COGS isn’t the sexiest topic, but your winery can’t afford to ignore it ‍Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) isn’t exactly a dinner-party topic—but your winery can’t afford to ignore it. It’s not just an accounting exercise; it’s the foundation of financial clarity. Whether you produce 500 or 50,000 cases, not knowing your true costs means flying blind when it comes to pricing, planning, and profitability. ‍In our interactions with winery operations of all sizes, we’ve grown convinced that you can’t afford not to know your COGS. Even boutique operations are running at a disadvantage if they don’t know how much it costs to make each of the wines that they sell. ‍What is COGS? And why is it difficult? ‍In its simplest definition, COGS includes all of the cost outlay required to produce each and every SKU coming from your winery. That includes raw materials, labor, packaging, and overhead. ‍Seems fairly str

Keeping up with industry news and trends is one of the most underrated disciplines in beverage alcohol. It’s a frightening habit, admittedly — slowing down long enough to read or at least skim several articles every day when the return on investment takes months or years to materialize.  When sales are down, it’s human nature to scrounge for the fastest wins available. In our desperation to keep the lights on, we abandon most eagerly the very practices that would lead to longevity and profitability for our business. The inconvenient timing of these insights — namely, that the best articles and industry reports tend to circulate precisely when everyone has checked out for the holidays —only intensifies the competitive advantage up for grabs by those who are paying attention. An up-to-date understanding of consumer preferences and behavior can inform our production, focus our messaging, and align sales & marketing so that everything from tasting ro

OAK FARM VINEYARDS AND STEELBOUND DISTILLERY TAKE TOP HONORS IN 2024 LOS ANGELES INVITATIONAL WINE & SPIRITS CHALLENGE  MARCH 6, 2024 – Winners have been announced in the third annual Los Angeles Invitational Wine & Spirits Challenge. A Barbera from Oak Farm Vineyards in Lodi, Calif., and a Bourbon from Steelbound Brewery & Distillery in Ellicotville, N.Y., topped their fields to be named Best of the Best.  The competition was established in 2022, in conjunction with Los Angeles-based beverage professionals (representing both the on- and off-premise channels), to highlight the best of the best wine and spirits producers in the world, and to introduce those producers to the largest market of consumers in the United States.  Judging took place February 26-28, 2024. Says event producer Debra Del Fiorentino of Wine & Spirits Competitions Management & Production, “The competition grew again this year to attract close to 1,100 entries, and our

Afternoon Brief, December 5th

AI Can Tell a Wine’s Vineyard with 100% Accuracy: AI may have just replaced another profession: wine tasters...

Afternoon Brief, October 5th

Website Launches to Inform Public About Lawsuits: Hoopes Vineyards, Summit Lake Vineyards and Smith-Madrone Winery are suing Napa County over unconstitutional patterns and practices and have now launched saveoursmallwineries.org...

Afternoon Brief, August 14th

Maui Wildfires Kill Dozens and Devastate Communities and Hospitality Businesses: The historic town of Lahaina, popular with tourists, has lost hundreds of buildings, including restaurants like Fleetwood's on Front St., owned by musician Mick Fleetwood...

If you’ve been reading any marketing articles in the past few years, it’s all about multichannel marketing – or how you coordinate your messages across channels. At WineGlass Marketing, we have been testing and have some exciting case studies today to share on the benefits of integrating your marketing. What Is Integrated Marketing? Simply put, it’s when combining different channels tells the entire story. The idea is that the sum of the parts becomes more significant than the whole through a multidisciplinary approach. This is not a new concept; it’s just become more complicated to execute. Before the internet, we had print, broadcast, outdoor, and direct mail, so being integrated was relatively easy. Now, we must consider additional digital channels like email and social media. Plus, traditional channels are bifurcated with streaming services and digital magazines. Even an emerging service type, DSPs or Demand Side Platforms, is popping up to help mark