It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Record crowds and 6.7 million litres of beer at Bavaria's Oktoberfest
04.10.2026,
Photo: Felix Hörhager/dpa
By Britta Schultejans, dpa
This year's Oktoberfest in Munich attracted a record 7.4 million visitors, the city said on Sunday, surpassing the previous record of 7.2 million set in 2023.
"This makes the 2026 Wiesn the most visited in its long history," Oktoberfest director Christian Scharpf said, using the local nickname for the festival.
The crowds surged - and so did beer sales. A total of 6.7 million litres of beer was consumed, according to the city, 2.7% more than the 6.5 million litres recorded in 2025.
Food vendors reported a 2% to 3% increase in sales, with traditional roast chicken proving particularly popular.
Despite the record crowds, authorities said there were no critical overcrowding incidents after security measures were tightened and efforts were made to encourage more visitors to attend on weekdays.
Serious accidents during festival
However, several serious and fatal accidents occurred during the 16-day festival.
On the final day, a 47-year-old Romanian employee was critically injured after being struck by a fairground ride and had to be resuscitated. Police are investigating why he was in a restricted area.
Earlier in the festival, a 52-year-old security worker died after becoming trapped beneath a gondola on a freefall tower.
A woman in her 90s also died in hospital six days after an accident involving a carriage horse. Her wheelchair became caught in the horse's harness as she attempted to pet the animal, causing her to fall.
Separately, two people were killed when a coach carrying a group to Oktoberfest overturned on the A96 motorway.
Crime and medical cases rise
Munich police recorded 845 crimes during the festival, up from 748 last year, while the number of police operations rose to 1,851. Authorities attributed much of the increase to the higher number of visitors.
Police also reported an increase in drug offences, particularly involving cocaine.
A total of 80 sexual offences were reported, eight more than in 2025. They included 52 cases of sexual harassment, while five suspected rapes were under investigation, the same number as last year.
Medical teams treated 8,409 people by midday on Sunday, a record and 23.2% more than last year. Some 40% were treated solely for alcohol poisoning.
The highest measured blood-alcohol level was 0.38%.
As usual, Oktoberfest's lost-property office collected thousands of abandoned belongings, including 1,050 items of clothing, 700 wallets and 400 mobile phones.
Among the more unusual finds were a dental night guard, a set of dentures, a 1.8-metre figure from a food stall and a large illustrated book about Tibet.
(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Trump just banned Canadian booze — but there’s a big catch
Elisabeth Buchwald, Matt Egan, CNN Tue, September 29, 2026
Bottles of Canadian whisky at a Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) store in Toronto, Ontario, on September 29, 2026. - Cole Burston/Bloomberg/Getty Images
President Donald Trump's ban on Canadian booze kicked in on Tuesday, an unprecedented move that underscores the breakdown in one of the closest trading relationships in the world.
The ban, which impacts $800 million worth of Canadian alcoholic beverages the US imported last year, marks the latest salvo in a tit-for-tat trading war that already includes sky-high tariffs and a ban on US booze in Ontario and other Canadian provinces.
"This is highly escalatory. The US has sent a very significant shot across the bow to Canada," said Barry Appleton, distinguished adjunct professor of law and co-director of the New York Law School's Center for International Law.
Appleton warned that trade tensions will hurt US companies.
"Brand America is in peril because of the trade war. Canadians are really pissed. That's very hard for American brands," he said.
However, experts say most American shoppers are unlikely to immediately notice the ban, in part because of workarounds, exemptions and the fact that distributors have had time to stock up on imported Canadian alcohol before the ban took effect.
At the same time, with the quickly evolving trade picture with Canada, anything can change on a moment's notice. Hours before the ban took effect, Trump said he is confident the US will come out ahead, and expects Canada to come to the US with a deal soon.
"They want to have a deal with us, they call us all the time. The problem is that they've treated the United States very unfairly," Trump told reporters on Monday.
"Over the next three or four weeks, they're going to come to us and they're going to say, 'We're going to get rid of all the tariffs,'" Trump said. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has not said anything to that effect, however.
