The beverage industry is in a state of constant evolution, and there’s no better example of this than the wine sector. In this episode of the Spilled Salt podcast, Jim Trezise, President of WineAmerica, shared his insights on the challenges and opportunities facing the wine industry in a conversation with Maureen Ballatori.
From Crisis to Growth: A Case Study in Industry Transformation
Jim Trezise began his story in 1982 when he became the Executive Director of the New York State Wine Grape Growers. At the time, the wine industry was on the brink of collapse due to economic and market pressures. But a turning point came when an article in the New York Times caught the attention of then-Governor Mario Cuomo. Cuomo demanded immediate action, and Jim delivered with a strategic plan that would ultimately help save the industry.
This story serves as a powerful reminder: when faced with crisis, quick, decisive action paired with strategic thinking can transform an industry. For beverage entrepreneurs, it’s essential to stay adaptable and be ready to innovate when challenges arise.
Public-Private Partnerships: Fueling the Wine Industry’s Growth
One of the most significant outcomes of Jim’s work has been the creation of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, a public-private partnership that promoted the wine industry through marketing and research. This initiative not only boosted the quality and reputation of New York wines but also underscored the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The Power of Unity and Collaboration Among Winemakers
Jim emphasizes that the wine industry’s strength lies in collaboration. He highlights how wineries and grape growers work together rather than seeing each other as competitors. This spirit of cooperation extends beyond New York; it’s a common thread throughout the industry, driving innovation and growth.
In the beverage world, Jim believes, collaboration—whether it’s sharing insights, pooling resources, or working together on industry-wide initiatives—can make the difference between stagnation and success. Unity allows industries to face challenges, such as the growing anti-alcohol movement, with a stronger, collective voice.
Navigating Challenges: The Role of Advocacy
WineAmerica, under Jim’s leadership, plays a critical role in shaping public policy that impacts the wine industry. From reducing excise taxes to advocating for the U.S. Postal Service to ship wine across state lines, Wine America works to ensure that the business environment is favorable for winemakers.
The future of the wine industry, much like the broader beverage sector, hinges on adaptability. Changes in consumer preferences, climate impacts, and evolving regulations require businesses to remain flexible and forward-thinking.
One example of advocacy within the industry is Come Over October, which Jim calls the answer to the call for Sober October. Rather than avoiding alcohol entirely, organizers provide a new perspective on how wine can bring friends and family together.
Celebrating the Unyielding Spirit of the Beverage Industry
Jim predicts that while the industry may face some challenging years ahead, those who are willing to innovate and collaborate will emerge stronger. For beverage entrepreneurs, the message is clear: success lies in staying ahead of trends, embracing change, and continuously finding new ways to connect with consumers.
As Jim aptly put it, “Wine is here to stay,” and so too are the opportunities for those who are prepared to navigate the twists and turns of the market.
Transcript
This transcript has been edited from its original form to support readability.
Maureen Ballatori: I’m Maureen Ballatori and this is Spilled Salt, a podcast on the thrills and spills from the food, beverage and agriculture industries.
Today’s guest is Jim Trezise. He’s the president of WineAmerica. He’s been there since 2017 after serving for more than 20 years on that organization’s board of directors and executive committee, but he spent 35 years at the New York Wine and Grape Foundation and actually created that entity as well.
And so he talks about that on the podcast today, how the New York Wine and Grape Foundation was established, as well as the state of the wine industry, especially in the US, there’s some international references too, but a big part of the story that I wanted to get across from Jim is what’s going on with the bigger picture of the wine industry as it relates to the anti-alcohol movement, consumer preferences and some of the US dietary guidelines that are coming down the pike as well.
Jim also mentioned something that I’m wildly passionate about that comes up on a number of these shows, which is collaboration, which is rampant in the wine industry, as well as many other agricultural industries as well. Enjoy the conversation.
Maureen: Hey there, Jim, how are you today?
Jim Trezise: I’m wonderful, Maureen. How are you? It’s another perfect day on Keuka Lake.
