From hospitality-driven visitation to loyalty and strategic partnerships, the Wine Sales Symposium explores where revenue growth is coming from now The path to winery growth looks different than it did even a few years ago. Today’s most successful wineries are not relying on a single channel or a single tactic. Instead, they are building growth through a combination of stronger customer experiences, deeper retention strategies, and brand partnerships that extend reach beyond traditional wine audiences. At this year’s Wine Sales Symposium, several sessions will explore how these shifts are reshaping sales and marketing strategies across the industry. One of the most important changes is happening in hospitality and visitation. Consumers—especially Millennials and Gen Z—are increasingly choosing experiences that feel personal, memorable, and aligned with their identity. For wineries, that means visitation is no longer simply about tasting wine; it’s about de

The Wine Industry Financial Symposium 2025 and its speakers made one thing abundantly clear: the wineries that will succeed in this current market and into the future will look fundamentally different from the wineries that dominated in the past. The industry is undergoing a structural reset. Shaped by shifting consumer behavior, oversupply, rising costs, evolving demographics, and a fiercely competitive landscape. Yet within this challenging environment lies an enormous opportunity. The sessions throughout the conference consistently revealed the same profile of a successful, future-ready winery. It is not the winery with the most acreage or the flashiest tasting room. It is the winery that is disciplined, adaptable, and deeply tuned into the consumer. Across all sessions, the profile of the successful winery became clear: Create a lean operation Efficiency is not cost-cutting; it’s clarity. Lean wineries eliminate waste, streamline processes, leverage automa

In this powerful episode of the WIN Insider Series, George Christie sits down with Anna Brittain, Executive Director of Napa Green and visionary behind the Napa RISE Climate & Wine Symposium. Anna shares her inspiring journey from growing up in Napa Valley to shaping one of the wine industry’s most progressive sustainability programs. From international climate work in Vietnam to leading local action in California, Anna brings a global perspective and deep-rooted passion for environmental leadership.

Paving the path for the California wine industry, Napa Green recently wrapped up hosting it's second Napa Rise Symposium where valuable climate change topics were shared and discussed. The Saverglass team attended Day 5: Supply Chain & Waste Prevention On supply chain packaging, the headline topics included the CO2 impact of DtC shipping ground vs air freight as well as a new boxed option, the use of recyclable plastic liners for label rolls and the benefits of choosing a lighter weight bottle. Attendees were encouraged to talk to their suppliers about how they have validated their roadmap that will propel them to their carbon neutral goal and to engage them with the question of, ‘what else should I know?'. Applying the new tools introduced in the education sessions, attendees engaged with the Saverglass team to learn more about our road to Carbon Neutrality and inquired about our sustainable efforts that extend beyond providing our customers with more lightweight opt

Another successful year of #NapaRISE for the books! We're honored to have partnered yet again with Napa Rise and Napa Green on their Climate & Wine Symposium, a series of events designed to empower the global wine industry to take meaningful sustainability and climate action. Thank you to everyone who participated; our industry is all the better with you in it! 

On May 7, 2025, Michael Garretson, Manager of Recycling & Circular Solutions at UPM Raflatac, will speak at this year's RISE Climate & Wine Symposium. Participating in Workshop 2: Engaging the Supply Chain, Michael will share how responsible labeling and innovative recycling can drive measurable progress in waste prevention and emissions reduction. We’re excited to collaborate with industry leaders to create scalable solutions for a circular economy. Together, we can shape a more sustainable future!  

Looking back over a challenging 2024 and ahead to 2025 This month’s California Report looks back at the year just passed and ahead to the new one: Read on below for an in-depth review of the bulk wine and grape markets in 2024, as well as bulk inventory charts for a range of periods and an updated bulk/grape market activity barometer. A Q&A with Ciatti broker Johnny Leonardo, discussing the current market situation, will be published in the coming days, together with the first packaging bulletin of the year from our friends at Saxco. For California’s wine industry, the year 2024 was defined by a painful but necessary right-sizing as the industry evolves into one better suited to delivering to the US market something like 350 million 9-liter cases of wine per year instead of the 400 million cases of the past. Rationalization of businesses and vineyard area took greater hold – there was a marked rise in wine-related property on the real-estate market and a shortage

A brand’s journey to sustainability is never complete as it works to stand out and challenge expectations of the norm. As the years progress, companies of all sizes are aiming to do just that, with a focus on sustainability for better health, improved community, and a brighter future.   “Pro-environmental actions, such as recycling, have great potential for the industry as a whole to be more sustainable,” notes Jon French, O-I’s Wine Category Sales & Marketing Director.  The wine industry has made progress in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but pressures continue to rise for businesses to take more action founded in sustainable behavior. Wineries of all sizes continue to view every decision with a sustainable lens. Let’s take a closer look at the ways your winery can reduce its carbon footprint.  Choose Local  Of all steps in the supply chain, transportation accounts for 90% of greenhouse gas emissions.[1] O-I, based in Ohi

At the DTC Symposium last month, there was a session about new technology trends and their application for wine marketing. We spoke with a panel about big data-driven advertising, NFTs, and their use for marketing and augmented reality. Each speaker had a case study on wine, and the Q&A session explored everything from costs to legal ramifications. These new tools only scratch the service of all the exciting trends in marketing wines. This blog highlights three trends affecting our marketing planning right now and in the near future. AI: Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming increasingly important in the online marketing arena. These technologies allow marketers to analyze data and take that analysis to automate routine processes, make decisions based on behaviors, anticipate responses and improve customer experiences. It can have applications in websites, emails, online ads, and offline content development. In design, AI tells us which content will most likely