Market Recap: 2020 By Mark Stock Last month, Silicon Valley Bank broke down some of the major trends of the year within the American wine scene via its annual State of the Wine Industry videocast. The hour-long meeting was the 20th consecutive of its kind and focused on how wine has weathered and adapted to major obstacles like the pandemic and wildfires. The videocast included dialogue from Amy Hoopes of Wente Family Estates, Erik McLaughlin of Metis, Devin Joshua of Merryvale Vineyards and Paul Mabray of Pix.wine. It was moderated by Rob McMillan of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Like much of the news from 2020, the report was fairly sobering, but there were also some interesting developments and business adaptations that indicate a resilience in general. Interestingly, the hospitality gut-punch that COVID delivered helped create a much-needed boost. SVB reported an oversupply and discounting in much of the wine realm prior to the pandemic, but by March and April, panic buying set in and wine experienced a significant uptick in sales.