Target your grapes

摘要

Wine grape growers should not only know who's going to be buying their grapes, but who's going to be buying the wines. In the not too distant past, wine grape growers would raise the largest, highest quality crops they could economically achieve, and then sell them to one of the big winemakers who dominate the industry -- hopefully at a reasonable price. Those days are gone. In fact, long before they go to market their grapes, growers should be asking themselves a question, says Andy Bledsoe, vicepresident of winegrowing for the Robert Mondavi Corporation: In what product will their grapes be used, and at what price point will it be sold? Actually, that's only one of many questions growers should be asking themselves, says Bledsoe, whose companybottles about 5 percent of California wine. Others include: Will the wine be sold in the U.S. or abroad? Is it targeted at a growing segment of wine consumers or a shrinking segment? What trends may affect the future sales of the wines made from my grape