Free Republic

America's wine industry is grappling with one of its most painful downturns in decades as younger consumers cut back on drinking and baby boomers age out of the market — reshaping alcohol habits nationwide. The trend has contributed to more than $1 billion in lost U.S. wine revenue last year and a roughly 6 million-case drop in production, according to industry data and reports.

California's wine industry is on the brink of a financial crisis following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The bank had been the main financial institution for bank for wineries in the Golden State for almost three decades. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed the bank on Friday following a run by venture capital customers. On Friday night, thousands of wineries found that they were completely locked out of their accounts with no clear timeline as to when they might be able to access their funds. Kendra Kawala, co-founder of Maker, a canned wine company located in...

SANTIAGO, CHILE -- The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to one of the world's most popular wine industries, sending rivers of merlot and cabernet sauvignon pouring from cracked barrels and vast storage tanks onto warehouse floors. "That was hard to watch," said Pablo Morande Jr., who said he looked on as 2 1/2 million liters of wine sloshed into the ground at his vineyard in Chile's battered wine country. Vintners and analysts of an industry that is the fourth-leading wine exporter to the United States after Italy, France and Australia...

<p>Modesto-based E.&J. Gallo could soon lose its bragging rights as the world's largest wine producer.</p> <p>Constellation Brands Inc., a huge wine, beer and spirits company based in New York, is discussing a merger with BRL Hardy, one of Australia's leading wine companies.</p>