Maureen: I love to hear it. I’m really excited that we’re starting to get into the fall seasons too. And the weather is starting to change and all the leaves and everything – it’s a great time of year in the Finger Lakes.
I’m so excited to have you on the show today. You have been in the wine and grape industry since 1982. Can you talk a little bit about your work leading up to the work that you’re doing now?
Jim: Yeah, it was kind of a crazy situation that got me here, but I’m so delighted that it happened. I won’t go into it because it would take the whole half hour. But on Valentine’s Day of 1982, my ex-wife and I each drove a UHaul from Philadelphia for 10 hours through a blizzard to get to Penn Yan, New York and start a new job as the Executive Director of the New York State Wine Grape Growers.
They had gotten a marketing order to do promotion research programs, which they asked me to come and put together. So that was the beginning of it.
And again, it was the great farmers. It was not the wineries, but the farmers who always had great vision, looking ahead to see what needs to be done and that kind of thing. So that was my introduction to it.
It turned out, Maureen, that at that time the industry was in a crisis for a number of different reasons which I won’t get into, but it was an economic crisis and it was in danger of extinction, not to exaggerate at all.
So I was working with these folks, wonderful people, the grape farmers, and one day in 1983, fall of 1983, the New York Times ran a front page article on the regional section that was headlined, New York Grape Industry In Crisis. And Mario Cuomo, the governor at that time, read the article. He called his Commissioner of Agriculture, Joe Gerace, and said, I want a solution on my desk by noon on Monday. This was Friday afternoon. I want a solution to the crisis on my desk by noon on Monday.
Joe Gerace called me and he said, Jim, I need a solution to the crisis in Chautauqua by noon on Sunday. And so I called my wife and I said, I’m not coming home tonight. I’m pulling an all-nighter. I’ve got to solve a crisis.
At that time, there were no computers really. I mean, maybe the original ones, but I had an IBM Selectric with whiteout. That’s the way, unfortunately, I took a typing course in high school and I usually don’t have to edit my writing so much. So I came up with a four point plan of what the state could do.
And I said, the industry has to change as well, but here are the things that you could do. And I gave it to Joe Gerace, who took it to Mario Cuomo, and I heard nothing for three months. And I just said, okay, that was a total bomb.
And then in January of 1984, on the front page of the New York Times, not the regional section, the front page of the Times said, Governor Cuomo is going to help the grape and wine industry. And he basically without letting me know had endorsed the four points that I laid out for him.
So he basically got things going. I all of a sudden became a lobbyist, not expecting to, and spent the first six months of that year commuting to Albany back and forth. And we ended up getting all four, including the creation of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation for promotion and research. So that was the beginning.
And the Foundation was a public-private partnership. So the state of New York every year agreed to put up a certain amount of matching funds, which we could get only if we put up an equal amount of private sector funds. And also there were restrictions saying you have to spend at least 30 percent, well at least 25 up to 40 percent of the money on research. And it usually averages about 30.
And so that money went to Cornell University and it was really good that it did, which I’ll get back to in a minute. And the rest of it went to promotion. And so I was basically the promotion guy with help from other people as well and a couple of PR agencies along the way.
We created a bunch of programs for the New York grape and wine industry to promote the wine trails. Now there are 20 of them across the state. There was one at the time and also to promote Uncorked New York, which was our slogan for everything that we did.
And then we had the research program at Cornell. And the mission that I created for the New York Wine and Grape Foundation was to have the New York grape and wine industry recognized as a world leader in quality, productivity and social responsibility.
If you think of those things, all of them require research. Quality requires research, productivity requires research and social responsibility like sustainability. And so between the promotion that we were able to do and the research that Cornell did, it really transformed the industry. And I’ll also get back to when this originally happened.
So in 1983, 84, the industry was in a crisis. After these pieces of legislation were created and passed. Within about three years, the New York grape and wine industry became the fastest growing industry in the agriculture and tourism sectors. And so that’s not a pat on my back.