The fine print
The US consumer impact will likely be limited by the fine print.
At a high level, the Trump order bans Canadian alcohol imports under a certain size but allows for bulk shipments.
"Bulk booze that is going to be rebottled in the US can cross the border. Labeled booze under a certain size can't," said Appleton.
For instance, whisky and liqueurs, two of Canada's top alcoholic beverage exports to the US, are exempt from the ban when sold in containers larger than four liters. In those cases, they also won't face any tariffs.
But making that switch requires having the right containers on hand or sourcing them from scratch, then rebottling smaller sizes more commonly sold in liquor stores. All that could add to businesses' costs – and potentially get tacked on to the prices consumers pay.
Crown Royal appears to be especially well-positioned since the company already sends bulk shipments of whisky to the United States, where it bottles all products sold domestically.
Bottles of Canadian-made Crown Royal whisky on March 4, 2025. - Christopher Katsarov Luna/Bloomberg/Getty Images
For beer, though, the ban is virtually impossible to get around without an American bottling arm because it covers the bottles, cans and kegs that consumers typically buy. A Canadian business could technically ship beer to the US in a tanker, but that's hardly practical.
That means Americans could have a difficult – if not impossible – time purchasing Moosehead Breweries' beer, since the company's entire brewing and bottling operations take place within Canada.
Ahead of the ban taking effect, Moosehead scrambled to get shipments across the border, a difficult feat as other businesses were racing to do the same, said CEO Andrew Oland. That meant paying rush fees as well as diesel surcharges.
"Misery loves company because we're all paying for this in the brewing industry," he told CNN, adding that tariffs the US and Canada have imposed on aluminum have also driven up the cost of cans.
While only 15% of Moosehead's sales come from the US, the complete loss of that customer base will certainly be felt, he said.
Beyond bulk exemptions, very few alcoholic beverages shipped from Canada were spared.
"Using import bans against an ally is unprecedented and a major deviation from US trade policy," said Inu Manak, a senior fellow focused on trade policy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "This is a very symbolic thing to target. It sends a message and is another form of escalation aimed at getting Canadian negotiators back to the table. But Prime Minister Carney is not in a rush to get a deal before the (US) midterms."
Some employees and executives in the alcohol industry expressed dismay about the escalating trade war.
"It's really unfortunate our industry has gotten pulled into this," said Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), an industry trade group. "We American distillers export around the world. We don't want tariffs applied to our products and we don't want tariffs applied to our imports. We like to compete by sip and taste, not tariffs."
Swonger described the ban on US alcohol by some Canadian provinces as an "unforced error" and expressed hope the US ban forces a change in policy.
"We're working hard to get both governments back to the table to get this resolved," he said.
Manak noted that Canadian provinces banned US alcohol only in response to threatened US tariffs.
"In playground parlance, the United Stated started it. That was Canada responding," she said.
And now US officials are responding to that response, demonstrating how an escalatory tit-for-tat cycle gets out of hand.
Cans of beer at a liquor store in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on July 23, 2026. - James MacDonald/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Confusion on tap
A manager from a Niagara Falls, New York, liquor store located less than five miles away from the Canadian border told CNN he is confused and concerned about the US ban on Canadian alcohol.
"We have a lot of Canadian customers and a lot of Canadian liquor. This is not good for business," said the manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "People have freedom to drink, right?"
An employee at a Port Huron, Michigan, liquor store near the border with Ontario similarly told CNN that many of his customers buy Canadian whisky including Crown Royal, Black Velvet and Rich and Rare.
But the Michigan liquor store employee added that store traffic from Canadians has declined significantly over the past year or so.
"We have a lot fewer Canadian customers than we used to," he said.
To impose the Canadian alcohol ban, Trump is relying on Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, the infamous trade law that exacerbated the Great Depression (and that was hilariously featured in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off").
The law allows the president of the United States to impose tariffs of up to 50% or even ban certain imports when another country discriminates against "commerce of the United States," according to the statute. But because no president before Trump has used the law this way, courts have not weighed in on what the administration must prove to meet its requirements.
