The Global Compass Report 2019 – What is it and What Does it Tell Us About Global Wine Industry

As wine lovers, we only see a small portion of what the global wine industry has to offer.

Of course, we know about our favourite Italian wines and we’re keen to learn about the stories behind the amazing producers who put their bottles in our hands.

But many of us know little of the trends that affect the wine industry on a global level. And we don’t even think about how those trends might affect the decisions that Italian wine producers make.

Take the annual Global Compass report.

That industry report reveals a ton of information about the wine industry that most of us will never think to learn about.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at what the report is and examine some of the key findings from the 2019 edition.

What is the Global Compass Report?

Every year, Wine Intelligence releases its Global Compass report to act as a sort of guidebook for the Italian wine industry.

The goal?

To provide global industry data that will help those who purchase the report to make important business decisions.

The presence of the word purchase should tell you that this isn’t something that’s open to the general public. The report carries a €1,200 price tag, which shows just how much value is held within its pages.

The report contains a number of tools, which include any interactive data tool and a reference guidebook. But the most valuable part of it, by far, is its list of the 50 most attractive wines markets globally.

This isn’t just some quickly put together list either. Wine Intelligence draws on tons of industry data to come to its conclusions. They consider everything from economic factors through to wine quality, alongside so much more, to come to their conclusions.

All combined, these factors demonstrate which countries offer the best business prospects for those in the industry.

So, do you want to get a peek into what the report’s telling the global and Italian wine industries this year?

Here are a few of the highlights that may give you some insight into the future direction of the global industry.

Highlight #1 – The United States Tops the List of 50 Countries

Just to start off, we need to reiterate that this isn’t a list of wine industries based on quality, though American wines can offer plenty of that. Instead, this simply shows us that the American wine industry offers the most potential to the global industry.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise either. The country has an established wine industry of its own and it important hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars’ worth of wine every year.

And that doesn’t even consider how much it exports.

That makes it the most attractive wine market in the world. However, the report does point out that the American market has started to slow down and lose a little value. It’s not enough to knock it off the top spot just yet. But it will be interesting to see if this slow slide continues over the next few years.

Highlight #2 – South Korea Hits the Top 10 For the First Time

We’ve often spoken about the potential that the Asian sector has for the Italian wine industry. However, we’ve generally focused our attention on the Indian and Chinese markets, both of which the Italian wine industry is still looking to gain a foothold in.

We admit that we’ve been sleeping on the South Korean industry!

According to the Global Compass, it’s the 10^thmost attractive wine market in the entire world.

That should put some Italian wine producers on notice. There’s a strong market in South Korea that many may not have thought about introducing their products too. According to the report, the time may be now to start building a presence within the country.

Highlight #3 – Italy Didn’t Make the Top Five

In what we have to admit is something of a surprise, the Italian wine industry didn’t manage to crack the Top 5 of the Global Compass report’s list of the most attractive wine markets.

Instead, France, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands rounded out the top portion of the list.

We know this isn’t down to quality, as Italian wines are still amongst the biggest sellers in the world.

That leads us to assume that there are economic factors at play here. Perhaps worries about the effects of climate change on harvests have played a part here. Some may even argue that the report anticipates some production problems in Italy’s future.

Highlight #4 – Global Wine Market Value Has Increased

There were some worries that the global industry would see a decrease in value in 2019.

That doesn’t appear to be the case. In fact, the global industry has grown by 3% based on retail prices of wine.

It’s worth about €140 billion, despite supply remaining stable during the year.

The report puts this down to several factors, the most important one likely being a drive towards quality on the part of consumers. Wine buyers know more about the products that they’re purchasing than ever before. And according to the report, they’re going for higher quality – and often higher priced – wines.

Harvest issues may have also played a part. Perceived shortfalls in crops could have led to scarcity concerns that allowed those in the industry to raise prices, thus creating the growth that we’ve seen despite supply staying stable.

Taxes have also played a part. Simply put, higher taxes in some regions have led to retailers charging more.

The Final Word

This is only a snippet of what you can learn about the industry from the Global Compass report.

But even this brief insight into what its pages contain show you just how valuable it is to those in the industry. 

We’re sure that there are many producers and industry big-wigs who’ve happily purchased the report. Now, we’re interested to see what effect its findings will have on the direction of the Italian wine industry.