The word “brand” is notoriously difficult to define in marketing. If we were talking about a ranch brand—the kind seared onto livestock to signify ownership—that’s easy to understand. But in marketing, a brand is not a physical thing. It’s a symbolic construct. It’s not the label on the bottle or the winery’s logo or even the product itself. Rather, it’s the entire perception a consumer holds in their mind about your company, your wine, your people, and everything you collectively represent. A brand is a conceptual identity that differentiates you from your competitors. It can be shaped by your name, your origin story, the design of your label, the personalities involved in your winery, your tasting room experience, your packaging, your email tone, your partnerships, or even how you respond to a customer complaint. All these elements come together to form the intangible yet powerful idea of your brand. It is, quite literally, eve

Domaine Della 2023 Soberanes Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir Takes Top Prize  November 18, 2025 — Winners have been announced in the 2025 Harvest Challenge Wine Competition. After two spirited days of judging, Domaine Della 2023 Soberanes Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir took the top prize. It was also awarded Best of Show Red Wine and Best of Monterey County AVA. Coming in at 98 points, judges praised the wine as “warm and spicy” with “fig and nutmeg.” Other descriptors included “meaty,” “prosciutto,” and “dried rose petal.”  With entries from across the globe, the Harvest Challenge bases judging on a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions and grapes that combine to give personality to the wine.  In other competitions, this terroir is ignored. At the Harvest Challen

Let’s be honest: marketing is all about getting attention. In a crowded market, the competition for that attention is fierce. But here’s the thing—great marketing ideas don’t have to come from within the wine industry. In fact, some of the most successful strategies can be “borrowed” from other sectors. As the saying goes, “Great artists steal,” and great marketing is a form of art. Joe Wagner's TikTok: A Case Study in Getting Attention Take a page out of Joe Wagner’s book—or rather, his TikTok account. Wagner, a well-known winemaker, regularly posts videos of himself doing unexpected, attention-grabbing things, like playing under a shower of wine. It’s quirky, it’s messy, and it’s memorable, as proven by the four million people who liked the video. These stunts get people talking, sharing, and—most importantly—buying. This is exactly the kind of creativity that gets noticed and, crucially,

Afternoon Brief: California Grapegrowers Race to Beat the Heat

Trucks full of wine grapes clogged roads all over northern California wine country this week as wineries raced to get their precious cargo into tanks before a brutal heatwave shriveled them to raisins...

Afternoon Brief: Court OKs $140 Million in Vintage Wine Estates Assets Sales

Nearly two dozen wineries, brands and other assets of the defunct Santa Rosa-anchored Vintage Wine Estates portfolio got the green light to change hands in a Delaware bankruptcy court Tuesday...

Afternoon Brief, September 29th

Ohio Launches Appeal Over Wine Shipping: The state of Ohio has requested the Supreme Court to take on another wine shipping case....

The Hill Country Wine Symposium was established in 2015 by Texas Hill Country Wineries.  Symposium includes THREE days of seminars, lectures and panel discussions with over 20 sessions in 4 dedicated tracks: Vineyard, Winery, Business & New Vineyard/Winery.  Past speakers have included Tammy Boatright-VingDirect, Al Wagner-Clos du Val, Clark Smith-WineSmith, Don Brady-Robert Hall Winery, Gary Finnan-GFC|Evoke, Doug Beckett-Peachy Canyon Winery, Christophe Hedges-Hedges Family Estate, Dr Andrew Landers-Cornell University, Sandra Hess-DTC Wine Workshops, Dr Gregory Jones-Linfield College, Michael Wangbickler-Balzac Communications and many more. The Symposium also includes an intimate trade show for the opportunity to connect with your current Texas clients while meeting new potential accounts.  With a small ratio of exhibitors to attendees, there is ample time and space to visit with all attendees.  Sponsors, Exhibitors and Attendees are able to enjoy the  re

Afternoon Brief, February 14th

Beckstoffer Vineyards Sues Last Bottle for Trademark Infringement: The Complaint, filed on February 11, 2023, alleges that Blicker Pierce Wagner Wine Merchants, LLC and its affiliated companies, Sleeper Cellars and Last Bottle, willfully committed trademark infringement by placing the Beckstoffer trademark on the front label of a wine without authorization...

Napa County Farm Bureau Announces 2022 Award Recipients

Al Wagner Named 2022 Agriculturalist of the Year, Tom Davies Named 2022 Friend of Agriculture, Minh Tran Named Recipient of Napa County Distinguished Leadership Award May 3rd — Napa, CA […]