"I have wine tastings weekly with other brewers / bar owners. The rise of natural wines and the many techniques that are transferable to barrel aging / spontaneous / blending / sour beers is incredible. To write this off is to ignore the many brewers who work with wine and spirit producers as well as those who are doing all three under one brand / roof. It is a natural progression. The closest brewery to me has Brett fermented white wine aging in wood as well as amphoras of spontaneous red. My Assistant brewer has multiple spontaneous wines on the go. Geographic location will play a big part (we are an hour from wine country and most of our wood comes from there.

Many brewers have direct relationships with wineries and distilleries for sourcing barrels. Many of those are from the same region, allowing a product story to be told that has elements of local, community, collaboration and also cross-marketing - which is what I see as a main point here. Funnily enough, all things many breweries are already doing with each other.

Artisanal wines and spirits are (from places I've visited) seeing massive growth and there is very likely a relationship to the growth of 'craft beer' with consumers looking for local and new flavor experiences.”