In addition to alcohol, Canadian dairy products, such as whey, and motorcycles are also subject to bans, with the Trump administration similarly alleging unfair treatment of American businesses. In total, the bans cover close to $1 billion worth of goods the US imported from Canada last year, according to federal trade data.
The partial Canadian ban on US booze has been painful for the American industry.
Exports of US spirits to Canada plummeted by 70% after Canadian provinces started removing US wine and spirits from store shelves in March 2025, according to DISCUS.
But the Canadian alcohol industry is especially reliant on American consumers.
About 93% of Canadian spirits went to the United States in 2025, according to DISCUS.
"It's going to be absolutely devastating for Canada and Canadian distillers," said Swonger.
From motorcycles to booze, US ban on $1 billion worth of Canadian imports goes into effect
PAUL WISEMAN Mon, September 28, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles.
The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of annual two-way trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks another ratcheting up of President Donald Trump's second-term trade war with America's longtime ally and trading partner.
The import ban "certainly won't do anything to help the trade tensions between the United States and Canada,'' said trade attorney Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former U.S. trade official.
The latest sparring began over the summer when Trump reached back to a Great Depression law to impose 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, charging that Canada discriminates against U.S. dairy, auto and alcoholic beverage producers. Canada promptly counterpunched with tariffs of 15%, 25% or 50%, matching U.S. imports dollar for dollar.
To punish Canada for retaliating against his tariffs, Trump decided to ban a list of Canadian products, effective 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
Economic impact likely to be modest
The economic impact is likely to be minimal. Childress noted that the products on the banned list were already facing Trump's tariffs. "For a lot of these goods, the 50% was already acting as a de facto ban by making importation from Canada into the United States uneconomical,″ he said.
Jacob Jensen, director of trade policy at the center-right American Action Forum think tank, calculates that the ban would cover $967 million worth of Canadian imports, based on 2025 numbers. Of that, 87% would be alcoholic beverages that the U.S. targeted because of some Canadian provinces responding to Trump's provocations by banning U.S. booze from store shelves
Also banned are some dairy products — including the milk byproduct whey. The two countries have long clashed over Canada's attempts to protect its dairy industry from foreign competition by imposing hefty tariffs once dairy imports have exceeded a quota.
The ban also covers motorcycles. Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) in Quebec confirmed that its three-wheel Can-Am Spyder and Canyon motorcycles "will be excluded from importation into the U.S.'' But BRP said the impact likely won't be felt until next year because it has completed most production and shipments for the current season.
Independent spirit distillers and beer brewers are expected to bear the brunt of the ban more than some well-known Canadian brands that may have workarounds. For example, Crown Royal can ship its whisky in bulk for processing, bypassing the ban. And beer maker Labatt Brewing Co. has some bottling operations in the U.S., exempting some of its beer from the ban.
Diageo, which owns Crown Royal, and Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns Labatt, did not respond to requests for comments.
A distillery just across the Detroit River in Canada has stopped shipping whiskey to Michigan due to the ongoing tariff war and Trump's ban on Canadian alcohol. "It's really unfortunate," said Danielle Moldovan, director of marketing at the Wolfhead Distillery in Amherstburg, Ontario. "We are a border town. The Americans are great friends of ours, and they visit our distillery on a daily basis."
Moldovan is worried about the long-term impact on Wolfhead's business. Buyers in Georgia were interested in importing the distillery's Coffee Whisky. And its Michigan importer was considering its Vanilla Almond Biscotti and Banana Caramel Vodka. But "those products are going to be put on hold right now until we have further clarification about what's going to happen, how long this ban's going to last," Moldovan said.
"This marks yet another escalation in the trade war that may result in further retaliation on the Canadian side," Jensen said. He expects Canadian exporters and U.S. importers "impacted by these bans will be highly motivated'' to demand that trade officials on both sides find some way to reach a "resolution of this whole ordeal.'' A threat to US goal of a powerful North American trade pact
The impasse imperils efforts to renew the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a North American trade pact Trump pressured America's neighbors into accepting in his first term and which he once declared "the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country.''
