California wine sector launches $10 million campaign to boost exports

Amid relatively flat wine sales nationwide, the main trade group for California wineries on Tuesday launched a $10 million marketing and outreach campaign to boost exports that could benefit North Coast wineries that produce premium wine in demand globally.

The Wine Institute said the goal is to increase Golden State wine exports to $2.5 billion in value over the next 10 years, from the $1.36 billion that was sold outside the country in 2019, the latest data available.

California ranks as the fourth-largest wine producing region in the world, but only ranks No. 11 in exports, said Honore Comfort, vice president of international marketing for the San Francisco-based trade group. About 95% of all U.S. wine exports come from California, however.

“There is need and opportunity to sell our wines in more markets around the world,” Comfort said of the gap in foreign sales.

That need has been highlighted during the pandemic, as wineries have had wine sales revenue dry up at tasting rooms and restaurants. Building an export market can help provide more balance to a winery’s business since international wine markets remained “open and vibrant during the pandemic,” Comfort said.

That was the situation in 2020 at Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville that saw its wine exports increase last year to 10.5% of total sales, from around 6.5% the year before, said Emily Putman, vice president of international sales for the winery founded by the famed film director.

The Coppola winery’s global sales spike was attributed to hard work by its international distributors and a growing acceptance of California wine labels, Putman said. The growth came in some longtime markets where Coppola already had a presence, such as Canada, Denmark and Japan. But it also opened up new markets in Australia, Greece and Peru.

“The thing that really kind of blew my mind was some of these markets ... the numbers on their growth was significant,” Putman said.

Sales in Japan were helped along by popularity of Coppola’s Sofia wine label, named after director Sofia Coppola whose landmark movie “Lost in Translation” was filmed there.

Comfort said U.S. wine sales to Japan also got a boost from a 2019 trade agreement between the Trump administration and Japan that will eliminate the 15% tariff on U.S. wine imports over the next seven years. The Wine Institute is lobbying for the lifting of more U.S. trade barriers such as those with China.

“We are hopeful the trade environment will continue to improve,” Comfort said.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 707-521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.