What it shows is that, you know, in this business, we’re always talking about the climate because you have to have a good climate to grow good grapes to make great wine. But people forget that the business climate has to be good if you’re gonna grow an industry.
And that was the lesson I learned, which is that public policy is every bit as important as everything else that we do. And it’s created by human beings.
Can’t do much about the weather other than respond to it, but we can educate human beings to say, if you do A, B, and C, it’s going to help us grow. If we grow, we’re going to pay more taxes and hire more people. So that’s kind of a quick snapshot of the evolution of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. And I ran it with wonderful colleagues for about 35 years.
Maureen: And what prompted your decision to move on from the Wine and Grape Foundation? You went from there to Wine America, which is where you are now, correct?
Jim: Correct. And that was about seven years ago. And there were a couple of things that prompted me to do it.
First of all, I had been on the board of directors and executive committee of Wine America for 30 years. So I knew the organization. It was going through some difficult transitions. I thought that I might be able to help it by becoming more directly involved as a real consultant rather than just on the board.
Other people felt the same way as well. And I also felt that, you know, probably somebody else could take the New York Wine and Grape Foundation to a new level that I couldn’t. And it was with the new communications and social media and that kind of thing, which I wasn’t that familiar with. And I’m really glad that I did it because Sam Filler, who is the executive director now and a good friend, was the one that we chose appropriately.
He and his team really have taken it to a new level. And I had the pleasure of working with several of the people who are still there, Jen Cooper, Dana Alexander, Kim Hughes, and so forth. So it was a smooth transition. Nothing was lost. He changed some things, as he should, and he’s made it all the better. So I’m happy because in a sense, it was myself and Mario Cuomo that created it. So it’s like a child to me.
And you always want your child to do well and grow up and be successful. And the New York Wine and Grape Foundation is. So good for them.
Maureen: Well, and good for you! It sounds like the industry itself has thrived significantly thanks to your leadership at that organization.
And one of the things that I love about agriculture is that there’s so many fringe benefits to agriculture thriving. It makes strong communities.
Although you strike me as a guy who wouldn’t want to receive credit for strengthening the communities of the state of New York as a result of this work. I’m sure that you have done that. So you’re now at Wine America. What does Wine America do?
Jim: Wine America, I describe as the little association that could. And by that, I mean there’s three of us. You’re looking at one-third of the staff right here.
It’s a national organization of American wineries. So we have winery members from 47 of the 50 states. We’re working on the other three. But what that means is that we can walk into 94 Senate offices in DC and say, we represent some of your constituents, the wineries in your state.
We basically focus on federal public policy. So as an example that has tangible benefits for every winery in the country, several years ago, we, with our colleagues and our collaborators, were able to get a law passed called the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act. What it did is lower the excise taxes for wineries of all sizes.
As an example, if you make 30,000 gallons of wine, for the first 30,000, you get a $1 credit on your taxes. The normal tax is $1.07, you ended up paying 7 cents. So for that first 30,000 gallons, you’re saving $30,000. You can do whatever you want with it. You can hire new people, you can give raises to existing people, buy more tanks, barrels, marketing, and that kind of thing.
And it goes all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings for the largest wineries. And so that’s an example where we were able to increase the productivity of the industry by letting the industry keep more of its money. We’re also working on a bill to allow the US Post Office to ship wine across state borders like FedEx and UPS can right now.
In fact, it’s just recently been introduced and one of the co-sponsors is our own Senator Kirsten Gillibrand with Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. So that’s something that’s not going to happen this year. Nothing’s going to happen this year, but we wanted to get it introduced.
We also work on the Farm Bill, which happens every five years. And the Farm Bill is something that’s very important to New York and every other industry.
First of all, there’s a lot of money for research there. Some of it stays with USDA, but a lot of it is out there for grants. And I know that the New York Wine and Grape Foundation and I think some regional groups have gotten some grants for research under the USDA.
It also has the Market Access Program (MAP) and what that is for all agriculture, including wine, is funding to increase exports of American agricultural products, including wine.
