{"id":45489,"date":"2026-06-19T18:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/?p=45489"},"modified":"2026-09-02T11:07:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:07:58","slug":"how-soaring-prices-brought-the-spanish-bulk-wine-market-to-a-standstill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/en\/actus\/industry\/how-soaring-prices-brought-the-spanish-bulk-wine-market-to-a-standstill\/","title":{"rendered":"How premium wineries are repositioning private label"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: <\/strong>World Bulk Wine Exhibition<\/p>\n

As wineries across the globe groan under the weight of unsold inventory, distributors and retailers are capitalising on current market conditions to offer premium wines at once-unthinkable prices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Call them what you will \u2013 own label, private label or control label \u2013 exclusive brands are making hay while the sun shines over premium wine regions that once commanded, well, a premium. According to the 2026 BMO Wine Market Report<\/strong>, more than 30% of all wineries in the US are looking to offload estate wine through bulk channels while 11% are holding bottled but unlabelled stock. From Napa Cabernet to reserve-grade Australian Chardonnay and barrel-matured Bordeaux, top-flight names are increasingly finding their way into private labels \u2013 a shift that is changing perceptions of bulk wine, reshaping producer-retailer relationships, and potentially recruiting new consumers into the category. In many cases, private label is no longer competing with entry-level wine, but with established premium brands themselves.<\/p>\n

From inventory management to operational efficiency <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u201cThere is greater emphasis on attempting to do a control or private label than there ever has been before<\/em>\u201d, observes Steve Fredricks, president of Turrentine Brokerage<\/strong>, California\u2019s largest independent wine brokerage. \u201cBecause everybody\u2019s margin has been squeezed for so long<\/em>\u201d. Although Fredricks notes some reluctance among established wineries to enter the private label space \u2013 fearing it might cannibalise sales of their national brands \u2013 he agrees that many increasingly view it as another route for moving excess inventory.<\/p>\n

In New York, Rabobank beverage analyst Bourcard Nesin<\/strong> notes that \u201cprivate label has become a growing part of revenue for lots and lots of firms. It used to be the purview of specialised players, but a lot of brands with excess inventory are turning to private label, not to make money, but to improve efficiency of their operations<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nick Whiteway<\/strong>, whose South Australian company First Growth Premium Wine Sales specialises in private label programmes, tells a similar story from the other side of the globe: \u201cEvery winery in Australia is sitting on unsold stock right now<\/em>. Some wineries have stock going back six or seven years, and it\u2019s burning a hole in their balance sheet<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the retail side of the equation, the motivations are equally clear-cut. \u201cWith a private label, buyers control the brand, the price and their margin and that\u2019s why they want them because it\u2019s a highly competitive marketplace<\/em>\u201d, says Whiteway. \u201cBoth online and physical retailers need control of the brand because otherwise they\u2019re taking on too much of the financial risk<\/em>\u201d. Whiteway also sees the growth of online wine sales as a major catalyst for retailer interest in exclusive labels. \u201cEverything on the internet is transparent. If I sell a premium packaged wine under a pre-existing brand to buyer A and they sell it online at a discounted price, I can\u2019t sell that label to any other buyer. Invariably, if buyer B wants wine from the same winery, they need a different label. That\u2019s where all this is coming from<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

From a consumer perspective, the proposition is equally compelling. According to Mintel data, acceptance of own-label alcohol is high in certain markets, with 58% of UK alcohol buyers agreeing that supermarket own-label products are \u201cjust as good<\/em>\u201d as branded alternatives. In the US, \u201cretailers doing programmes like Kirkland or Trader Joe\u2019s are sourcing from very good sources, comparable to those for some of the other varietals, but at a better priced advantage<\/em>\u201d, says Bryan Foster, national sales manager of strategic brands at Turrentine Brokerage. The quality of wines entering private label programmes has shifted dramatically, with oversupply blurring the traditional boundaries between bulk\/private label and national brands. Crucially, the wines entering these programmes are no longer confined to anonymous entry-level blends. \u201cBuyers don\u2019t want to just sell some cheap slop that no-one\u2019s ever heard of because they can\u2019t convert that to the consumer<\/em>\u201d, says Whiteway. \u201cThey want wines that have brand equity in the marketplace that consumers have heard of. There\u2019s a latent demand in the market from consumers who have familiarity with some of these historical legacy brands<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

