When you look at how spirits bottomed out in the 90s, the industry said, we have a consumer relevancy problem. And they went and did something about it. Seagram and others saw a demographic opportunity with Millennials. And the rest has been history for the last 25 years of growth. My feeling is wine can look at this moment as a similar inflection point.

The great thing is most wine companies are family owned. We have been through business cycles before. Supply will rebalance, and that’s a short-term challenge. But the job with the consumer will not rebalance itself if we don’t go out and work against it.

SND: How are you approaching that challenge from Gallo’s standpoint?

West: We know that the 21- to 29-year-old doesn’t just shop in grocery stores. So how do our sets look in the wine category in c-stores? What are we doing about single-serve formats, and making sure wine is merchandised well in a c-store environment, offering a range of products?

We also have some very underrepresented groups in this country that actually enjoy and consume beverage alcohol. And I wonder how much are we really talking to them? We look at the relevancy of Hispanic consumers in this country today, who overindex on beer and malt-based products and spirits.

That’s why you see us doing things like our partnership with the NFL, and bringing that into Hispanic grocery with Alamos. Alamos already does well in that sub-channel, but when I walk in around Super Bowl time, all I see is beer merchandised and backed with ads and promotions. But we are fortunate enough to have this NFL partnership, and we’re using it to participate in this huge national occasion.

Same thing with Andre. We’ve made Andre the official sparkling wine of the NFL, and it’s a great fit for pre-game Mimosas, which attract both men and women. It fits the right price point, occasion, and accessibility.

SND: Last year around this time you onboarded several new spirits brands. How are they doing?

West: We take a long-term view and understand that these are brands that have to be built, largely speaking. But if we look at the success of things in our portfolio like Don Fulano Tequila in particular, we think we have the skillset and the internal knowledge and muscle of how to build things methodically over time the right way. Condesa gin ($40) is off to a great start, and we’re super happy with Barrilito rum here in New York and their engagement during the Puerto Rican Day parade. That brand is truly a source of great pride for Puerto Ricans. That’s partially what I mean by the targeting and building aspect. We don’t need Barrilito to be everywhere right now. We need to make sure that it’s relevant and winning with its target market.

Gran Malo (a Tequila-based spicy shot brand) has been a juggernaut this year. And then on the RTD side, VMC is doing great, and the launch of Lucky One Lemonade has been incredible. That’s tapping into the premiumization of lemonade, but also the no- and low-carbonation space. On the West Coast, from a small base the Salt Point RTD that we acquired last year is seeing nice momentum.

SND: What’s the latest on High Noon?

West: The overall seltzer space is contracting, but it’s contracting based on a number of players that are in steep decline. When you look at the history of RTDs through multiple cycles, it usually contracts after the gold rush is over and then you have one or two top brands that start to grow again. As I think about macro trends, low-abv, sessionability, portability, there’s no reason High Noon won’t continue to grow.

I’d add that the numbers in vodka are flat to slightly declining, but no vodka brand recruits 21-29-year-olds as much as New Amsterdam does. It connects well with young and multicultural males. And we’re very positive on the future of New Amsterdam.