The dramatic globalization of the world's wine markets over the past two or three decades (see Anderson 2004) has generated countless new wine consumers. This has added to both the opportunities and competitive challenges for producers seeking to differentiate their product to attract the attention of consumers. Consumers in turn are always looking for new types of wines, and more so as wines within at least the lower-priced product ranges become more homogeneous with multinationalization of both wineries and wine retailers.

One strategy for producers has been to display grape varietal names on wine bottle labels. Its success, especially for lower-priced New World wines, has led to demands in the European Union for freeing up labelling laws so as to allow such labelling there also. Meanwhile, producers in the New World are increasingly realizing the marketing value of going beyond country of origin to regional (and even single-vineyard) labelling as another form of product differentiation – something that has long been practiced by Europe's traditional producers.

In addition to striving to differentiate their product, producers are also well aware of the impact climate changes (higher temperatures, more extreme weather events) are having on their winegrapes. Adaptation strategies include switching to warmer-climate or more-resilient grape varieties, and re-locating to a higher latitude or altitude to retain the current mix of grape varieties.