17/06/2021

Turrentine Brokerage Story  

After 36 years of wine business experience with Wine Institute and as the head of the California Wine AdvisoryBoard, Dan C. Turrentine founded Turrentine Brokerage in 1973.

The company was started to assist grower and winery clients with supply challenges and opportunities and to provide the best, data-driven information and analysis to help clients avoid supply problems and make the most profitable choices in a complex and constantly changing business.

For more than four decades, Turrentine Brokerage has stayed true to this goal, developing a team of grape and wine brokers who lead the wine business not only in sales volume but also in understanding supply cycles and evolving market conditions.

 During this time, Turrentine Brokerage has grown from one employee to twenty-three and has negotiated sales of grapes and wine in bulk exceeding 1.5 billion dollars. This irreplaceable experience has afforded the company the expertise needed to protect your interests in both spot market sales and long-term contracts. The company has also created various tools to empower their clients, including the Market Update newsletter, the Turrentine Outlook: Strategies and Forecasts for a Competitive Advantage and the Collateral Value Report for facilitating asset-based lending to the wine business. Employee-owned, with a majority of the equity held by its senior brokers,Turrentine Brokerage has built up a substantial export/import business for wines in bulk and also sells private label and special situation case goods.

 

Turrentine Wine Business Wheel of Fortune

Organizing around supply cycles is absolutely critical to success in the grape and wine business. No amount of marketing genius will save a brand that cannot find an adequate supply of grapes and wine of competitive quality at competitive prices. No amount of marketing and distribution muscle will save a brand that is weighted down with overpriced inventory in a flooded marketplace. Playing the cycles correctly provides a powerful competitive advantage and is often critical to long-term survival in the wine business.

Brands that have planned their supply commitments correctly by understanding the long-term trends, short-term trends and global supply are able to ratchet down their cost-of-goods-sold and focus on what is working in the market rather than what is gathering dust in the warehouse. With over 40 years of industry experience, Turrentine Brokerage’s Wine Business Wheel of Fortune has become an industry standard for market cycle dynamics. 

Turrentine Brokerage Exhibitor at 2017 IBWSS San Francisco

Brian Clements Vice President/Partner

With over 25 years of experience, Brian is a wine business veteran who has worked with small high-end growers and wineries and also with the largest players in the state. Brian is Vice President and Partner at Turrentine Brokerage, his responsibilities include managing Turrentine’s industry-leading grape brokerage team and working with clients throughout California, including the North Coast, Central Coast, and the Central Valley. A featured speaker at many wine business events, Brian is an expert in how to effectively balance risks in a volatile market and how to anticipate supply cycles. He has personally negotiated well over $500,000,000 in wine grape contracts, including spot market sales, multiple-year agreements and planting contracts. Brian writes the Grape Market Insights column for the North Bay Business Journal and is frequently quoted in business and other media regarding grape market conditions and forecasts. A graduate of Fresno State with a Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Science/Viticulture, he lives in Sonoma County and enjoys time with his family and participating in tennis, racquetball and scuba diving.

Steve Fredricks

President/Partner Steve Fredricks joined Turrentine Brokerage in 1991 as a bulk wine broker. Over the years he has established himself as an expert in the sales of bulk wine and grapes, understanding market cycles, and building long-term relationships. Steve is currently managing all Turrentine Brokerage operations and directly responsible for Turrentine’s international relationships and strategic alliances in France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Chile, and Argentina.

In addition, he also oversees the publishing of the Turrentine Brokerage Collateral Value Report and The Turrentine Outlook. Steve is a frequent speaker at several annual wine industry meetings discussing the bulk wine, grape, and international markets. Steve graduated from U.C. Davis with an individual major of Wine Production Management and Marketing, combining business and fermentation science. During the weekends, Steve can be found on his road bike or mountain bike climbing the hills of Marin County or in the mountains skiing with his daughters.

Turrentine Brokerage Services Grapes—Strategic Sourcing and Sales

In the wine business, a brand’s supply strategy can be almost as important as its marketing strategy. Even a hot brand cannot grow faster than its supply. Hot brands need the right fuel; that is, they need reliable and expanding sources of quality fruit. Since 1973, Turrentine Brokerage has been California’s leading grape broker, matching the right fruit and growers with the right brands and with appropriate timing to manage risks and to ensure long-term success through all phases of the wine business supply cycle. Turrentine Brokerage knows the needs, the brands, the sources, the people and the trends to make wine business supply and demand dynamics work for you. Team Turrentine’s business is based on client satisfaction, long-term relationships and repeat business.

