Jeff Siegel

A History of Winery Consolidation in America

2025-05-16T18:50:00Z

In 2008, Cyril Penn, the editor of Wine Business Monthly, wanted to make sense of the avalanche of winery mergers, sales, and acquisitions that had occurred over the past couple of years. He commissioned a two-page chart to run in the magazine that s...(read more)

Too Much of a Good Thing: How Vine-Pull Schemes Can Help Grow a Sustainable Industry

2024-11-08T16:05:00Z

Shannon Gunier doesn’t mince words. “We’ve reached a saturation point, with too many grapes,” she says. Gunier runs North Coast Winegrape Brokers with her husband, Rick. She continues, “Too many people have planted too m...(read more)

Reshaping the Relevance of Wine Competitions

2024-08-01T19:33:00Z

It’s a scene unlike anything most people have ever seen (including many in the wine industry)—a ballroom with a dozen or so tables, four or five places set at each table, and up to a dozen filled wine glasses at each place at the table. O...(read more)

Montepulciano: The Next Great Grape?

2024-05-17T13:20:00Z

The wine industry is always eager for the next big thing: a previously overlooked category, often defined by a grape hailing from a region with remarkable terroir, yielding wines of great value and made by independent-minded winemakers. Oregon Pinot ...(read more)

The Case for California Colombard

2024-02-03T20:00:00Z

Yannick Rousseau owns a winery in Napa Valley, so, of course, he makes Merlot, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. But for 15 years, he has also made wine with Colombard, first as a varietal wine and later in a blend. The white grape isn’t thou...(read more)

Tracing the History of Craft Beer

2023-11-21T15:42:00Z

In the early 1980s, Lew Bryson was a young beer drinker who was eager to try something new, something that wasn’t his father’s mass-market suds and fizz. He had stumbled on a new style—flavorful, intense, and made in small batches b...(read more)

A Brief History of the Three-Tier System in America

2023-09-22T18:06:00Z

Four years ago, the Supreme Court decided the most important alcohol case in a generation, overturning a Tennessee law that allowed only people who had been two-year residents of the state to get a retail liquor license. Justice Samuel Alito, writing...(read more)

Nutrition Labeling for Wine on the Horizon

2023-04-07T18:15:00Z

Joel Butler, MW, isn’t convinced that adding nutrition and ingredient labels to wine will make much difference. “When someone orders a bottle of wine for dinner, they want a good bottle,” he says. “They’re not so much co...(read more)