How Packaging Suppliers Are Supporting the Future of Wine As wineries continue to adapt to shifting consumer preferences and production demands, packaging innovation remains a key area of focus. Closure manufacturers are responding with solutions that support not only product protection, but also convenience, branding, and production efficiency. Herti, with more than 30 years of experience in closure solutions, continues to serve the wine and beverage sectors with a broad portfolio designed for modern bottling needs. For wineries evaluating packaging upgrades, closure selection is increasingly seen as part of the larger strategy around quality assurance and consumer trust.

In this episode of the WIN Insider Series, George Christie sits down with Alison Crowe, Vice President of Winemaking and Partner at Plata Wine Partners, to explore her remarkable journey through the wine industry. From her early days growing up in California’s Central Coast to studying viticulture and enology at UC Davis, Alison shares how curiosity, hands-on experience, and a willingness to take risks shaped her career across roles at Chalone Vineyard, Curtis Winery, and Bonny Doon Vineyard. She also reflects on authoring The Winemaker’s Answer Book and how translating complex winemaking concepts into practical insights has been a common thread in her work. Alison offers a candid look at today’s wine landscape, from the collaborative, client-focused model at Plata Wine Partners to the broader challenges facing the industry, including shifting consumer preferences and increased competition. She discusses the importance of making wine more approachable, the need for

A tumultuous 2025 economy likely depressed wine sales. In 2026, the higher-end segments should continue to outperform, and the grape market should be less oversupplied when harvest begins. REPORT SNAPSHOT Situation: Wine sales softened across the board in 2025, and prices stagnated as a result of consumer price sensitivity and heightened competition among producers trying to move excess inventory. Although the wine market slump continues, relative bright spots include premium and luxury wines, nonalcoholic and ready-to-drink wines, and white and sparkling wines. Outlook: I’m not expecting a material change in the trajectory of U.S. wine sales in the near term, though I see the most potential for progress in the second half of the year. There should be less excess supply burdening the grape market when the 2026 harvest begins than there was in 2025. Impact: For wineries that are fairly certain about their grape needs, it may be prudent to act sooner rather than later. Download the

Fruitful Innovation Can Lead to Tax Benefits Napa has never had the luxury of standing still. This valley adapts. When the weather shifts, growers adjust. When consumer preferences change, winemakers experiment. New rootstock. New clones. Different planting locations. New production techniques. Reinvention here is not a trend. It is how we survive. That is innovation. And in many cases, it is also research. We are not talking about changing a label design or launching a new club tier. We're talking about the real technical questions you wrestle with in the vineyard and the cellar: Can this new grape clone handle higher temperatures? Will adjusting canopy management reduce sunburn without sacrificing ripeness? Can we modify fermentation to improve stability or manage alcohol levels? Is there a way to produce a non-alcohol option that still feels like wine? When you do not know the answer and you run trials to find it, you are eliminating uncertainty. You are experimenting. You are

The art of crafting the perfect bottle can elevate a brand to new heights. In the competitive world of wine and spirits, packaging plays a pivotal role in capturing consumer attention and conveying brand identity. This is where the expertise and innovation of Global Package and the leading-edge designs of Estal converge. Global Package is the preferred distributor for Estal in the US, working together since 2007. Our partnership brings together a wealth of experience in sourcing, supplying, and designing exceptional glass packaging. Together, we offer a comprehensive solution that empowers wine and spirit brands to stand out on the shelves and connect with their audience. Estal: A Leader in Glass Packaging Innovation Estal is a global leader in crafting exceptional glass packaging renowned for its commitment to innovation, quality, and sustainability.  Boasting over 25 years of industry expertise, Estal has honed its craft of design, understanding the unique packaging needs of th

myWineClubApp™ - Agency Partner Plan Wine Marketing Agencies Are Quietly Claiming a New DTC Communication Channel Something unusual is happening in wine marketing. While much of the industry continues to wrestle with declining response rates, unreliable email deliverability, and growing SMS fatigue, a new pattern is emerging behind the scenes: wine marketing agencies are beginning to secure strategic positions around an entirely new DTC communication channel. The channel is myWineClubApp™ — a patent-pending, preference-based messaging platform designed specifically for modern wine clubs. Why myWineClubApp? Originally developed as a direct solution for wineries struggling with fragmented customer communications, myWineClubApp has quickly drawn attention from agencies who recognize a larger opportunity: helping their winery clients establish a persistent, brand-owned presence on consumers’ phones while reducing dependence on traditional channels. Unlike conven

After 30 years of moving up and to the right, the American wine industry hit a wall. Not a temporary slowdown or a soft patch. A structural shift that requires a fundamentally different marketing playbook. 2025 was the reality check. 2026 is the year wineries either adapt or watch their customer base age out beneath them. The data is now unambiguous: wine sales dropped approximately 6% in 2024, marking the steepest decline in decades according to SipSource industry data. More troubling than the headline number is what's driving it. This isn't a recession blip or a bad vintage. It's a fundamental realignment of who drinks wine, how they buy it, and what they expect from the brands they choose. Here are the five trends reshaping the US wine market and what they mean for your brand's survival. The Demographic Disruption The wine industry built its growth on one generation: Baby Boomers. That generation is now aging out. The Wine Market Council's 2025 U.S. Consumer Ben

I spend an embarrassing amount of time every January reading year-end recaps, trend reports, and “culture in review” pieces. It’s part professional habit, part curiosity, part doomscrolling with a notebook. But as I started flipping through 2025 retrospectives, something felt… off. Not alarming. Not exciting. Just oddly muted. Nothing was shouting. Nothing felt particularly sharp. Even the topics that usually come with big opinions seemed softened, neutralized, turned down a few notches. So I pulled the thread. And the more I looked, the more I began noticing the same quiet signals emerging in places that had no connection to each other: design trends, language, social behavior, media content, fashion, and even travel preferences. Different industries. Different audiences. Same emotional temperature. Meh. Which led me to a question I couldn’t shake: Is this increasing indecisiveness a new form of rebellion? A sign of boredom? Or are we just culturall

2025 in review; looking ahead to 2026 This month’s California Report looks back at 2025 on the bulk wine and grape markets and ahead to what we might expect to see in 2026. Bulk inventory charts for a number of 12-month ranges – and updated for January – are included, so too SipSource US wholesaler depletions data that takes in the opening two months of the important OND sales period, and the first packaging bulletin of the year from our friends at Saxco. A Q&A with Ciatti broker Chris Welch, discussing the current wine consumption and bulk market situation, will be published in the coming days. It is fair to say 2025 – like 2023 and 2024 before it – was not an easy year for California’s wine industry, nor was it for the wine industry globally. Evolving consumer preferences as the Baby Boomer generation shrinks, persisting post-pandemic inflationary tailwinds, and economic and political uncertainty, have been eroding sales in most major wine-con

WHY DEMOGRAPHICS STILL MATTER IN WINE At first glance, it may seem logical to take a broad approach to wine marketing—after all, shouldn’t the goal be to sell wine to anyone who’s willing to buy it? Not exactly. In practice, marketing to “everyone” is a fast track to appealing to no one. You water down your message, misfire your tactics, and wind up wasting both budget and energy trying to reach people who were never going to buy from you in the first place. Smart marketing is selective, not scattershot. And that’s where demographics come in. At their core, demographics are just the quantifiable details about your customers—things like age, gender, income, education, and marital status. But in the hands of a capable marketer, demographics become strategic tools. They help decode how different consumers make decisions, what cultural cues they respond to, and how best to approach them with offers they’ll actually care about. Wine, with all