Survey Results: 2011 Harvest

Thank you to the 168 respondents to our inaugural survey! 

In addition to the summarized results below, the respondents will be receiving a more detailed analysis that breaks down many of the metrics below by attributes such as Region, Yield Level and Pricing Segment.
Executive Summary
After countless anecdotal conversations about the 2011 harvest, we were very interested to see the quantified results of this survey. The "Who Responded" section below indicates the representation among the various regions, business types and vineyard size (in acres). The subsequent "Survey Results" section shows the yield categories of the respondents, and also shows the notable decrease in yields from 2010, as well as some stated reasons for those decreases. Early quality assessments were positive for the 2011 harvest, and in comparison to 2010. However, while prices have increased from 2010, they have done so only slightly, indicating a general decrease in overall revenues for the respondents. The percentage of respondents' grapes that were under contract varied greatly, but there were expected results regarding respondents' ability to meet contractual volume and quality obligations. The most pressing concerns for the respondents included immediate cash flow, the macroeconomic environment, and holiday sales ... which may just be the subject of our next survey - stay tuned!

We hope you find these results interesting and useful. We welcome your feedback and input. Our contact information is at the bottom on this post.

Happy Holidays!
- The BPM Wine Team
Who Responded

Survey Results

84% of survey respondents saw yields less than 3.5 tons/acre, as shown in the chart below. The following chart shows that most respondents saw their yields either remain flat (14%) or decrease (78%). In fact, more than half (53%) of the respondents experienced a decrease in yields of over 10% from 2010.

Respondents gave several reasons for this year's lower yields. Among the most common answers were "General Climate" and "Bunch Rot/Mildew", as shown below:

As expected, the majority of survey respondents sell their grapes for less than $3,000 per ton, as shown in the graph below. The following chart shows that pricing trends are just slightly higher than in 2010. That is, the lower quantities have not yet pushed grape prices notably higher.

This graph shows an interesting phenomenon in the industry - growers are either in contract for over 90% of their grapes, or for less than 50%. Only 14% of respondents appear in the large gap between those two extremes.

Consistent with the yield graphs above, respondents dealt with quantity issues more so than quality issues related to their contractual obligations this year.

The general assessment of the quality of the grapes in 2011 was a bit better than average, as shown below. However, the following graph shows that respondents generally see the 2011 quality as slightly worse than 2010.

The graph below shows that survey respondents are primarily concerned with the 3 items that have the most immediate impact. This is, in fact, a consumer-driven industry during the time of year in which cash is the most tight and sales volumes are the highest.

Thank you again for your interest and participation in this survey. We will be conducting surveys throughout the year. As we are providing this service for the benefit of the industry, we would really appreciate hearing from you about how we can make the survey better, and with ideas for future topics and questions. Please do not hesitate to contact us:

Steve Jannicelli, CPA, MBA

Sr. Manager, Private Company Services

Business Advisor in Winery & Vineyard Industry Group

Email: sjannicelli@bpmcpa.com

Phone: 707-524-6560

You can also follow us on twitter @BPMWine