We started an export program, my goodness, probably 30 years ago now, with MAP funding. And my colleague, Susan Spence, who’s now retired, she really was the one that did all the work, but we started from scratch. And now it’s a very robust program. I can say for sure it would not exist without that MAP funding from USDA.
Then there are value-added grants. There are a number of other things as well. And it’s a really good important bill. It’s coming down to the wire now. You know, It may or may not be in anything that’s passed this week. But at some point it’s going to happen. And right now we actually like the shape of it because they’re going to increase the MAP funding.
So we’re working on that. And then the final thing I’ll mention, which is basically damage control, is something that’s called the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. And every five years, the federal government comes out with guidelines for eating fruits, vegetables, grains, and that kind of thing. And for the past several iterations, alcohol has been part of it.
They do not encourage consumption of alcohol, but they say if you choose to, then it’s generally regarded as safe that a man can have two doses a day and a woman one dose a day.
In the case of wine, a dose would be five ounces of wine each. And the difference between male and female mostly has to do with body size, but more than that, metabolism because females metabolize alcohol differently than men.
So that is going on right now and not in a good way. So we are in the middle of working with our colleagues at Wine Institute, the spirits people, the beer people and so forth to make sure that the process is transparent and based on sound science. So that’s something that’s right at the top of our agenda right now because technically it should be done this year, 2024, so it goes into effect 2025. So that’s number one right now. That’s the biggest fire we’re fighting.
Maureen: And so what do you mean? Can you talk a little bit more about that? You mentioned that’s not going well. It’s the biggest fire you’re fighting. Talk more about that.
Jim: Well, you know, there’s a lot where we’re facing several major challenges right now. So let me stick with this one for right now. You know, there’s a very large anti-alcohol movement that’s being stimulated by the World Health Organization and it is global. And the whole idea is that there’s no safe level of alcohol, that even a drink a day is going to cause cancer or something like that.
People are very sensitive to that, especially the younger generation. So if, for example, the dietary guidelines were changed from what they are now, which is the two doses, one dose, then there would be a lot of people who may otherwise have a glass of wine or a beer or a mixed drink or something like that who would just say, no, I’m not gonna have any at all or I’m gonna cut down and so forth.
And maybe they should. Everybody has to make their own decisions. But it could very much affect the future of the grape and wine industry. And I say grape and wine because if wine goes down, grapes go down. And you have to have grapes to make wine. So it’s an agricultural issue as well as other things as well. It’s very complicated. I’m hopeful that it’s going to work out okay. But we don’t really have a sense of timing at this point.
Maureen: And so some of what we’ve talked about, Jim, is a delicate balance as it relates to that issue that you just discussed, right? Of what Wine America and other organizations that are in that space can and cannot do as it relates to that issue. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Jim: Yeah, we have, there are three areas on our website. Our website is wineamerica.org. Very simple.
The first one which relates to this is called compliance matters. And that’s in two senses. Number one, compliance is very important. If you want to stay in business, you have to obey the law. We are very, very heavily regulated. So we want people to know what they can and cannot do.
And then these are compliance matters. So here are the things that you need to know. And so it’s not legal advice. We’re not in a position to give legal advice, but it’s general information with links to government sources and to the laws and regulations that we’re talking about.
As one example, we cover direct to consumer shipment. Where can you ship? What are the rules? How do you pay the taxes and that kind of thing?
Another one has to do with wine and health. What can you as a licensed winery or we as an organization representing licensed wineries, what can we say about wine and health? And the answer is virtually nothing. Even if it’s backed up by science, sound science. So we obey that law. And we’re also not qualified. I’m not a physician, I’m not a scientist.
So it’s something where we want to make people aware of it so they stay out of trouble. And there are other people who are looking at that. So there’s the compliance part of it. There are two things that we can say as much as we want. And one of them is in a section called the magic of wine. And I wrote this over the year-end holidays last year. And it basically talks about wine as farming. It talks about wine as an economic engine.
