Flowering 2026: early, but not quite as much as we'd feared
On April 1st, 2026, we were 34 days ahead of 2025's heat accumulation. But by May 15th we were "just" 20 days ahead. The last six weeks has seen ideal conditions for flowering.
Jason Haas
2025 Red Blending: A Magical Year for Mourvedre
I asked the blending team to sum up 2025. Chelsea said, “It was powerfully structured and chewy, even on varieties you wouldn’t expect.” Austin commented, “They’ve all got liveliness. Nothing feels weighed down by its depth.” And Craig summed it up: “It’s the year of Mourvedre and Roussanne.”
Blending the 2025 white wines: a vintage of lushness and lift produces a full lineup of varietal whites for the first time since 2021
We welcomed Francois and Matthieu Perrin last week for three days spent around our blending table, working to turn the 43 different estate lots we made from our white grapes in 2025 into the blends and varietal bottlings we'll be releasing to you in coming months.
Plenty of the choices facing the wine world are hard. Making wines with "American" on the label 100% from US grapes shouldn't be one of them.
California AB 1585 would require that any wine that says "American" on its label and is produced, bottled, labeled, or sold in California be sourced 100% from American grapes. It might not be a game-changer for struggling growers or for consumer transparency, but it seems like a good start.
It's not just your imagination. The heat in March was unprecedented.
The photos we're sharing look more like May than they do like the beginning of April. And no wonder. March 2026 would have been the warmest April in our history, and all sorts of unprecedented outcomes are on the table.
Understanding for whom wholesale wine sales works, and for whom it doesn't
In 26 markets, we're with one of the "Big 3" distributors. In 2025 those states sold 39% less than the size of the markets would predict. In the 25 markets where we're with an independent, we saw an overperformance of 22%. Thanks to Alfonso Cevola, I finally understand why.
Budbreak 2026 arrives two weeks early... and this week's potential record heat means it will spread fast
Every day of the last three weeks has seen highs at least in the upper 60°s F, without a low dropping below the upper 30°s. We've topped 70°F every day for the last week, and 80°F two of the last three days. So it's no surprise that the vines have woken up.
Did tariffs on imported wines help American wineries? If so it's hard to see.
American wineries faced headwinds in 2025 that included demographic shifts, reduced tourism, and higher input costs. You might think that tariffs on imported wines would have helped. They didn't.
A wet, chilly week gets the 2025-26 winter back on track
After a month of warm, sunny weather that stretched from early January to early February, we were starting to wonder if winter was over and we'd have to start worrying about budbreak. Thanks to 6+" of rain in the last week, we're back on track.
The disconnect between what shipping costs and what people think shipping costs has never been greater
A study published last year reported that 45% of American consumers expect free shipping on any order. Another 42% expected it on orders over $50. Just 5% expected to pay for shipping on orders of any size. That's sobering for anyone in the wine business.