Why have I devoted so many recent podcasts to interviewing small Sonoma wineries? Why did my partner, Laura, and I do an event featuring them and will do more in the future? And why do I regularly release the Big List: wineries owned by the huge, hulking wineries?

This podcast pulls it all together! After a quick intro from me and Laura, I hold the first roundtable/discussion. Jim, Oded, and I talk about...

• The state of wine in CA/around the world from a consolidation perspective
• What happens when a small winery is taken over by a large winery (personnel, vineyards, style changes, etc)
• What happens for small guys when consolidation rules the day (what does this do to opportunity, to consumer choice, to viability)
• The economics of how the small producer gets no attention/gets squeezed in the sales cycle
• How small wineries stay in business/economically viable in the face of more and more consolidation
• The quality question and big wineries
• What consumers can do to diversify their drinking

We hope you can see why the issue is so dear to our hearts and I hope you can see why I am such a champion of small producers these days!

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