It talks about wine as an inspiration of poets and philosophers throughout the ages who have come up with these wonderful quotes. There’s a couple hundred quotes in there called Wine Words. And also there’s a list of the toasts, cheers, in various languages around the world. And there’s just a bunch of information that shows that wine is a cultural phenomenon and has been for 8,000 years.
So it’s not new. It’s been with us in all cultures around the world. Wine is used to toast all kinds of things. Ship launchings, peace treaties, weddings, births, graduations, just having fun. And so truly, if music is the international language, wine is the international toast. It’s the thing that makes people happy and shows happiness as well.
So there’s a whole bunch of that stuff on the website, which I encourage people to have fun with, take a look at, laugh at, download it, and use it. Because we can say that, it’s really true and it’s backed up by a lot of history and so forth.
And then the other section, so we have compliance matters, we have the magic of wine, and the other section is called economics. And within that section is our 2022 National Economic Impact of the Wine Industry. And it’s a study that was done by a very good firm called John Donovan Associates, very highly regarded, doing economics in the area of public policy. And it has the statistics, detailed statistics on a national level and for all 50 states. So New York has its own section.
Basically, what it showed in 2022 is that wine generated $276 billion, with a B, for the U.S. economy. That’s about 2% of gross domestic product. And what’s interesting about it, Maureen, is that it’s not what you think about wine as winemaking. know, Fox Run, which is a great wine, or Dr. Frank, some, or, you know, Glenora, what have you. That’s a big part of it.
But there are three stages. There’s direct, which is the winery part. It’s the grape growing winery part. There’s supplier and there’s indirect. So direct means the vineyard to the winery, to the wholesaler, to the retailer and tourism. And tourism is a huge part of this impact.
Penn Yan, New York, where I live, is a little town that has been transformed by tourism over the past decades as have many others as well. And so that’s the direct impact. Supplier impact means Waterloo Container is a huge supplier of bottles and boxes and that kind of thing around the country. And they’re in Waterloo, New York. And if you’re going to have a winery, you have to have tanks and barrels and tractors and all kinds of different things and communications, accountants.
You know, you name it, there’s all these people who supply goods and services. And then the third level is called induced impact. And that’s on the community. So here in Penn Yan, it’s the grocery stores, it’s the gas stations, it’s the hotels. You know, it’s all everybody benefits when the wine industry is doing well. And for New York, you know, I said the national figure is $276 billion. For New York, it’s almost $15 billion.
And all the statistics are on the website. You know, how many jobs, how many wineries there are, how many jobs, how many tourists, what are tourist expenditures, how much in taxes are paid by wine and that kind of thing. That is another thing we can talk freely about. And I encourage people to do that, especially when we’re talking with legislators, because we as consumers might be interested in aroma bouquet and taste.
The legislators want to know about jobs and wages and taxes. so economic impact is one of the things that’s going to shield us from the worst of what’s coming along.
Maureen: Right. Because that is something you can safely speak to and you can’t speak to health, you know? And so I get that. And why not emphasize that, right? The impact that the industry has from an economic standpoint.
What about you personally? You’ve been in the wine industry for a long time. What’s one thing that you love about it? About the industry.
Jim: The people. The people. And I have a saying, I have a lot of really bad poetry, you have to get used to me, but the saying is that the product is a pleasure, but the people are the treasure. And I love wine. I have since my college days, and I’m delighted and privileged to be in the wine industry.
I’ve had the opportunity and the pleasure of meeting wine people literally from around the world, many of them in their own backyards in Europe, in Australia, in New Zealand and other places as well. And it doesn’t matter where they’re from, it doesn’t matter what language they speak. It doesn’t matter what kind of grapes they’re growing or anything like that.
Wine people are passionate. They are passionate about what they do. They’re passionate about preserving the earth. They’re fun.
They love to have a glass of wine together and eat together and talk and trade jokes and that kind of thing. And I think that’s one of the reasons that many people in the wine industry live very long lives. As an example, some of the California icons, Andrei Chalachev lived to be 92, Robert Mondavi 94, Ernest Gallo 97, Mike Gurgich recently 100.