The deal allowed most goods to cross North American borders duty free. But since returning to the White House last year, Trump has announced a series of tariffs that have clouded the future of trade in the region. Longtime ally Canada moves rapidly to find new trading partners
Trump has directed most of his ire at Canada. He is openly seeking to pull Canadian manufacturing south. And he has inflamed public opinion in Canada by repeatedly suggesting that the country become America's 51st state.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney came to power last year on a promise to stand up to Trump. In addition to retaliating against Trump's tariffs — China is the only other country to do so, with very different results — Carney has sought to reduce Canada's reliance on the United States, which last year accounted for more than 70% of Canadian exports.
"There is now a price to be paid for access to the United States market," Carney said earlier this month. The Canadian prime minister wants to double Canada's non-U.S. trade over the next decade.
And he said last week that trade negotiations with India are making "good progress" and that the two countries are aiming to conclude talks by the G20 summit in mid-December.
"We take note of the coming into force of the Administration's previously announced trade measures," said Gabriel Brunet, a spokesperson for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc. "Our first priority remains on protecting and supporting Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses from these unjustified actions. Our core focus is on what we can control: building strength at home, diversifying our partnerships abroad, and building Canada strong for all Canadians."
Trump expressed confidence that the Canadians would cave in.
"They're gonna come in and they're gonna say, 'Sir, we are sorry,'" he told reporters Monday. "They've treated the United States very, very badly. I think a deal will be made but it's gonna be fair."
Asked Tuesday about Trump's remarks, Carney declined to respond directly but said Canada remains open to talks.
"Canada stands ready to negotiate in good faith" toward "a mutually advantageous trade arrangement that respects both our countries' sovereignty," Carney said.
Carney also left the door open to further Canadian retaliation over U.S. tariffs and import bans, saying he would "never rule anything out." Asked whether Ottawa might increase trade pressure as the U.S. midterm elections approach, Carney said Canada would not time its response around the American political calendar.
He said Canada could help lower U.S. living costs and argued that energy, food, information and financial security are best served through reliable partnerships.
"Canada is a reliable partner, and we're ready to work in any or all of those areas," Carney said.
Trade attorney Childress said the standoff is likely to continue for months, not weeks. The import bans and the tariffs so far "probably won't cause enough economic upheaval to force either party back to the negotiating table,'' he said.
___
Associated Press writers Mae Anderson in New York, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Mike Householder, reporting from Amherstburg, Ontario, contributed to this story.
Thursday, September 24, 2026
U.S. tariffs and impending bans loom over Ontario and Canadian wine. One expert sees it as opportunity to grow at home
Workers are seen picking grapes at the Luckett Vineyards in Wallbrook, N.S. on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
As Canada’s wine industry is facing mounting pressure from U.S. trade restrictions,one industry leader says the turmoil could create an opportunity to expand the domestic market for Ontario - and Canadian-made wines.
“We can’t control what Washington does, but we can control our own choices, and we can control how we grow the industry in Canada,” said Dan Paszkowski, president and CEO of Wine Growers Canada.
Wine Growers Canada is a non-profit trade organization that represents Canadian wineries and acts as an industry liaison to federal and provincial governments. It represents 90 per cent of vineyards coast to coast.
According to Paszkowski, a total of 90 per cent of Canadian wine shipped to the United States is produced in Ontario, leaving the province’s wineries particularly exposed to the latest restrictions.
The ongoing trade dispute escalated in March 2025, when the U.S. imposed tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods, including alcohol. In response, Ontario and other provinces removed U.S. alcohol from store shelves.
In July, the Trump administration imposed a 50 per cent tariff on numerous goods, including Canadian spirits, wines, and more.
On Sept. 8, Trump signed executive orders that will effectively ban imports of a number of Canadian products, including alcoholic beverages, beginning Sept. 29.
The orders came hours after Ottawa announced counter-tariffs on roughly 700 American products. The new U.S. restrictions, imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, also cover certain dairy and agricultural products and motor vehicle equipment.
