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Right, it's not a commodity at all. Commodity implies it's all the same and virtually interchangeable. Even two wines of the same varietal from the same region and micro-climate produced in the same year can taste vastly different.

Just because there are a lot of choices does not mean it's a commodity. My guess is that the author just doesn't understand wine and saw some numbers.

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That may be true in the eyes of enlightened consumers, but there are a lot of people who cannot easily discern these different types of wine, and to them wine is a commodity.

Consider a commodity like steel. To most people, steel is steel. You can use steel from any supplier in any project that requires it. But to some people, particularly engineers and material scientists in very specific applications, the different makes of steel become more important.

So one person's commodity may be another person's brand. I think the point of the article is to encourage producers to work to shift the trend towards brand, to their advantage.

Well, by your logic just about anything can be a commodity, which would make the term nearly useless.

Wine producers have been shiting toward brand since their inception. Again, I don't think the author understands the wine industry at all.

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