See also: The great rebalancing act: the Southern Hemisphere 2026 vintage takes shape<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Delivering what consumers want \u2013 not the critics<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Private labels also provide greater control over the product profile itself, delivering styles that practitioners feel are more closely aligned with consumer tastes. The model is one where repeat purchases matter more than critical acclaim. \u201cGoing down an esoteric rabbit hole, a lot of wineries are making wine to keep the critics and journalists happy<\/em>\u201d, feels Whiteway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe classic one in Australia is no oak, high acid, fresh and all this contemporary stuff. That\u2019s not what the consumer wants. When they spend $25 to $30 on a bottle of South Australian Shiraz, they want rich, smooth and they want to be smacked on the head with a piece of wood! We\u2019re making wine for the consumer, and being very successful commercially. We\u2019re giving the market what it wants. Isn\u2019t that what\u2019s wrong with the wine industry?\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This, in turn, is creating what Whiteway describes as a \u201csymbiotic relationship<\/em>\u201d between producers and retailers, supporting not only inventory management but also new opportunities through range extensions and broader channel distribution. What private label may lack in margin, it can make up for in volume throughput, economies of scale and predictability, says Whiteway whose company currently operates in the domestic market but is looking to expand overseas. \u201cDo you want to bottle your wine speculatively under 27 different labels, put it in your shed, hope that you might sell some, pay a warehousing fee and maybe sell it, maybe not? Or do you want to bottle thousands of cases in a single order \u2013 receive the purchase order, bottle the wine to order, ship it out the door and get paid in 15 to 90 days?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Glass Credit: glass of wine in front of a vineyard<\/p>\n

Narrower bandwidth <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The pragmatic commercial realities shaping the private label market leave little room for discovery and experimentation. Familiarity and scalability matter more than regional exploration. \u201cThe private or control label system is very traditional<\/em>\u201d, says Bryan Foster at Turrentine Brokerage. \u201cRetailers can\u2019t just put this variety or region on the end stack unless it\u2019s being sold by price and really create anything. They want to put something on the shelf that will sell itself. And consumers don\u2019t want to spend X dollars on discovering something they\u2019re not familiar with<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nick Whiteway agrees: \u201cBuyers are purchasing the standards \u2013 Shiraz, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and sparkling, that\u2019s it. They\u2019re not buying Tempranillo, Nero d\u2019Avola or Sangiovese because these varietals don\u2019t turn over enough volume to justify a large purchase or bottling run<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Consolidation across the retail and distribution landscape is similarly narrowing the bandwidth: \u201cRetailers and distributors have so much inventory, so many SKUs and there\u2019s only so much shelf space<\/em>\u201d, says Fredricks. \u201cAnd if you want to go directly to the consumer, that\u2019s expensive and it\u2019s a long-term investment \u2013 the finances simply aren\u2019t there for it<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Finance and cash flow pressures have unquestionably fuelled the rise of premium private labels but opinions remain divided over just how sustainable the model will prove in the longer term. Indeed, the very conditions stoking the boom also raise questions about its long-term sustainability. \u201cI think the category will continue for the foreseeable future until inventory drops<\/em>\u201d, says Fredricks. \u201cWill there be more $20 to $30 private or control brand product in the market three to five years from now than there was before? Yes, there will be, because the land values will have decreased, grape prices will have decreased so those products at those price points can be developed for a longer period of time and more profitably by people<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bourcard Nesin at Rabobank takes a more cautious view: \u201cEvery single product category is in a state of massive excess supply. And the retailers can take advantage of it for now, but those programmes aren’t going to be sustainable. So having a long-term plan that includes the end of the low-cost fruit, low-cost wine era is necessary. I think a lot of firms will ignore that and make huge commitments and eventually face a very difficult time when the underlying economic and industry trends change<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rise of the asset-light model <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

In Australia, former economist Nick Whiteway sees another dynamic beginning to take shape: \u201cThe fundamental economic demand drivers aren\u2019t changing, it\u2019s just that somebody else owns the assets<\/em>\u201d, he says, pointing to Endeavour Group\u2019s announcement in May that it would reduce its own grape production by more than 80% with approximately 99% of sourcing to come from purchased grapes and bulk wine.<\/p>\n

A similar asset-light model is emerging in California: \u201cNational companies are somewhat resistant to put their foot in the water but negociants have really materialised here in the US\u201d <\/em>notes Bryan Foster<\/strong>. \u201cThey\u2019re not bricks and mortar wineries but they appease the retailers\u2019 request for private or control label programmes<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Whiteway, the rise of private label \u2013 including its increasingly premium iterations \u2013 are not just reflective of the oversupply. It also speaks to the growing need for both online and bricks-and-mortar retailers to control brands, pricing and margins. The private-label boom may have been accelerated by oversupply, but the underlying shift in retailer power and route-to-market dynamics appears far more permanent.<\/p>\n

On the production side, private label may be viewed as a necessary evil, or conversely, as a stepping stone towards closer retailer relations and broader brand development opportunities. \u201cI <\/em>think private label was a dirty word in the industry, but I’ve got a whole bunch of wineries that wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the private label business we’re doing. If you stop supplying private labels there isn’t another magic channel that’s big enough to absorb your volume. This business is here stay<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: World Bulk Wine Exhibition As wineries across the globe groan under the weight of unsold inventory, distributors and retailers are capitalising on current market conditions to offer premium wines at once-unthinkable prices. Call them what you (\u2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":45624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[365],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulk","format-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow premium wineries are repositioning private label – Vinexposium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/en\/actus\/industry\/how-soaring-prices-brought-the-spanish-bulk-wine-market-to-a-standstill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How premium wineries are repositioning private label – Vinexposium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author: World Bulk Wine Exhibition As wineries across the globe groan under the weight of unsold inventory, distributors and retailers are capitalising on current market conditions to offer premium wines at once-unthinkable prices. 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