Walk into almost any winery this week and you’ll see the same thing: equipment everywhere, barrels tucked into every open spot, and crews doing their best to move fruit through a cellar that already feels packed. Harvest always brings some level of chaos, but this year the space squeeze seems to be hitting harder than usual. And when the cellar is this tight, it quietly changes how winemakers make decisions. Not in big, obvious ways — but in the small, practical choices that add up over the course of a vintage. That’s where the hidden costs start to show themselves. 1. Lots Are Being Shifted Earlier Than Planned A full cellar forces movement. Not thoughtful, deliberately timed movement — just movement. When every open vessel is already promised to incoming fruit, winemakers end up: racking earlier transferring before a lot is truly settled finishing fermentations in whatever vessel is available consolidating lots sooner than planned None of these decisions a

Meta Ads, Miracle Results If your holiday Meta ads felt like lighting money on fire in a festive candle, that’s not because social is dead. It’s because your targeting and flighting were built for wishful thinking, not gifting intent. The fix isn’t magic. It’s method. You can absolutely turn Meta into a gift-selling machine between Thanksgiving and New Year—if you understand what actually drives intent and how to spend wisely when every other brand on earth is screaming for attention. What follows is a ruthless, winery-specific playbook for the six-week window between Thanksgiving and New Year that prioritizes intent, protects margin, and leans on real benchmarks instead of folklore. First, reality: volume is there, but it clusters Holiday ecommerce keeps breaking records, with online spend hitting roughly $241.4B from Nov 1 to Dec 31 and mobile responsible for the majority of transactions. (Adobe Newsroom) Translation: your customers are buying on their

While winery eCommerce has been around for a while, many wineries did not fully embrace this direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel until they were forced to during the pandemic. Some wineries have adapted quickly, leveraging modern technology and eCommerce platforms to thrive, while others have struggled to keep up with the fast-paced world of digital marketing and SEO. Thanks to the rise of eCommerce giants like Amazon, consumers expect seamless, fast, and personalized experiences. Wineries face the added challenge of shipping regulations, compliance, and managing perishable goods like wine, but SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can help them stand out and thrive in this competitive market. In the United States, the eCommerce share of wine sales grew from only 0.3% in 2018 to nearly 3% in 2022. The eCommerce channel promises to be lucrative, too. The top five wine and liquor online stores in the U.S. together generated more than one billion dollars in eCommerce net sales in 2022. For long-t

Wine and spirits distributors do not always get full credit for their myriad of services offered.  With portfolios bursting at the seams, their role in the 3-tier system is difficult. We at Andavi Solutions would like to recognize some of the critical functions distributors perform on behalf of their supplier partners.  1) Training and Education Distributor sales teams include some of the most highly trained professionals in the industry. The training opportunities distributors provide are not solely for internal stakeholders. They also play a critical role in the education and training of their supplier partners.  It is sad but true to say that many brand owners do not properly train their people, and by default, distributors end up picking up the slack. Another vital area of training distributors provide is forecasting and inventory management (more on this below).  Distributors do a lot of staff training (far more than most suppliers), and they don&rs

Afternoon Brief, August 16th

Napa Valley Wine Prices Just Broke This Record: Wine prices jumped $17 per bottle in Napa Valley last year, and winery tasting fees increased 35%, according to a new report...

Michel Rolland: Lessons from a Master

One of the original “flying winemakers,” Michel Rolland shares his thoughts on topics as wide-ranging as hot wines from France, the worldwide impact of climate change on grape growing, and […]

Afternoon Brief, November 12th

Business Strategy Behind the Wine Group’s Partnership With MPL Brands NV: If you’re The Wine Group, you invest in a company that makes canned cocktails, a key part of the continually growing ready-to-drink category...

The numbers tell part of the story, but what really makes us proud is our relationships. Since Outshinery was founded in 2016 we’ve served 350+ clients and 800+ brands and we are thankful for each and every one.  What else has happened since our first days as a visual asset creation agency for the wine industry? Here’s a look at the past four years by the numbers. When Laurie Millotte created Outshinery, she had dinosaurs on her mind. FOR REAL. Walking home after watching Jurassic World at the cinema in 2015, an idea hit her: “If computers can make dinosaurs look that realistic, surely we can do the same for a wine bottle!” At the time, Laurie was working as a designer, creating beautiful wine labels for her clients. The bottles would be stunning, but when the likeness appeared in marketing efforts, she could see that her clients were often disappointed by the lackluster visuals. Glare, shadows, reflections—these distractions polluted the ima