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Category: Wine
John Mariani’s Wine Forecast 2010
What Will Happen in the Wine World in 2010?
by John Mariani
Not since that Millennium 2000 folly have I seen so much frenzy in the global wine market.
Back then, with the stock markets booming, auction houses setting records for wines, and Champagne producers warning there would not be enough product for the celebration, everything in the wine world seemed upbeat and getting pricier by the month.
What a difference a decade makes. With high unemployment, shaky markets, pared-down expense accounts, and just too much wine being produced, it’s a very different world, one that plays into the buyers’ heart and pocketbook with lower prices, more choice, and less pretension. Those 99-point ratings don’t seem quite so requisite any more to buying good wine.
So what do I see happening in the wine market in 2010?
1.Prices will continue to drop across the board, from the priciest of Bordeaux and Burgundy to cult California wines that were once available only by subscription. This goes, too, for those Italian, Spanish, and Chilean wine producers who thought that they could easily get the same kind of money those age-old French and small estate California wines used to get.
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