Wines in Bulk:

Spot Market and Strategic Sourcing

Wineries sell and buy wines in bulk as a routine part of managing inventories in a business with dramatic yearly changes in production and daily changes in demand. Some wineries also use the market for wines in bulk as part of their core supply strategy. A rapidly growing brand, for example, might contract for a flexible, multiple-year supply of wine to sustain casegood sales growth. Or a winery might reduce their cost-of-goods-sold by maximizing production to include wines contracted to others in bulk. With over forty years of experience, Turrentine Brokerage understands your opportunities and individual needs and can help you avoid the potential pitfalls in this unique and volatile sector of the wine business.

Global Bulk Wine

The wine business has always been a global business, but in recent years the easier and quicker access to information and the improvement in technology of bladders for transportation in bulk has made understanding the supply and demand balance in the key wine growing regions around the world even more important. Since 1996 Turrentine Brokerage has had strategic alliances with strong brokers in France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Chile, and Argentina. These relationships allow us to have up to date real-time market information on the bulk supply and demand balance of the wine that is competitive with California wines. With over 40 years of experience, Turrentine Brokerage knows the key elements necessary for successful global sourcing. Team Turrentine’s business is based on client satisfaction, long-term relationships, and repeat business.

Global Strategic Brands

The wine business has always been a global business and the demand for control brand cased goods has increased from buyers in the United States. Understanding the supply and demand balance in the key wine growing regions around the world is even more important. Since 1996 Turrentine Brokerage has had strategic alliances with strong suppliers in France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Chile, and Argentina.

Their partners have spent years establishing relationships with successful companies who control supply and have proven to provide excellent customer service and consistently high-quality control brand cased goods. These relationships allow us to have up to date real-time market information on supply and demand balance of the varietals and regions meeting your consumer’s current desires while assisting with the development of future trends. With over 40 years of experience, Turrentine Brokerage knows the key elements necessary for successful global sourcing. Team Turrentine’s business is based on client satisfaction, long-term relationships, and repeat business.

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Custom Evaluations

As additional support to clients and lenders, Turrentine Brokerage offers a variety of custom evaluations. Below are the three different options they provide:

1.) Basic Evaluation: Winery provides list of wines, with gallons of each and percentage of vintage, varietal and appellation. Prices are provided upon the assumption that all of the wines are of good or better quality. The fee for a Basic Evaluation is $550.0

2.) Sensory Evaluation: A sample of each wine and a detailed list accompanying the samples including variety, vintage, appellation, and gallons or cases available should be sent to Turrentine Brokerage for evaluation. Prices are based upon the actual quality of each wine. Lenders often request this service annually in order to satisfy examiners. Premium wineries may request this service in the expectation that their wine will justify a higher than average collateral value. The fee for a Sensory Evaluation is $550.00 plus $28.00 per wine tasting.

3.) On Winery Site Audit/Evaluation: The winery provides a list of wines and tank samples as above. Turrentine Brokerage personnel visits the winery and spot checks physical inventory against inventory list (bulk &/or case goods). The fee for On Winery Site Audit/Evaluation is $1,700 per 1/2 day and $2,500 for a full day (plus expenses where applicable). Small, local winery evaluations can often be performed within the 1/2-day time frame, including the written report. Larger or more distant wineries generally require a full day.

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About IBWSS San Francisco

The International Bulk Wine and Spirits Show (IBWSS) is an annual trade show and conference, open to trade professionals only, which takes place in San Francisco, CA. IBWSS visitors are buyers looking to meet up their demand for bulk wines, bulk spirits, private label programs, grape buying or contract manufacturing.

IBWSS San Francisco will give supermarkets, retailers, restaurants, wineries, distilleries, and other buyers a premier international platform to source bulk wine and spirits and meet private label suppliers. 

Who are exhibitors?

IBWSS exhibitors are wineries and distilleries looking to sell bulk wine and spirits, producers and negociants who offer contract manufacturing / private label programs and wineries/distilleries/importers who have one-time excess stock to clear.

Who are Visitors / Buyers?

IBWSS buyers are Wineries, distilleries, breweries, importers, distributors, retailers, national and regional chains, negociants, brokerage firms who are looking for bulk wine, bulk spirits, private label manufacturing, and grapes.

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