🍷Private Label Developer🍾 Startup Consultant ⛏️ Winery Equipment & Fabrication🧑🔧Expert Witness⚖️Organic Oak Concentrates 🌳 De-Alc/VA Removal 👨🔬 Flexcube Patented Bbls USA 🛢️ Hand-Crafted French Oak Bbls 🎥
Good point Alison! With so many wineries and brands in total ‘survival mode’, I think it’s real easy to start chasing alternative routes to a P&L. Your point about the restaurants is potentially a great key, especially if wineries had greater access to collaboration with local restaurants. With 170,000+ new brand registrations in the last year, 80,000+ of them imported product, staying in business seems to be overshadowing the focus of being a great hospitality brand. I believe in creating experiential winery events highlighting the miraculous details of wine as the key to great hospitality eventing. A little food ‘to go with it’ is an accent or enhancement to the focus, not a focus of the brand.🛟🍷 #directtoconsumer #dtc #winemakersforum #wine #winery
One thing I didn’t say… I think we (the wineries) need to stop with creating experiences that go beyond wine tastings. We started wineries to make and sell wine. We didn’t start a winery to become a restaurant & entertainment venue. Resources that most small wineries do not have nor want to mess with. A scary “keeping up with the Jones” post-pandemic wine country situation is happening. So many visitors are booking with wineries based on food programs, bands, candle making classes & etc. These guests are not walking out with wine. Honestly, if we all stuck to just providing incredible wine hospitality, our community of restaurants would be stronger too. IMHO. Thoughts?
Rena Wallace
8mo
The “new market” is experience driven and are more interested in going out for a good time than drinking wine at home. So no, they are not walking away with wine. Nor will the majority of them be doing so anytime soon. The next generation of drinkers are more health conscious and put more merit in memories made than tokens acquired. That said, wineries need to approach this new generation with a more balanced experience. Yes, it should be about making memories and reminding folks the joy of being present in the moment and experiencing something special. To translate this to sales the star of the show needs to be the wine. However, not so much in case sales as becoming subscribers to the brand and the lifestyle that it represents. In other words, sell futures on wine events. Get people excited about the product through the brand story in a way that allows them to feel “a part of” the brand or family. Use the tools at your disposal, create experiences that educate folks on viticulture, harvest, production, etc. and see how quickly folks want to be a part of what your doing.
Of course! The challenges of our current domestic US market all converge upon one topic: How well US/California brands transition to becoming the minority international brand promoted to consumers. With 41% international wines on the grocery shelf and outcompeting on price to quality, California as a whole is in desperate need to rebrand itself. Alison's point is critical in the rebranding as it focuses on the need to create an 'authentic identity' in the consumers eyes rather than generic large brand commodity wine branding and winemaking.
John Turner
8mo
Differentiation and getting noticed is hard in a globalized amazon world of infinite choices and smaller channels of distribution. Government costs are an additional burden . One has to rely on Local/quality as the main driver , and put pressure on excessive market access from international.
Robert Lawson
8mo
Good points here!
Business Owner at Vino Tinto Grape & Wine Sales | Sustainable Winery Equipment Sales | Barrel Grade Oak Staves
8moIt’s a really common story right now, everyone seems to be off their feet a little on how to approach the ‘new’ market.