“The threat of tariffs, and then 50 per cent tariffs put in place in August creates a significant blow to be able to sell wine in the United States,” Paszkowski said.
Ontario vineyards, icewine sector hit particularly hard
Paszkowski said the tariffs are creating “a lot of uncertainty for the industry” and that large and small wineries across the country have been hit hard.
The restrictions could also have an impact beyond exports, particularly in Ontario’s wine regions, where wineries rely on visitors from across the border. Paszkowski said Americans who travel to Canada to visit wineries may no longer be able to bring Canadian wine home with them.
Icewine is a sweeter blend that is often compared to dessert food and is made from grapes that are left on the vine to freeze naturally in winter.
“Sixty per cent of all exports to the U.S. are icewine, so it is a very important market. If you think of, let’s say, a $40 bottle of wine entering the U.S., it automatically picks up a $20 tariff, turning it into a $60 bottle. Then you’ve got to take into account the margins the importer, distributor, and retailer want to make, so it makes the wine extremely expensive for consumers,” said Paszkowski.
Other impacted regions include the Okanagan Valley and parts of eastern Quebec.
“It’s a market that we’ve built over the years, and the loss of that, even for a short period of time, could be devastating because it could take us years to build back the consumer base and the loyal importers, distributors and retailers that we’ve also built, ” said Paszkowski.
Ted Scube, of Scube Family Farms, drives his harvester in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., on Jan. 26, 2007. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley
“It isn’t simply the bottled wines that will be banned from being sold to U.S. consumers. The importation ban also impacts the ability for U.S. consumers who quite often come to Canada to visit our wineries. They will no longer be able to bring that wine back home with them.”
Sector looking for increased relief from governments
Since tariffs came into effect 18 months ago, Paszkowski said wineries have seen a 45 per cent increase in domestic sales compared with before the tariffs came into effect.
“That shows that Canadians have an affinity for buying Canadian, and if that product is visible and available to the consumer, they will choose Canadian over other products,” according to Paszkowski.
“Currently we only have a 30 per cent market share in this country of Canadian wine. The other 70 per cent is all imports. If we can take a little bit of those import sales, it creates a huge economic dividend for Canada.”
Vineyards across Canada currently receive grant funding through the Wine Sector Support Program, a $343-million non-repayable grant program that is set to expire in 2027. Paszkowski hopes the program will be extended.
Wine Growers Canada is also calling for more action within the industry to promote Canadian wines, including reforming federal excise taxes, removing provincial trade barriers, and ensuring Canadian wine receives more shelf space compared with international producers.
On Friday, the LCBO announced plans to increase its marketing campaign dubbed “We’re all in on Ontario.”
Previously, the LCBO said Ontario-made spirit sales increased by more than $500 million between April 1, 2025, and June 2026. Ontario wine sales also grew by 44 per cent over the same period.
Canadian alcohol is seen at an LCBO store in Ottawa, on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
“Right now a winery cannot ship directly to a bar or restaurant in another province, and if that wine isn’t carried in that province, that restricts the ability for us to sell our product,” Paszkowski said.
“We’re an industry that’s not going anywhere. When we plant our vines, we’re sticking around forever.”
Freshly harvested grapes are piled in a storage container at Berryhill Family Vineyards in Clements, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
LODI, Calif. — It’s harvest time in California wine country, but many growers are struggling to sell their grapes as changing drinking habits have caused demand to plunge. The decline is forcing some growers to tear out vineyards that their families have grown for generations.
Wine sales have decreased by more than 20 per cent over a five-year period, causing prices paid for grapes to drop and prompting California growers to take roughly a quarter of the state’s vineyards out of production. Many growers are having to decide whether to harvest at a loss, leave grapes on the vine or replace vineyards with crops more in demand such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios and olives.
Third-generation grower Bill Berryhill said it means another year of losing money and wasting hundreds of tons of healthy grapes.
“It’s just sickening,” said Berryhill, standing in a vineyard of unsold merlot grapes. “You raise a beautiful crop, and it’s really a nice vintage this year, and you drop it on the ground. It’s sad. All your work is just down the toilet.”
