DtC shipment value fell more than 10% versus a year ago to $185 million in August, according to WineBusiness Analytics/Sovos ShipCompliant. Volume for the month fell nearly 12% to 419,266 cases. Both value and volume remained well above 2019 despite a steady decline in volume since 2020. Value held on to pandemic-era gains as the average bottle price of shipments continued to climb. But even here, the average of $36.76 a bottle was up less than 2% versus a year ago. 

The DTC shipment data are one of the Wine Industry Metrics reported each month in the Wine Analytics Report. The September issue of the report focused on the wine industry in the state of Washington, which has a bright point in the channel, being the sole region to post growth in the latest 12 months. The state’s wineries shipped $185.5 million wort of wine DtC during the period, or less than 5% of total shipments by value, and 383,413 cases, or 5% of total volume. Shipment value was up nearly 15%, the sole West Coast region to report an increase. While wineries in regions outside the West Coast saw value increase 4%, total channel value declined more than 3% during the period. Volume increased nearly 3%, the only region that shipped more wine in the last 12 months than a year earlier.