Meet Rob McMillan, EVP and Founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s Wine Division, based in St. Helena, Napa Valley. His Division is regarded as the leading provider of financial services to the US Fine Wine Business. He is also the author of the highly acclaimed “Annual State of the Wine Industry Report,” and on this episode of “Napa Valley Inside Out” we talk about how baby boomers, millennials, cannabis and much more, play into his 2019 forecast for the wine business.
This surprising conversation begins by noting a decrease in the volume of wine sales for the first time since 1993, and dives into the potential reasons behind it – from anti-health messaging and baby boomers retiring, to younger people drinking beer and spirits, high rates of debt and unemployment, thus different values and an indulgence gap. We end part one of our conversation talking about Constellation Brands – the second largest wine company in the United States, investing $4B in Canada’s Canopy Growth Corporation, the largest cannabis producer in the world. Keep an eye out next week for Part Two of our interview on the State of the Wine Industry.