And there’s other people, 100 and 102, who are still living and even working. And so it’s not necessarily the wine, the liquid per se. I think it’s the happiness that people derive from being part of a community and having friends who share the same passion and so forth. It’s that, but that’s my favorite thing.
But I love all the aspects of it. I love the farming part. You know, at this time in New York state, you drive outside and the Concord grapes are ripe and it’s like perfume. You know, it’s like perfume in the air. It’s wonderful.
And the grapes, all grapes are so beautiful. All the different colors, every vintage is different, you know, and the winemakers are a lot of fun because they’re very well trained, but they also have to be artists. So I have to know the science, but they also have to be artists to make decisions about these wonderful grapes.
What’s the best thing I can do with them? And there are decisions all along the way. And then I’m not a research guy, honestly, but I have come to respect, you know, the people at Cornell and everything they have done for our industry.
Then the end product is something that’s endlessly variable. You know, I’ve judged in about 300 wine competitions over my career and tasted about a million wines and they’re all different. So there’s just so much to like and to me, very little not to like.
Maureen: I agree. We had a great interview with Matt Schrader from Gallo Winery on, I think it was on season one or season two of the podcast. He’s one of the winemakers there and he was talking about what it takes.
I was asking him, what does it take to develop a new wine for Gallo? And he kind of, you know, spoke about that. It was a fascinating discussion. And so anybody who’s interested in that component of it, go look for that episode. I think you’ll enjoy it.
I want you to speak to a campaign that is going on this month called Come Over October. What is that?
Jim: It’s awesome. It’s really great. And you know, it’s going on right now. And I hope people are enjoying it in different ways. So I have a good friend from decades ago, Karen McNeil. And she and I did a little promotion decades ago to commemorate the anniversary of the Statue of Liberty coming to New York and so forth. Wine was a little bit part of it.
And so I’ve known her for a long time. Unfortunately, she moved to Napa but she is one of the foremost wine writers and the author of a book called The Wine Bible. And she came up with this idea in response to what is gonna be Sober October, which is to encourage people to not drink anything at all, whatever. And she just woke up one morning and said, this is kind of crazy, why are people doing this?
Wine is a good thing, it brings people together. You know, it’s family, it’s friends, and it makes them happy. So one had encouraged people to share a glass of wine, and that was the genesis of the idea. And then there are two other colleagues, Kimberly Charles and Gina Colangelo, who are involved with it as well. The three, Karen called the two of them up and said, this is either a crazy idea or a good idea, what do you think? And they said, it’s a good idea.
The three of them have been donating their time, these are top-flight professionals, to put together this promotion. So the whole idea is for anybody in any way they want to share wine with other people, with family, with friends, with total strangers. Go to a restaurant, come over to my house, have a watch party, and just don’t make it all formal and that kind of thing.
And obviously be responsible, be safe. And one of the sponsors is Lyft. So that if people, there’s a special rate during October that if you want to use Lyft, you get a discount. You know, that’s tied to Come Over October.
And so a number of places are using it in a number of different ways. And the wineries themselves have gotten involved. I’m proud to say that Wine America was the first organization to publicly support Come Over October.
We have done a whole bunch of amplification, if you will, and are encouraging people to get involved. And then recently, on September 25th, in Washington, we held a congressional wine reception that was the official kickoff to Come Over October. And so this was the ultimate way to say, Wine can bring people together. If it can bring the warring Democrats and warring Republicans together to have a glass of wine and be civil to each other, you know, that’s a pretty decent thing. And that’s the kind of thing that won. So, but no, it’s a great promotion. Thank you for asking. I hope people look for it and take part in it as well.
Maureen: Yeah, then anything can happen.
And where’s the best way for listeners to learn more about that campaign? Is there a website for it?
Jim: Yeah, it’s just comeoveroctober.com.
Maureen: Excellent. What is something that you think the wine and grape industry needs?
Jim: Unity. Another of my sayings is that diversity is our strength, unity is our power. And by that I mean, what makes us interesting is that we are diverse. We’re diverse regions, we grow different types of grapes, we make different types of wines.
