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

This blog post summarizes the process by which licensed wineries can obtain local government approval for events in Napa County held pursuant to their California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (“ABC”) Type 93 Estate Tasting Permit. As discussed in our prior post, last year Governor Newsom signed into law AB720, granting California wineries that hold an ABC Type 02 winery license the ability to host events, up to 36 times per year, where they exercise tasting room privileges for wine manufactured by or for the winery on either: (1) property adjacent to the licensed premises or (2) a nonadjacent vineyard provided that such property or vineyard is owned by or under the control of the winery. (Cal. Bus. Prof. Code 23399.03.) Neither ABC nor Napa County have provided guidance as to what degree or proof of “control” is required. Under AB 720, these new Type 93 estate tasting events are also subject to local land use controls that can “restrict, but no

WIN EXPO Conference Focus: Winery Sales & Marketing Session Topics: DTC Communication Mix, Distributor Relations, and Utilizing In-Market Events. Registration is open for the 12th annual North Coast Wine Industry Trade Show & Conference (WIN Expo), the largest wine industry trade event focused exclusively on the North Coast - the most prominent wine region in the United States. The event’s educational conference program includes all the major sectors of the industry covering winemaking & production, sales & marketing, vineyard operations, and business strategy & leadership.  This year's Sales & Marketing track will discuss Crafting the Ideal DTC Communication Mix, Fostering Distributor Relations, and Utilizing In-Market Events to Capture New Audiences: Blend Your Outreach Too: Crafting the Ideal DTC Communication Mix In the increasingly competitive world of DTC wine sales, many brands struggle to cut through the noise and make meaningful

February 9, 2024 – Novato, CA – The California Department of Food and Agriculture Preliminary Grape Crush Report, containing tons crushed and prices of wine grapes sold during the 2023 harvest, has been released. The Crush Report provides growers and wineries insight into the inventory position of the California wine business as a whole and influences market dynamics for the current bulk wine market and grape market.  The 2023 Crush Report, coming in at a total of 3.6 million tons, fails to capture the full story of the 2023 harvest. The crop would have been considerably larger if not for soft demand and disease pressure that caused some acres to go unharvested. Despite the size of the overall crop, most wineries found themselves with an excess supply amid challenging conditions in consumer sales.  For specific details on 2023 harvest, see below: Key Insights by Region   Tons Crushed 2023 Tons Crushed 2022 Net Gain/Loss Equivalent Gallons