! — is freely available for download for major winery corporations, wine journalists, smaller and budget-conscious wineries, and wine enthusiasts alike. As McMillan tells Wine Searcher “The thing about wineries is that they are asset-heavy and cash poor.” 

So are freelance writers, by the way, except we’re not even asset-heavy.   

This is a tribute and my deepest gratitude for the work McMillan and team did to create an industry report that has become indispensable for so many and to my own research for the Sonoma Sustainable Tourism Observatory team. The Observatory is a Bay Area nonprofit that monitors innovations in climate change responsiveness and resilience in Sonoma’s tourist sector.

As a contributor to their publications, I have cited the 2022 report in a white paper on wine, COVID and climate change that was delivered to the UNWTO International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories. I’ll be reading those downloaded reports in chronological order for guidance on my further research for an upcoming chapter contribution on “Tourist Behavior in the New Normal: Implications for Sustainable Tourism Development" to be published by Palgrave Macmillan later this year.

This is a new vocation for me. My background is in academic publishing and then in a legal SAAS company and my focus was marketing and customer retention. Content creation as lead-generation. When the daily work of filings and hearings in California’s civil courts was suspended by state judicial branch emergency actions in March 2020, I was furloughed. As lockdown strictures continued, I was laid off and began a new career as a freelance writer. A profile of Marimar Torres and her pioneering work at Marimar Estate was my first assignment.

There’s tremendous irony in becoming a wine writer at the very moment that wineries across the state were facing an unprecedented challenge of COVID response legislation and consumer concerns for safety. With great help from my editor Pamela Lanier I managed a visit to Marimar Estate that June, in one of those brief, hopeful weeks where we thought we’d all have 2020 summer reopening.

But this is why the State of the Wine Industry Report became so important to me. I had to do it all via Zoom and internet and I had to do it quickly. While there is no shortage of wine literature and raw data online (looking at YOU California Grape Crush Report. You and me and a bottle makes three!), I needed to find a knowledgeable and trusted source that put California’s wine industry into a greater socio-economic and cultural picture.

As long as I’m fangirling here, I also value industry perspectives like Drizly’s BevAlc Insights, even if they’re cheering the ascendancy of liquor while wine’s fortunes struggle. (For which I am also to blame as a consumer.) When I’m able to pay up my Chron subscription, I never miss an article from Esther Mobley. There’s also the Sonoma Index-Tribune. And then there’s the indispensable Tablas Creek blog.

Plus: cheers to the reporting work of Jeff Quackenbush and Gary Quackenbush of the North Bay Business Journal which is one of my daily stops. Looks like Gary’s got an interview with Rob McMillan just up now too! Here’s what Rob says about the future of the Report, “In my view, an alternative does not exist when it comes to a comprehensive source for wine industry reporting. At street level, it is the only intelligence that covers the market — but it takes an organization to do this right.”

Here’s my pledge: if the State of the Wine Industry Report continues in some future form with Rob McMillan at the helm and members of his team onboard: I. Will. Pay. A. Subscription. For. It.

Yeah, I said what I said. I’m running the numbers on my little budget now, but if I can do this to support the work and advocacy that the Report represented, I’ll do it.

But now it’s time to dip my toes into the wealth of past reports I downloaded last Wednesday and catch up with what I’ve missed all these years. I’ve just uncorked the 2017 report and I’m already loving the Jaws theme. We’re all going to need a bigger boat.