Afternoon Brief, January 20th

DTC Symposium Recap: Engaging the Future: The 2023 Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium, which took place Jan. 18-19, was a forward looking affair featuring panel discussions and data presentations focused on future opportunities for the wine industry — and, of course, DTC, in particular...

Afternoon Brief, January 17th

McBride Sisters Winery President to Keynote at the 2023 Unified Symposium’s Opening Day Luncheon: Robin McBride, co-founder and president of McBride Sisters Wine Company, will keynote the 2023 Unified Symposium Luncheon and share the incredible story of how she and her sister, Andréa McBride John, created the largest Black-owned wine company in the United States...

With growth and new offerings planned for 2021, the DTC software and logistics provider has added Andrea Smalling, a seasoned wine industry leader, to its executive team. American Canyon, Calif. Jan. 5, 2021 – WineDirect is pleased to announce that Andrea Smalling has joined the company as Vice President of Marketing and Sales.  After beginning her career in Toronto with Procter & Gamble, Andrea moved to California to join Gallo Winery, where she worked for 10 years, kicking off a very successful 25+ years marketing career in the wine industry including Vice President of Marketing positions with Constellation, Treasury Wine Estates, and 7 years as CMO with Foley Family Wines where she launched the disruptive Foley Food and Wine Society loyalty program. She then headed to the Okanagan Valley in Canada where she headed up Marketing and Direct to Consumer for Mark Anthony Group and led significant growth across Canada’s most prominent luxury wineries. Most recently, A

We Can Do Better. Here's How. John F Kennedy said once: "It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the fact that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all." I am blessed to be surrounded each day by a team rich with diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, ages, and experiences, with many perspectives and voices to contribute. I have needed to do very little to create a relationship of respect among them except try to foster a forum where hard and serious conversations can occur (albeit over Zoom) and promote understanding, and not always force agreement. My team is doing the rest. Many are angry, most are sad, all are concerned and everyone is affected. Allyship is hard and a lifelong process but we're trying. We all need to try harder. As stewards of our client's marketi