Berryhill, who owns Berryhill Family Vineyards near Lodi in the San Joaquin Valley, said he can’t find buyers for grapes grown on 200 of his 500 acres (202 hectares). He plans to remove 50 acres (20 hectares) of vineyards when the harvest season is over.
“I will lose money for sure. It’s just a matter of how much,” Berryhill, 68, said. “This has been a big loser for three years now.”
Grape growers take vineyards out of production
At its peak during the pandemic, California had almost 600,000 acres (242,811 hectares) of vineyards, but farmers have removed or stopped actively growing wine grapes on roughly 25 per cent of that land, said Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers, which represents about 500 farmers statewide.
This year, about half of California’s wine grape crop entered the harvest season without contracts with buyers, compared with 70 to 80 per cent with contracts in a typical year, Bitter said.
If they’re lucky, growers can sell their uncontracted grapes at a loss to buyers making concentrated syrup.
Even as growers have abandoned or removed tens of thousands of acres of vineyards in California in recent years, too many grapes are still being produced, Bitter said.
“The market is just so depressed that it’s difficult to grow them profitably,” he said. “Demand is not going up. It’s still continuing to decline.”
Kyle Collins, a Lodi-based operations manager with Allied Grape Growers, recently examined ripe grapes in a petite verdot vineyard in Lodi, one of California’s most productive wine regions.
“Unfortunately, we do not have a buyer for these grapes,” Collins said. “That’s unfortunately a reality for not just this vineyard but a lot of us around here.”
Besides hurting vineyards, the drop in sales has hit local businesses and workers, he said.
“That’s not getting into the pockets of the people doing the field labor, the farmworkers,” Collins said. “It does have a trickle effect in the economy.”
Wine sales fall after years of growth
The downturn is a dramatic shift for the wine industry in California, which produces more than 80 per cent of U.S. wine due to its unique geography and Mediterranean climate. For decades, California’s wine industry grew steadily as Americans, particularly baby boomers, developed a taste for cabernet, zinfandel, chardonnay and other varietals.
The most famous wine regions such as Napa and Sonoma Valley produced premium vintages while the Central Valley grew grapes for less expensive labels.
Wine sales peaked during the pandemic in 2021 when restaurants were closed and social gatherings restricted. People stocked up on wine and drank more at home.
But over the past five years, wine sales have declined sharply, and they’re expected to fall further this year.
In the U.S., sales of wine cases declined 23 per cent from 427 million in 2020 to 329 million in 2025, while total wine spending fell 22 per cent from $94 billion to $74 billion, according to First Citizens Bank, formerly Silicon Valley Bank, which produces an annual State of the Wine Industry Report.
Wine industry faces more competition, tariffs and changing tastes
California can’t export its excess inventory because wine consumption is down globally and it’s more expensive to produce in the U.S. than countries such as Argentina and Australia, Bitter said. In 2025, global wine consumption declined 2.7 per cent from 2024 and 14 per cent from 2018, with sharp declines in Europe and China, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine.
There are a variety of forces driving the decline in wine sales. Baby boomers are aging out of the market while young people are drinking less alcohol due to health and financial concerns. Wine faces competition from craft beer, liquor and canned cocktails as well as cannabis.
“The kids just aren’t drinking as much,” Berryhill said. “And it’s not just wine, it’s whiskey and beer and everything. And then you’ve also got the competition with all the seltzers.”
Tariffs have reduced exports, particularly to Canada, which was the largest foreign buyer of American wine.
“The next step in the healing process is not only balancing supply and demand, but now actually figuring out what it is that the other consumers want,” said Rob McMillan, chief wine strategist at First Citizens Bank.
The industry hopes the market will bottom out soon. Meanwhile, growers are absorbing heavy losses trying to hang on.
Berryhill, whose grandfather started growing grapes nearly 100 years ago, doesn’t plan to give up on wine even though it’s costing him.
“I love growing grapes. It’s in the blood,” Berryhill said. “Because I love them, I can weather this and I’ll fight through it.”
