For most wineries, marketing still follows a familiar path: email campaigns, wine clubs, tasting room experiences, and social media. These channels continue to drive direct-to-consumer sales, but they are also becoming increasingly saturated. Reaching new customers often requires more content, more spend, and more competition for the same audience. At the same time, another force is shaping consumer behavior at scale—film and television. A single streaming series can influence travel, dining, fashion, and brand awareness almost overnight. Within those moments, wine is already present. It appears in dinner scenes, celebrations, restaurants, and quiet evenings at home, serving as a natural extension of lifestyle and hospitality. Historically, however, the bottles used on screen have rarely represented real wineries. That is beginning to change. Wine product placement is emerging as a viable and strategic marketing channel for wineries looking to expand beyond traditional touchpoin

San Jose, CA — October 29, 2025 — Liberation Distribution (LibDib), the leading web-based wholesale alcohol distributor, today announced the availability of Alana-Tokaj’s acclaimed portfolio of Tokaji wines in California, Washington, D.C., Florida, and Pennsylvania, with New York coming online soon. Among the releases is the 2013 Essencia, recently awarded 99 points by Wine Enthusiast—the highest-scoring Tokaji of 2025. Only 60 bottles were imported to the United States, making this a rare opportunity for fine-wine Buyers and collectors. “Akin to drinking silk, this is next-level Tokaji,” wrote Wine Enthusiast’s Emily Saladino. “Ripe pineapple, caramel, clementine, and juicy mango flavors marry delicate bergamot on the palate. The seemingly endless finish manages to be simultaneously sweet, tart, and intoxicatingly rich.”  Library vintages from 2006 and 2007 are also available now on LibDib,

We’re excited to share that Enolytics now connects directly with Awtomic, one of Shopify’s platforms for wine club management. This is big news for Shopify’s winery customers! Especially those who lean on Awtomic to run their clubs. With this new integration, wineries can now seamlessly combine powerful data insights with best-in-class subscription tools to grow their clubs and strengthen customer loyalty. Awtomic makes it simple to manage wine clubs, keep members engaged, and drive recurring revenue. Now, with the integration with Enolytics, wineries can go even deeper—tracking trends, understanding buying behavior, and making smarter, data-driven decisions. As Awtomic’s founder Emily Yuhas describes it: Awtomic is a leading solution for wine club management in the Shopify ecosystem. Bringing together years of experience with leading subscription ecommerce brands with deep wine club specific functionality, Awtomic can power a modern club and loyalty

The ninth annual Rich Smith Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the American grape and wine industry was presented today to Emily Hodson, the winemaker at Veritas Vineyards and Winery, a co-owner of Flying Fox Vineyards and Winery, and an active leader in the Virginia wine industry. Members of the Smith family and sponsoring organizations present the Rich Smith award to Emily Hodson (third from left). The prestigious award annually reflects the spirit and accomplishments of the late Richard (Rich) Smith, founder of Valley Farm Management and Smith Family Wines in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands wine region in Monterey County. Rich was first and foremost a family man, but also a successful grape grower and winery owner, and a highly respected colleague known for the combination of passion, commitment and collaboration which helped advance the American grape and wine industry. Ever since Rich passed away in December 2015, three organizations—WineAmerica, N

Space for All: Living the DREAM with Michigan Wine (Expert Editorial)

The Michigan Wine Collaborative is committed to increasing inclusion and access. By Emily Dockery The wine industry has been increasing efforts to close

VineBalance: Michigan and New York Collaborate on a New Sustainability Initiative

A collaboration between Michigan and New York wine industries is a testament to the adage, A rising tide raises all ships. By Emily Dockery

Empower Your Future:  Elevate Your Career with an MBA  Our EMBA in Global Wine Business can enhance your qualifications and help make you a more competitive candidate for senior positions. In a world where economic fluctuations and technological advancements are reshaping industries, the value of an MBA (Master of Business Administration) becomes increasingly significant. Today, you could become one of over 1500 wine business people that have already gone through the program. NO GMAT | 18 Months | 6 Years Professional Work Experience Apply By April 30 | Starts Fall 2024 Schedule a call here.

After a decade of pioneering the first mobile app for wine production, InnoVint, the industry's leading winemaking software, unveils its most innovative application yet: InnoApp. InnoApp offers winemakers real-time data, intuitive work order functionalities, and a speedy barrel scanning system even while offline. InnoVint’s CTO Dan Strengier, commented on the launch, saying, “We're not just integrating technology into winemaking; we're revolutionizing the way vineyards and wineries operate. With InnoApp, we’ve synthesized a decade of learning and user feedback to craft an app that truly embodies the needs of the modern winemaker." Among its standout features, InnoApp includes an industry-first technology that offers full offline support. This allows winery teams to download their work orders for the day and complete them even in areas with limited or no internet access. Once reconnected, the data is automatically synchronized across all devices

You can see—and smell—the watermelons on the Cocomero label, thanks to the customized way Labeltronix created it. Now, Cocomero’s scratch-n-sniff label is grabbing headlines, along with great reviews, like these: • “One winemaker has found a creative new way to stand out from the pack: Winc's Cocomero rose wine has a scratch-n-sniff label on the bottle. It rewards those who give it a scratch with a burst of watermelon-scented glory.” – Bustle • “Scratch-N-Sniff Rosé Is Here To Make Your Summer Days Ever Better” – KIISFM • “Recently, we came across a wine whose label is offering more than just good looks …. This is one adorable label you can actually trust to deliver.” – Refinery29 • “Cheers to an easy Rosé choice, and here's hoping we have more vino labels to scratch 'n sniff in the near future!” – Delish Cocomero is available thr

Attending WiVi Central Coast? Stop by booth 331 to speak to a member of our team and enter to win a Yeti cooler or rambler. On hand to answer your questions are: Emily Kalkhofer, Director of Marketing Jennifer McIntyre, Customer Service Supervisor Jessica Lindblom, Account Manager Karin Strykowski, Customer Experience Strategy Manager Katie Gilmore, Senior Director of Account Management