We have all kinds of opinions, so we’re very diverse. But if we set all that aside and come together with a clear message, to say we all believe in this, we all need this, we will work for this, we’re unstoppable. And what happened in 1984, 1985, it wasn’t just me, it was the grape growers, it was the New York Farm Bureau, it was a whole bunch of people working together to make things happen. And this is what we need right now in this country. And I’ll tell you why, we talked a little bit about the anti-alcohol movement, which is very real and very serious.
There are a few other challenges that are facing us as well. Climate change is very real and we’re an agricultural product. So here in the Finger Lakes, we used to routinely make ice wines. Can’t do that anymore most of the years. It doesn’t get cold enough for the grapes to freeze.
Maureen: Really? I didn’t realize that.
Jim: It used to be consistent and now it is totally inconsistent. We can’t count on it. And so there’s a specialty that we’re losing. Climate change affects every region in the world. So fortunately, our industry is very astute and we can kind of see things coming. But that’s one of the things that we have to face and we have to take action there legislatively and in other ways as well. In addition, there are generational changes.
You know, a lot of the younger people are number one, not drinking alcohol as much at all and or shifting their preferences. There are these ready to drink cocktails that you see in grocery stores everywhere and so forth. Very convenient. A lot of them are very good. They’re made by the spirits companies. And so the marketing has been very good as well. And we have unprecedented competition from them.
So that’s another thing and there are other challenges that are facing us. So there’s four or five altogether But I have been around long enough to see that This is a cyclical industry and we have good times and bad times We have easy times and hard and if we all work together We will get through this and we will because we paid attention and work together and created new solutions We will be better and healthier and stronger on the other side of this than we’ve ever been before.
Maureen: I love that last question for you. What do you think is next for the industry?
Jim: Better times, not immediately. I think we’re gonna go through a year or two of challenges. That doesn’t necessarily mean bad times, but we’re gonna have to do a lot of soul searching and a lot of working together as I just described. But I think that wine is here to stay.
It’s been here for centuries, for millennia, and it’s a very, very magical beverage. So what we need to do is kind of look inward and outward and communicate with each other and help each other.
Fortunately, Maureen, collaboration is part of the DNA of the wine industry. And the people here in the Finger Lakes especially, they help each other. When there’s a new winery that’s gonna open up, they don’t look at it as competition, they look at it as a new collaborator and they help it out. They talk with the winemakers, they let them use their tank space or what have you.
And so as long as we work together and recognize what are the things that we can do things, something about, and we take action, then we’re gonna be fine. So I’m very optimistic. We’re here to stay and we’re here to be better.
Maureen: I think that that’s an important differentiation that you made me mention that the wine industry needs unity. And I’m glad that you explained that the collaboration is already here. And that opportunity for unity and coming together is something that can continue to happen, even though we already have the collaboration piece.
Jim: Yes. and, you know, Come Over October is a good example on a consumer level of that, meaning the people involved with Come Over October, it’s now international. It’s going all around the world and all around the country. So we have wineries from California, from New York, from Virginia, Michigan, everybody’s getting into the act.
It’s really great to have a central theme, to say, we can all agree to this, we can all really round it. And so what Wine America does on a national level is say, okay, we can all agree, we’d like the post office to ship our wines and we want this to happen as well. And so when we can all come together, we are so powerful, it’s amazing.
Maureen: I agree. Jim, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing the state of the industry. Once I chatted with you a couple of weeks ago, it was important for me to have an opportunity to share this story about the bigger picture of what’s going on.
I appreciate being able to learn a little more about your story and the impact that you’ve had in the wine industry, as well as share that story a bit. So thank you so much for taking the time.
Jim: And thank you very much. It’s been a real pleasure. And I encourage everybody to enjoy wine responsibly, preferably New York wine, because that’s where I’m from.
Maureen: I’ll second that. Also from the Finger Lakes here. So, enjoy. Thank you very much.