If your winery’s December felt like a sugar high followed by a January hangover, congratulations—you’re in the club. The holiday season brings out the best and worst of wine marketing. We see a flurry of emails, social posts, pop-up bundles, and panicked “last chance for shipping!” reminders that make even Santa unsubscribe. But behind all that glitter and noise sits something actually useful: data. And data, unlike mistletoe or tinsel, ages beautifully—if you know how to use it. Day 1: The Ghost of Open Rates Past Let’s start with the easy one. You sent fifteen emails between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and shocker—open rates dropped after the first week. This isn’t your subscribers turning into Grinches; it’s list fatigue. Consumers are bombarded with messages from every brand they’ve ever accidentally clicked “subscribe” on. The fix: cut your frequency, not your revenue. Segment your list by engage

Afternoon Brief: Smoke Taint Revolution - Carbon Fabric to Become Vineyard-Wide Netting

As wildfires become more frequent and intense due to climate change, the need for smoke taint prevention has never been more critical. One of the most exciting developments in this space is the research into activated carbon fabric - an innovation that could potentially protect vineyards from smoke damage...

One of the most anticipated parts of several WISE courses is the opportunity for attendees to go out and Mystery Shop their direct competitors. It is a very structured approach to looking at the experience, with a formal debrief. It is always fascinating to see how industry professionals at all levels – from frontline staff to managers, executives, and owners – experience other tasting rooms. The insights gained during this process spark actionable conversations and often change attendees’ behaviors. During one such debrief, we found that at the wineries the attendees visited, the wine club was not verbally mentioned even once. The attendees were asked to buy wine just ONE time, with a generic ask of, “Would you like to take anything home with you today?” which can be easily dismissed with a “Nah…not today.” None of the wineries asked any of the guests if they wanted to keep in touch and join the mailing list. Combined, this is the WISE

Afternoon Brief, May 24th

Wine, Stagflation, and the Strong Dollar Syndrome: The U.S. dollar has surged in value on foreign exchange markets in the last year and especially the last few weeks, as this graph of the dollar versus the euro makes clear. It once took about $1.30 to purchase a euro, but some analysts believe that USD-EUR parity — a dollar per euro — is on the cards for later this year...